The Music Group is perhaps the most secretive and mysterious group on campus. They work with one of the biggest budgets of any Vanderbilt organization and decide two yearly campus highlights, namely the performers for Commodore Quake and Rites of Spring. With mystery come rumors and misconceptions, so Versus talked to some of the group’s leaders to get the scoop on how they find performers and why they’re excited about this year’s Quake.

“First and foremost we’re trying to get bands students like. That’s what we did with O.A.R.; they’re always a top one with the student vote. We don’t just pick bands that the music group likes,” said Scott Krenitski, a co-chair of the Music Group.

To get a sense of what sort of music Vandy was interested in hearing, the group sent out a poll over the summer with a list of artists ranging from Rhianna to Adele.

Though the poll encouraged the group to seriously pursue O.A.R., group member Andrew Levy says that the poll was not meant to be as focused as it seemed. “[The names were] more of a generalization to see what people thought and what kind of music people were thinking about at that moment.”

With the poll results in hand, the group began sending out “avails” (inquiries into artists’ availability) through their third party booking agency, Mac Presents. Having that third party involvement helps the group to get better price quotes, but, most importantly, it helps their events and organization to be taken seriously within the greater music industry.

“If we just called up Lil’ Wayne and said ‘Hey, we’re the Music Group, come [play at Vanderbilt]’ he’d ask, ‘Are you delusional?’” said co-chair Owen Canavan. Although Mac Presents help get avails into the right hands, other obstacles like previous touring commitments, artists working on albums and price make certain requested artists inaccessible. “We’re not going to get Coldplay or Radiohead,” said Canavan.

In terms of this year’s picks for Quake, the group recognizes that the show will have a different vibe than years past, said Levy, “Kanye and Lil’ Wayne, those are hard acts to follow. We didn’t want to compete with those artists, we just wanted to change it up and do something totally different… more of a party environment.”

Throughout the past five years Quake has featured some of hip-hop’s biggest stars, so both O.A.R. and Pitbull are a move towards more varied genres for Quake. Though Pitbull may be the lesser known of the two, the Music Group is excited to feature a new sound. “Pitbull is the first Latino artist we’ve ever had … I think he’s really going to surprise people. It’s going to be such a fun way to start up the show,” said Krenitski.