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Transcription
The Ruckus Karaoke Club is an organization at Rutgers University that provides students with a fun and relaxing singing experience. They meet every Tuesday night and offer a variety of music genres to cater to different tastes. The club aims to create a unique experience for each karaoke night by incorporating themes such as generational music and seasonal variations. They also encourage diversity by including songs from different cultures. The club wants to expand their audience and make each member feel welcome. Overall, the club is dedicated to bringing joy and enjoyment to students through karaoke. How's it going? My name is Ishan, and I'm going to be talking with you about the many joys of this organization known as the Ruckus Karaoke Club. I'll be talking with you about what my impact on the organization has been, and I'm hoping this podcast will leave some sort of impact on you as well. First, I'm going to be talking about the club as a whole, what they have to offer, who they are, and then how their events can give everyone an experience of a lifetime, and we'll also be talking about how that experience can be different for each person. Let's get started. First off, what exactly is the Ruckus Karaoke Club? After speaking with them, I have come to find out that they are an organization dedicated to providing Ruckus students with a relaxing evening of singing and enjoyment to de-stress during the semester. They hold meetings on Tuesdays, and at the very end of the day, so that participants and students can relax after a hard day of work and enjoy their evening with their peers by singing karaoke to their favorite songs. I had the opportunity to join one of their meetings on Tuesday, and I got to experience this organization firsthand. Some things that really impressed me and immediately came into mind include how it was very advantageous of this club to host events halfway throughout the week so that people may take a short break before the rest of the week hits them like a truck. It was also impressive how the organization meets on a regular basis at one of the most popular Ruckus campuses at a location surrounded by many apartment complexes and dormitories so that a lot of students may be able to attend these meetings. Something that also really astounded me is the size of the room they meet at. It is a lecture hall, meaning that they were able to fit a large audience and maximize the amount of fun and enjoyment that club members can have in that room. Now talking with some of the executive board members of the Ruckus Karaoke Club was something that I had the pleasure of doing recently. I interviewed them as I had some questions for them and a couple of suggestions of my own. Some questions that I really wanted an answer to were things like, what were the themes of each event? That will be primarily what I'll be discussing in this podcast as I have some ideas of my own and suggestions that I gave to the Ruckus Karaoke Club members. Before I get into these suggestions, however, the organization gave me this public service announcement, aka a PSA to tell you all, and I'll be playing it for you all and I hope you all enjoy. Hi, my name is Michael Lieberman and I'm the treasurer of Ruckus Karaoke Club and here are a few reasons why my members love this club. It gives me a chance to try and fail at flirting with women. That can take my heart out to Taylor Swift. I have to start my boyfriend again. I thought this was dance class. No, no, there's nothing else I'm doing. I'm being held against my will. I actually walked my wall the first time I showed up and I haven't found it since, so I'm still trying to find it. Hi, my name is Tyg. I'm the president of the Ruckus Karaoke Club. We have meetings every Tuesday from 8 to 10 p.m. We sing, come on down for the best night of your life. Come on down to ScarHall 123, 8 to 10 p.m. every Tuesday night for a great night of karaoke fun. Bring a friend, cue a song, and please get ready to sing along. So, according to the public service announcement you all just heard, the members of the Ruckus Karaoke Club enjoy singing to songs by artists they enjoy. A lot of members come here every Tuesday night and they're also here to simply get out of their comfort zone and meet new friends. It's a great social space. The organization encourages this and cues any song that is requested and when it eventually plays, many people can sing along. Since the organization meets every Tuesday night, I wanted to know what could make each night unique. What would make each karaoke night different from the last week's karaoke night? In other words, how could each karaoke night be different from the last event? Sure, they only meet once a week, but is each night truly a different experience? I spoke to the executive board about these topics and they told me the organization takes advantage of different music genres for each night to try to make it more different. It is at this point that I laid some suggestions of my own. If they aim to include different music genres or music tastes for everyone in their audience, why not include generational music for each karaoke night? By generational music, I mean music from the old times such as the 80s or 90s. An example of this, they could play some old pop songs from the early 2000s. These are some songs that most kids in college have grown up listening to. Or even some old time jazz songs could hit. They could also invite some of their favorite record staff to join and extend their audience. And then at this point, they can play music from the 80s or even the 90s if they so choose to. An executive board member told me that there was no need to hold back whenever you're on the microphone or you're on the stage. And it's good to see people take advantage of that and sing their hearts out. So I took that a step further and suggested playing music subject to the current seasons, being winter, fall, spring, or summer. The reason I say this is because having songs that correlate to what's happening in your current lives can awaken a new emotion or a new feeling that you might not have at the next event. Having a seasonal variation or theme for each season would be a great way to make each karaoke night different from the last. For example, in the wintertime, students can sing Christmas carols and enjoy a nice cup of hot chocolate. In the fall, Halloween songs can be sung, such as the popular Michael Jackson hit Thriller, with pumpkin decorations and candy everywhere to give around. In the spring and summer, we can have hit songs like Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus, you know, songs that make you feel like going out and having a good time. This also ties back to what I said before about songs happening in the current season or current state you are in and making you feel just overall welcome. Having spring decorations, such as flowers, and summer decorations, such as sandboxes, are also a good idea. Decorations for each season, decorations for each theme going on in the songs or the events going on. Another idea I had in order to make each karaoke night different is the idea of diverse cultures. Me, personally, I don't feel like the Rutgers University does, I don't feel like it shows much diversity or appreciation for different cultures, so why not integrate that into some karaoke nights? Think about it, there could be some nights where Spanish songs could be playing and other nights there could be some Middle Eastern music. The club can also reach out to its students and attendees and ask them to fill out a quick survey on what kind of music they would like to listen to as well. At Rutgers, we have a lot of kids who are from different cultures, so it would be nice to have some appreciation for them there and it might encourage them to come out to these events too, thus multiplying the karaoke club's audience. Having each karaoke night different from the previous may seem to be a difficult task, but in reality, it is hardly that at all. There are many different factors, a myriad of options you can include to make each night different and give each member or attendee a different experience. Including or introducing different themes is simple as long as you know what theme you are going for and what theme can inspire people the most. I hope in the future that there are definitely more themes, seasonal themes, or more decorations for each semester, and I cannot wait to see where the Rutgers Karaoke Club will go from there. Thank you for listening to my podcast and I hope you enjoyed. Thank you.
