Editor’s note: This column is written in the opinion in favor of the Juice Jam 2015 lineup and is a dueling column with music columnist Isha Damle’s negative opinion, which can be found here.

I’ll give you a hot take on this year’s Juice Jam lineup in the first line of this column: if you’re complaining about this year’s Juice Jam lineup, you need a new attitude on music.

I’m no super fan of any of the six artists on this year’s list, but each artist that University Union picked to play at this year’s festival deserves their spot on the list.

If you don’t see things like I do when it comes to this year’s roster, let me attempt to spell everything out.

Since the ninth annual Juice Jam in 2013, the festival has had a consistent structure: two hip-hop artists (one headlining), two electronic artists and two indie artists (except for 2014’s lineup, which included exploding pop/R&B vocalist Tinashe as a bonus). This year has Big Sean and iLoveMakonnen in the first bucket, Oliver Heldens and SNBRN in the second and Matt and Kim and BØRNS in the third.

This setup makes lots of sense from UU’s standpoint. I’m not basing this on any hard data, butI’d be willing to bet that if you surveyed the entire SU student body for their collective favorite music genres, hip-hop, EDM and indie would be the top three choices by a sizable margin.

If you’re complaining that there’s too much or too little of any particular genre — whether it’s too much EDM, too little hip hop, too much indie or not enough artists you’ve heard of (that last one baffles me… don’t people like finding new music?) — I’d say you’re being a little selfish.

Maybe your gripes lie more with the fact that The Weeknd ended up not being included on this year’s set. I’ll get this out of the way now: there was no way The Weeknd was coming to Juice Jam. He’s coming off a summer with “Can’t Feel My Face” being one of the most played songs on the radio, a headlining performance at the VMAs and an ongoing tour with ticket prices ranging well into the $100+ range. So expecting a $15 price tag for a full set of his (plus, you know, performances from five other artists) was a lot to ask of University Union.

But let’s go back to the lineup itself. First, Big Sean is, well, a big deal. Not only has he had eight singles (three more if you include his features) hit the Billboard Top 40, but he’s still just beginning to evolve into an American hip-hop icon. SU students should be grateful and excited that their school managed to pull someone of his caliber for this year’s Juice Jam.

And the other acts should make people just as excited, no matter where your musical allegiances lie. Oliver Heldens already has two top five singles in the UK along with five other songs charting across major European markets — and when it comes to EDM, anyone can tell you that what’s caught on in Europe will catch on in America soon enough.

If you like fun, then you’ll love Matt and Kim’s sets. They’ve become famous for putting on the most enjoyable live shows at every festival they’ve appeared at. If you don’t catch yourself humming their songs after the set, then Juice Jam probably isn’t the kind of event suited for you anyway. And if you follow popular music at all, I’d be shocked if you weren’t at least a little excited to jam to ILoveMakonnen’s “Tuesday” live.

I could go on and on about how great this Sunday’s show is going to be, but me ranting to you about the artists coming to campus will only do so much. So I challenge you: give every last oneof the six artists performing a listen — even if their music isn’t what you’d normally go for.

Brett Weiser-Schlesinger is a sophomore newspaper and online journalism major. He can be reached by email at bweisers@syr.edu or by Twitter at @brettws.

Published on September 9, 2015 at 10:30 pm