It’s time to diversify your weekend music

Dante Caloia

Contributor

My first-time hearing ABBA was at my grandmother’s house, mixed into her oldie’s playlist with artists like Madonna, Earth, Wind and Fire, and Michael Jackson. Dancing along with it and loving their music was easy: the soft voices, the synth-y beats, the catchy choruses.

Fast forward to today, and the Swedish band has lost its appeal. As a matter of fact, for the sake of Queen’s, it would have been better if their band had never existed at all.

Now, this is admittedly a bit of an exaggeration, but not far off from the truth. Club and partygoers on campus know most set lists always have ABBA’s two most popular hits on standby because students will sing along as if it’s the best thing to ever hit their ears.

If that isn’t a form of Stockholm Syndrome, nothing is. ABBA once a year? What a throwback! So catchy! ABBA once a month? Great song, although it’s getting a bit repetitive. ABBA once a week? Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! some earplugs.

ABBA every Thursday at Stages, Every Friday at Ale, and every Tuesday and Saturday at Trin is contemporary musical torture. Knowing the existence of tracks with more merit leaves music lovers to, opposite to the Pavlovian dog, cringe instead of salivate.

The larger underlying problem here is how many Queen’s students are extremely close-minded when it comes to clubbing music. Many see a night out on the town as an opportunity to go to the same bar, listen to the same music as last weekend, and drink the same watered-down vodka crans simply because it’s the status quo.

Sometimes it’s hard to understand how so many people are comfortable residing in this bubble instead of enjoying the full capacity of what clubbing music can encompass. Having open-minded individuals at sets who will dance to anything makes the night of a DJ so much better.

Vintage house, afrobeat, UK rap, drum and bass, and even classic rock are all genres that make people move differently than the typical jump-up-and-down Stages dance, but this doesn’t make them any less viable for clubbing. These genres need to be given just as much attention as what’s in the playlists currently monopolizing Kingston.

In Montreal, dope music like this is quite prevalent. House music is a huge phenomenon in clubs out there. The mainstreams clubs in Kingston have been shooting themselves in the foot time and time again by staying within people’s comfort zone.

The time has come to be open minded toward what music you hear while you’re out instead of jumping on aux to play the same old party playlist. Instead of looking around the room to check how many people are dancing, think about whether a song makes you move.

Too many people get stuck in the mob mentality while they’re clubbing and close themselves off to learning about so many different genres that are just as danceable than radio hits.

And please, for the love of God, stop requesting ABBA.

Rida Chaudhry

Senior Arts Editor

Last week was an exciting one for Charlie Houston, ArtSci’23, who got to perform with and play for her friends at The Mansion, the beloved live music venue.

The Toronto-based artist has received plenty of recognition for her indie-house melodies in recent years. Having debuted a series of EPs and her first album in October 2022, the soon-to-be graduate is more excited than ever to focus solely on her music in a few months.

“I’ve been playing guitar since I was a kid. My dad taught me a lot of classic rock songs that