By Matthew Meyer (October 28, 2003)

Finding the right music for a dance is a very serious matter, the material chosen will set the mood for the evening. Clearly the majority of people attending the dances want rhythmically, bass charged music, and most importantly the "new" stuff. As the seniors planned for the Red Carpet Homecoming Dance last Saturday, Lasso Online set out to find what kinds of music made people want to dance. 

A survey was created and was sent out to random TAs. Of the 609 students at George Mason, 181 filled out the survey, that’s 29.7% of the entire student body. The structure of the survey was intended so that the students’ top three kinds of music would be listed. The music styles available to select from were Rap, Hip Hop, Old School, Rock (and a space provided for the specific genre), Pop, Dance, Techno, Trance, Country, Bluegrass, Honky Tonk, Blues, Jazz, and "Other". Below the list of music styles there was a space for comments and suggestions.

These were the results. Out of the 181 surveys, 72 favored Rap/Hip Hop, (artists such as Eminem, Ludacris, and JayZ). Forty-four favored Dance/Trance/Techno, (electric rhythm kings such as The Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx, and The Dust Brothers). The bronze went to Old School which received 28, (Rap veterans such LL Cool J, Run DMC, and NWA).

Comments: The comments were always very opinionated. Most people who pick Rap hated Pop, and the majority of people who picked Rock hated Rap. The comments section was designed for people to state what they liked, disliked, and what they wanted to hear. Here are a few of the comments: 

"RAP SUCKS." 

"NO RAP, NO POP, NO COUNTRY, DEFINITELY MORE NIGHTWISH." 

"I would have added classical, but…it doesn’t work at a high school dance." 

"Older stuff is good too, electric slide, shout, YMCA."

"Japanese Rap."

"Please lighten up on the Rap…it gets old."

"What is ‘dance’ music? I don’t get it. How is that different from the others kinds of music?"