Liberal arts colleges with vibrant rock music scene

My daughter, currently a junior in HS, is looking for a small to midsize liberal arts college where she can combine strong academics with her passion for rock music. She plays both electric guitar and keyboards quite well, well enough to try to go pro, she has been told. But she doesn’t want to go the “starving artist” route, nor does she want to turn a wonderful passion into a business. That’s the main reason she does not want to pursue rock music by attending a formal music program, such as the popular music programs at USC or Berklee.

So, the idea is to find a top liberal arts college (she has a 4.0+ GPA and scored a 31 on her first ACT practice exam) that has a particularly lively and active rock music scene where she will be able to pursue her passion informally. I realize that pretty much every college will have a few rock bands around, but there must be some colleges where this is more true than at others. Specifically, I am wondering whether there are any schools that have a history of supporting rock music, be it by making available practice space, sponsoring an annual battle of the bands, or whatever. Unfortunately, I have had not luck ferreting out that information from college websites or other Internet sources.

Preferably, I’d like to hear about rock music at the following colleges on my daughter’s list (as it currently stands):

Brown University (not a liberal arts college, I know)
Wesleyan University
Vassar College
Bard College
Oberlin College (I am aware of the music conservative, which caters to classical/jazz students only)
Grinnell
Beloit
Macalester College
Carleton College
Colorado College
Reed College
Lewis & Clark
Pitzer College
Occidental College

But if there are other, similar schools with an active rock music scene, I’d like to hear about those, too.

Thanks a lot in advance for your input!

Robert

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My DD2 attended L&C. Lively music scene, lots of opportunities for students to play/sing. She has a couple of published CDs from a fellow student that she likes (that student was the only licensed subway musician in NYC from HS when she applied to L&C). And of course, Portland OR…

My nephew with a passion for current music attended Bowdoin. He went on to work for EMC and Sony, and manages a well known indie group now.

My nephew graduated from Wesleyan and is now in an indie band.

Wesleyan has a thriving music scene with a small but astonishing number of performers who have gone on to great success on the live concert circuit: MGMT, Das Racist, Santigold, Bear Hands, Boy Crisis, Amazing Baby, and Leif, among others. Some people give credit to Wesleyan’s early academic support of electronic music (Alvin Lucier taught there for over forty years) and experimental jazz (Anthony Braxton who also just retired recently) with providing inspiration in the classroom. There are practice spaces in West College, Usdan Center, and some program houses. Here’s a link to an article that was so long it had to be divided into two parts:
http://wesleyanargus.com/2015/04/30/wesleyan-band-roundup-part-1/

http://wesleyanargus.com/2015/05/04/wesleyan-band-roundup-part-2/

I’m sure Oberlin has similar non-conservatory outlets for students.

We got the impression when we visited Skidmore that the music scene was pretty hopping there.

I live in Austin, live music capitol of the world, and got accepted to a small, Catholic, private liberal arts college called St. Edwards in south Austin. There isn’t a forum on here for the school but it is one of the only ones I have heard of that offers a degree in Business Music. Maybe worth checking out?

LMU is about the same size as Brown and located near Venice in Los Angeles. It has long had a pretty happening music scene.

http://www.laweekly.com/music/ucla-and-uscs-music-scenes-have-nothing-on-loyola-marymount-4429001

Rhodes College in Memphis is well worth a look. Great live music scene both on and off campus.

Thanks, everyone. That was already quite helpful. It’s good to know that we appear to be on the right track with at least some of the schools on the list. And Skidmore, St. Edwards, Rhodes and LMU also sound good, at least as far as music is concerned. The hard part, of course, is a finding a school that meets all or most of one’s criteria and that one can afford and has a reasonable chance of getting into.

Seconding Wesleyan. Its support for Braxton, Lucier, and Rono Kuivila (among others) is really great.

I know a guy who goes to Lewis & Clark who plays in a rock band with people he met there after playing in rock bands in high school.

Circuitrider observes that “Wesleyan has a thriving music scene with a small but astonishing number of performers who have gone on to great success on the live concert circuit: MGMT, Das Racist, Santigold, Bear Hands, Boy Crisis, Amazing Baby, and Leif, among others.”

Two other Wesleyan music successes also come to mind. Lin Manuel Miranda, who wrote the Hip Hop musical “Hamilton,” went to Wesleyan. So did some of the members of the 1960s folk music group the Highwaymen. Along with Pete Seegar and the Weavers, the Highwaymen helped popularize “Michael Row Your Boat Ashore” and some other pretty well known folk songs.

Notwithstanding the mesmerizing base line (and music video) of “MGMT’s Electric Feel,” I think Lin Manuel Miranda and the Highwaymen are probably the two most noteworthy examples of Wesleyan alumni music success, and they’re especially interesting to think about as a pair. Hamilton sounds very different from most musicals that preceded it. A group of black and Latino people portray, and sing about, our mostly white “founding fathers,” at least one of whom–Alexander Hamilton–may not actually have been white, according to some accounts. The Highwaymen was a group of white guys who taught the country a song originally sung by slaves. In our current times, it may seem weird to hear that a group of white guys toured America singing songs that slaves used to sing, but in the 1960s that kind of thing was very progressive–a sign of cultural respect, and a not particularly subtle artistic protest against racism.

I bet people could come up with other Wesleyan bands and musicians in addition to the ones mentioned by Circuitrider. Circuitrider started a very impressive list–one no other college is likely to top it, in my opinion.

I also like Oberlin’s Liz Phair and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Vassar’s the Bravery and MS MR.

By the way, as far as colleges with rock bands go, I think Lawrence (in Appleton, Wisconsin) has quite a few, and University of Puget Sound (in Tacoma, Washington) and Beloit (in Beloit, Wisconsin) have some too. Those were among my kid’s top four choices.

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Sorry about all the typos. Seeger, not Seegar. Bass, not base.

Closing thread as it looks like the Original Poster has left the building.