Band playing? Zoltan falls.
Music playing? Zoltan punts.

coincidence? i think not.

Does "nothing" imply the inability to hear the band? That should be explicitly stated in one of the options.

but I feel like its nearly impossible to pull off without either going the shitty "Don't Stop Believing" cheeseball route, faux tough guy "Enter Sandman" route or the "Ice Ice Baby" crappy morning radio sound drop style of a minor league hockey game.

so as a result I voted its the same as nothing. good they're making an effort, but I have serious doubts about whether they can pull it off.

Me hate.

I might be more in favor of it occasionally if the music wasn't horrible.

Sweet Caroline? That was the low-point of Saturday, forget losing the shutout.

good overall, but largely dependent on what they're playing.

AC/DC? Good.
Guns N' Roses? Good.
Journey? Okay, I guess... if we're winning.
Neil Diamond? Hell no.

we might as well adapt that annoying "Nittany Lion/NU Wildcat roar" and call it the Wolverine Growl, played ad nauseam as well as get a couple of Godzillatrons showing cute animations and commercials during timeouts. At Halftime they can just tune into ESPN....

in the meantime, the band needs to get rid of all but two piccolos as well as most of the winds/reeds and be all brass.

If they're going to play something over the speakers, can't they mike the band? Please!? I hate only hearing the visiting band week after week in section 16...

Judicial use of the music is okay with me, but I would want some edgier, better riffs that aren't as cliche as G&R 'Welcome to the Jungle' and the like.

Given the building materials used for the renovations and general idea we want to convey about the stadium, couldn't we replace 'Sweet Caroline' with 'Brick House'? It would also beg for some sort of group action/participation ala 'Jump Around'

You could even replace 'Brick' with 'Big' for the sing-along aspect. It is easily dance-able and somewhat funky and cool.

Brian, what was that fake email for Bill Martin?

Also, are these poll results going to be sent to that same address as proof that piped-in music DOES NOT COMPUTE?

My vote is for pumped-in MMB, the remix.

Prerecorded and sound engineered drums and sticks so I can clap my ass off in rhythm. Tandem the pumped-in drums and bass boom with the on-field sticks for ultimate clap and cheer-along intensity. It will be deafening and awesome.

Rocky and Bullwinkle with prerecorded 'fun-for-the-whole-family' video. Send cameras around to capture the fans' best Bullwinkle impressions.

Take Bill Martin's 25 song playlist, give the MMB a couple months to put together 20 or so 10-30 second cuts, and studio enhance the bejesus out of them. Prompt the fans with "clap" or "sing along", whathaveyou, and you get the best of both worlds.

How is this a problem? Isn't this change we can believe in?

I can't even hear the band so it doesn't matter to me. I wish they'd either put them at the 50 yard line or mic them up.

Personally I'm not a fan, however if they decide to keep the music Sweet Caroline HAS to go.

I hope everyone else who has been to the Horseshoe cringed in horror when it came on.

Mic Up The Band!!!

What the heck. If there is a problem with some folks hearing the band, put in microphones and blast the band over the loudspeakers playing Blues Brothers, Temptation, Hawaiian War Chant, etc.

Now that would be awesome.

BTW, "Better than nothing" is pretty pathetic. So, almost 88% of the folks (so far) don't like this.

They can't mic the band.

They can't mic the band.

They can't mic the band.

They can't mic - ah hell, forget it.

My thoughts: its fine during media timeouts when the band isn't doing anything. Even then, I want it to be rare - no more than 3-4 times/game.

Piped-in music might be the only thing I dislike about the RR regime. It brings a pleasantly old-school atmosphere close to the insipid, focus-grouped, Applebeed atmosphere of pro sports.

I generally HATE piped in music. I went to the UM-PSU game last year and felt like I was at an arena football game it was so generic and sterile.

But if you're going to play piped in music, shouldn't it be something that the band isn't capable of playing? The AC/DC stuff would qualify. The rest of what they played is probably something the MMB can already play from memory. That was lame.

Here's what I'd propose:
1. Figure out how to put the band over the speakers. I know it is really tough, but there are some really smart people at UM who should be able to figure it out.
2. Relocate the band somewhere else that maximizes the number of people who can hear them. I propose in the endzone, though I realize that there are some logistical challenges with field access points.
3. Perhaps consider piping the BAND playing pre-recorded stuff over the speakers. A bit cheesy I realize, but could be a nice compromise.
4. Limit how much you do it and keep it to meaningful stuff. I didn't expect to be treated to 1980's ballads.

Bill Martin:

wcmartin@umich.edu

You can cc Bruce Madej:

bmad@umich.edu

I wrote last night asking them to stop piping in music. They're clearly paying attention: someone wrote a nice note back right away.

why don't they just get some recordings of The Victors and some of the marching band stuff and play that? yeah its kind of a slap in the face to the band, but if you don't tell anyone, most people will thinks its just a reverberation/feedback type of thing and thats why the live band sounds out of sync with the loud speakers after touchdowns.

also, 80s hair metal sucks. especially as stadium rock. i'd much rather have funk.

If they are going to pipe in music, they need to figure out the best times to do it. Playing Don't Stop Believing when we're up 31-0 doesn't really have any effect. And I am pretty much anything anti-Boston, so no Sweet Caroline.

They should also consider stuff from, I don't know, the past 20 years? Why not some Seven Nation Army?

I think the piped in music is crap. I went on the road to PSU last year and hearing all the hype of that stadium, I thought it was going to be an epic experience. Could I have been more wrong? (The correct answer is no). I thought the overall experience there made that annoying Wildcat Roar at NU look amazing. The band never played, and I thought that the experience overall was extremely underwhelming. I have never been to a game at the Big House that has had an atmosphere quite that bad. Maybe it was all the hype I had been hearing. Maybe I am biased. I just think that the great band we have is better than the best music you can pipe in no matter how loud or cool it is.

They should just pre-record the band and then pipe it in while the band pretends to play (can a band lip-sync). This seems to be the best way way to get around the silly rule that they can't mic the band or electronically enhance it while playing live.

I'm not voting because a category is missing:

3b: It depends entirely on what's being played and when it's being played

If the right songs are selected and they're played at the right times, I have no problem with it. Lexus Larry's suggestion of newer Detroit stuff like White Stripes is great, as would be some other local bands that we haven't been beaten to death with already. Really old Seger would be fine, his "Like A Rock" crap not so much. Some funk would be great, too. As long as what's chosen is up-tempo and not plodding.

Learn to love the pumped in music. I doubt it is going to go anywhere anytime soon. There's certainly a split between the two camps. The anti-music camp is going to send in their complaining emails, the pro piped in music is going to send in their supporting emails. They've already said they want to increase the Big House atmosphere. By cutting out the piped in music and allowing the band to play to the 1/5 of the stadium that can hear them doesn't really do a whole lot. I think the compromise is to pipe in some tracks from the Marching Band's CD, assuming they still make one.

If they are going to play music then they should at least be intelligent enough to select songs that you don't hear everywhere else all the time. Sweet Caroline, ACDC, GNR make my head want to explode. It's embarrassing to play the same crap, that's all I'm saying.

on the face of it, I'm not liking the idea of piping in music as it seems/is lazy. we can do better. I'm no sound engineer but it seems we could point the band's instruments towards the patrician suites to bounce it towards the rest of the stadium??? or some such thing. didn't go to WMU game but will be at ND at which point I'll have a better understanding of the question.

Email I just sent to Bill Martin, et al:

Mr. Martin-

As an alumnus of the University of Michigan, and a four-year member of the Michigan Marching Band, I am writing you to voice my displeasure over the playing of pre-recorded music at Michigan Stadium. I have been attending games at Michigan Stadium since 1989, and one of the components of the Big House experience I have always treasured is the reverence our University holds for the tradition and pageantry of intercollegiate football.

The Athletic Department has always been supportive and accommodating to marching bands, cheerleaders, and the many other things that make college football unique and special. I put pre-recorded music at our Stadium alongside advertising as something I hoped I would never see. When I think autumn Saturdays in Ann Arbor, I don’t think Neil Diamond or AC/DC pounding over the speaker system. Our Stadium is not a professional venue. It is disrespectful to the hard work both the Michigan Marching Band and our visiting bands put in during the week to relegate them to visual props while the Athletic Department plays songs that have little to no relevance to the University of Michigan.

Over the past few months, we have heard the phrase “Family Values” used in reference to our football program. Whether or not this phrase has been warranted, I think it is certainly fair to say in this instance that one of the “Family Values” of Michigan Stadium is the maintenance of what makes our game day experience great. Modernity has its place, but the timelessness of Michigan Football is more important. We should be mindful that our tradition and values set us apart from the rest, and that as the University of Michigan, we should be able to foster a great experience for our fans without having to lean on pre-recorded music.

Thank you for your consideration!