<p>Hi everyone, i'm a drummer/songwriter/producer. I am currently applying to music school for fall 2010. </p>
<p>I have a couple of questions.</p>
<p>One of the schools i am applying to is USC. I want to submit a video of me playing the drumset, but in that video i'm wearing a UCLA t shirt! Do you think this will be a problem? I didn't think it would be a problem but I wanted to run it past people here first...</p>
<p>Another question I have is that some of the tracks i am sending in have explicit language. Is this a problem? (I have done a funk video, hip hop (explicit), pop rock and pop video (explicit))</p>
<p>Honestly, both the tee shirt and foul language on the audition tape might get your application tossed… but it also could add to your artistic credibility by showing that you take risks! Of course the explicit music needs to be fresh and original, because it’s overworked.
Proceed with caution, or go for it - it’s your call!</p>
<p>Well it’s not my own original music, i’m playing drums over a Jay Z track and obviously he uses alot of explicit language. Search my username on youtube to find it. I can probably just switch it for the clean version</p>
<p>Do you really think USC will care about a UCLA t shirt? I know lots of people who have graduated at UCLA and done Grad at USC.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. Everyone seems to be saying the same thing. I either re record it with a Clean Version (no explicit language) and not wearing the T shirt, OR i can blotch out the lettering on the t shirt and replace the track.</p>
<p>The t-shirt thing can go either way. It’s not like walking into Yankee Stadium with a “Yankees Suck” t-shirt during a Boston series or vice-versa, (but the reality is it may raise a few eyebrows, it may not). </p>
<p>The context we are discussing is USC/Thorton’s Popular Music program, where I’d imagine a few recorded submissions might contain more than a few gyrating, scantily clad nubile female forms, and some questionable language that may well cause a sailor on leave to blush.</p>
<p>It’s part of the genre. Is the whole submission filled with language that would be “objectionable” in an adult cross-generational conversation, or are we talking a track or two?
A balanced submission including some lighter or more “mainstream” fare may well serve your purpose, but it’s really the decision to use the pieces that showcase your talents to the fullest that matters.</p>
<p>But again, that’s my take, and I don’t sit on any admission committees. Perhaps pm’ing N8Ma, lorelei9702, and fiddlestix who have functioned in “official” capacities might help.</p>
<p>My guess is you roll the dice, and you takes your chances.</p>
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<p>Thread lightly here. You are bending the standard rules of most programs where submissions are typically expected to be unedited, unenhanced versions depicting the realities of the recorded music. There are numerous past discussions here, and I’d be more than happy to point them out.</p>
<p>Again, personally, I would look far less favorably on a candidate that stretched the envelope in a recording to make it “more” (or in your case "less’) than the unedited version.</p>
<p>I disagree that USC’s popular music program is necessarily a genre that might lend itself to foul language being a-ok. Having been through the screening and live audition process at USC with son, and having attended several information sessions about the popular music program while there (and S having met several dept. chairs as well), my take on it is that the program is an alternative to jazz (and classical) and may include classic rock and more mainstream music, BUT- this is still USC. It’s a classy place, and the music dept. is serious about musicians.</p>
<p>It’s about the music and the talent and playing, and IMO it would be viewed negatively and would distract from your real purpose here to submit a recording where you are trying to showcase your drumming that contains (repeated?) explicit language. The t-shirt doesn’t bother me so much, it doesn’t detract from your playing.</p>
<p>But maybe I am just an old fart, who knows.</p>
<p>I don’t know the school involved, but conventional wisdom on things like job interviews and other processes like that is to take things to the most conservative level when doing things like this, especially when you don’t know. For example, even though a lot of companies are business casual these days, it is probably better to come in more formal attire, because you never know. With contemporary music, you never know, you could have someone from a totally different era on the panel screening you, and could get turned off, which isn’t good, obviously.</p>
<p>As a UCLA alum, I would advise against wearing the UCLA t-shirt. The only points a USC judge MIGHT give you would be for sheer chutzpah. Not worth the risk.</p>
<p>If you already initiated contact and started a dialog, your questions may be posed to him. If you haven’t yet established contact, this may well be as good a time as any to start, and seek additional informed, direct advice beyond what you’ve already gotten here.</p>
<p>this is a popular music program, so maybe that’s different, but USC is remarkably formal: for students interviewing for scholarships to USC, the requirement at least a couple of years ago, was that they show up in “business attire” - i.e., guys in ties. And in So. Cal., the USC vs. UCLA rivalry is a big topic (at a tour of UCLA, they spent at least 1/4 of the time talking at length about the pranks, etc.), so flaunting a UCLA t-shirt might not go over the way you would like.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice. Judging by the overall consensus of what people have been saying, I think it’s better to be safe than sorry.</p>
<p>I will just re record the whole video, without a UCLA T shirt, and have a clean version of the backing track. </p>
<p>That way i’m making sure that i’m not upsetting anyone or causing any reasons for concern. </p>
<p>Violadad, thanks for your PM.</p>
<p>The videos i am Sending in are, Paramore - Thats What you Get (Mainstream Rock), Lady Gaga - Paparazzi (I have added live drums, electric guitar and bass - Synth Pop/Rock), Average White Band - Pick Up The Pieces (Funk), and obviously last but not least, Jay Z - Dirt Off Your Shoulder (Rap/Hip Hop)</p>
<p>I also have to send in a video demonstrating 4 different grooves, so i’m sending in a Samba, a Rosanna Shuffle, a Chad Smith type funk groove and some swing/bebop styled jazz drumming. </p>