Amanda Gross, 2019-2020 President
When I first arrived at the University of Michigan, I was stunned by the amount of people that could walk around on the Diag, State Street, or the stairs of Mason Hall and bump into someone they knew. My new school felt larger than life, and I couldn’t believe it was possible to run into a friend when everyone on campus felt so much like a stranger. Like most students at Michigan, I had been very involved in extracurricular activities in high school and was used to being part of a team or a cohort. So, the little type-A voice inside my head whispered, “Get involved! Get involved!” and dragged me over to Festifall, the largest on-campus recruitment event for student organizations, on a Friday afternoon in September.
Long story short, I found myself at a Mass Meeting for the student-run non-profit MUSIC Matters, and my freshman brain almost exploded. In high school, club meetings consisted of 20 kids in a classroom eating lunch together. The MUSIC Matters meeting consisted of almost 100 students in a lecture room, with the shockingly impressive seniors delivering a near-professional presentation. The organization consisted of multiple committees, subcommittees, fundraising strategies, social impact projects, and music events that cater to thousands of people. I decided I needed to get involved and join the Marketing committee.
I showed up to my first committee meeting with a touch of anxiety in my chest. I didn’t know a soul in the club, and I was afraid to give off the wrong impression. For a while I just kept to myself, listening and watching. I noticed how smart the other members were, how creative and thoughtful they could be. Slowly I started sitting next to people with whom I got along, and laughing with people I started to recognize. It was in my weekly Marketing meetings that I ended up meeting some of my best friends on campus.
MUSIC Matters ends every year with SpringFest, a lifestyle music festival that unites our community and celebrates the student body. The Marketing committee took turns studying other festivals to see what we could learn to improve and better market SpringFest. One day, a boy with an unprecedented amount of enthusiasm presented on the Sweetlife festival that takes place in Columbia, Maryland. I was shocked that he knew about this niche festival that I had attended the year before, and we discovered that we grew up a mere 15 minutes away from each other in Montgomery County, Maryland. In a fantastic twist of fate, I came all the way to Michigan to meet one of my new favorite people. Adam and I built a friendship in our weekly meetings, as I quickly learned there’s nothing more entertaining than hearing him go off on a tangent about Nicki Minaj’s lackluster publicity tour, and he soon discovered I was a Top 40 junkie who wanted nothing more to discuss the new Ariana Grande music video. At the end of the year, Adam and I both earned spots on the Marketing Leadership team, and our friendship was cemented.
Over the last three years, Adam has become one of my best friends through our collective love of both music and MUSIC Matters. We spent nights together dancing in Ann Arbor, and we even ended up living in a London flat together during our semester abroad last year. MM believes that music, especially live music, has the power to bring people together, and Adam and I have ended up sharing so many memories together through this belief. From watching Marshmello in Detroit to Diplo in London, we’ve been able to expand both our musical and personal horizons through our shared musical experiences. As our final SpingFest was approaching, we were itching to take in as many more of these experiences as we could while we were together in Michigan.
In February, we decided to drive out to Saint Andrew’s Hall in Detroit to check out an emerging artist named ALMA open for Tove Lo. Before our experience in MM, neither of us would've known much about up-and-coming artists. Thanks to the amazing people we’ve met in this club, we know there’s nothing better than seeing a rising artist perform right before they make it big. ALMA kicked off her 30-minute, high-tempo set surrounded by red and blue strobe lights that made visible little more than her silhouette. Her hair was green, and her aura mysterious. We were immediately impressed with her stage presence, as she worked hard to engage the diverse audience. Her setlist showed off her artistic range, with alternative pop tracks ranging from 2016’s “Karma” to her unreleased ode to the misfits with the infectious hook, “I’m a loser, baby I’m a loser… and that’s what I wanna be.”
The stripped down set allowed her raspy vocals to shine. The crowd’s energy level continued to increase as the set progressed, up until the last song which had everyone jumping and singing the hook repeatedly in acapella. She received a well-deserved standing ovation at the end of her set, despite having stated earlier that she gets “so awkward when people are screaming.” ALMA’s star quality was further proved as she joined headliner Tove Lo for their collaborations “Bad as the Boys” and “bitches.” She appeared comfortable and cool next to the seasoned performer, and the singers' voices melded together perfectly. We couldn’t help but dance as she performed, and we immediately downloaded her songs when she left the stage.
Adam and I left Saint Andrew’s Hall singing and grinning. There’s nothing better than dancing to music that makes you feel something, and ALMA truly blew us away. We ran in the Detroit cold back to our car, proud of our successful night and ready to head home. As we were patting ourselves on the back for a night well done, we discovered that the car battery had died. We sat in a black Honda Pilot that wouldn’t start and couldn’t stop laughing. As we called AAA and our friends to tell them about our mishap, I couldn’t help but grin about this new adventure that I knew we’d always remember. We sat talking in the car for an hour while we waited for the repair man, talking about life and music.
In the words of ALMA, “good stuff takes time, right?” I went home that night feeling full of life, humming the new songs I had learned. I fell asleep thinking about how thankful I am for MUSIC Matters. MUSIC Matters has changed my life in so many ways, bringing me experiences, music, and friends that I will never forget.
