Students aspiring to jump into the music industry were given the chance to turn heads Tuesday when the Ragged Road Tour came to campus.
The American Rag Ragged Road Tour held open auditions for their summer documentary filmmaking yesterday in the EMU’s Ben Linder Room. Auditions will be held again Thursday from 2:30 p.m to 6 p.m. at the same venue.
Tour organizers and the clothing line American Rag are in search of college students between the ages of 18 and 24 who are passionate about an area in the music industry, anything from performance to production.
During the interview and audition, students were asked to describe their aspirations in the music industry. Some expressed an idle interest in the career and life, while others were more serious about making a career in the music industry.
Phil Wood, a senior who is taking winter term off, saw a banner advertising the auditions yesterday afternoon while walking through campus.
“It looked interesting,” Wood said, “I would love to work for the music industry.”
Senior Geoff Ziemer was a little more prepared. He was told that the auditions were coming up over a month ago by American Rag student ambassador Manisha Marberry, with whom he attended high school.
Ziemer, who has composed around 50 songs, describes his work as “rapping” but says he feels he is more a writer than a rapper.
Ziemer prepared a special piece for the audition, but at the last minute decided to perform a different one.
“I wasn’t sure what (American Rag) was looking for,” Ziemer said.
During the five minute audition, the participants had the option of performing their musical talents. Those who were more prepared devoted part of that time to singing or playing an instrument, while others were content to spend the time being interviewed.
Marberry and fellow University student ambassador Julia Taylor ran the five-hour walk-in auditions Tuesday, which attracted 21 students.
The auditions comprised a five-minute filmed interview where students were asked questions about their ability to get along with friends and their level of passion for the music industry.
The tour is seeking five students who exude “passion and inspiration and are in a very visible way looking to become a part of the music industry,” said Eric Schoenberg, director of brand engagement with RepNation, a media network representing American Rag.
The tour is meant to promote the American Rag clothing line, which has been collaborating with RepNation.
Marberry and Taylor have run the promotion for the Ragged Road Tour on campus this year. They have worked through the semester to market the event by posting flyers, personally handing out coffee sleeves with a casting call sign pasted on them, distributing buttons for people to wear around campus, creating a Facebook group and event, and a MySpace page.
The student ambassadors work closely with RepNation, which is a consumer power media network with a focus on “word of mouth marketing,” Schoenberg said. Their work is part of RepNation’s push for peer-to-peer networking to promote brands. The tour itself is also an extension of this push by showing consumers that the clothing line is linked to the lifestyle of those in the music industry.
American Rag has ambassadors at 12 universities around the U.S. working to promote the brand. Each university is holding an open, filmed audition for the tour. There is also an online application process where applicants can submit homemade videos.
The auditions will be reviewed by American Rag, which will select five students they feel best represent the brand and have the most passion for the music industry.
According to the Ragged Road Web site, the five winners “will visit seven music-focused cities, see landmark venues, experience different aspects of the music industry, and meet with various professionals who make music a part of their living.” It will begin on Aug. 1 and conclude no later than Aug. 22.
Marberry and Taylor said the tour gives the selected students the chance to begin networking with big names in the music industry.
“This is an amazing opportunity for college students (in the music field),” Taylor said.
The tour will be extensively filmed and documented and the footage will run as a Web series on the Ragged Road Web site next fall, Marberry said.
Schoenberg said that American Rag portrays itself as a lifestyle brand, so the connection with music is something they appeal to as the lifestyle of the brand. The road show gives them media exposure that emulates this lifestyle for the brand.
Schoenberg said that most of the details of the actual road trip will be worked out after the five participants are selected. The winners will be notified by May 30.