Debatable is a column written by the Otago University Debating Society. The Debating Society welcomes new members and meets at the Business School every Tuesday at 6pm.
DJs
Live bands are great, but let's be honest here: for flat hosts on Castle they're just too much effort for too little reward. Stepping away from the conversation about whether DnB is good or whether it can even be considered music, the simple fact is that it's popular and it's now reached a point where it’s become deeply ingrained in Dunedin student culture.
There's an abundance of DJs willing to perform and, in the absence of an actually decent DJ, you can always rely on a mate to have a crappy $50 deck that’ll get the job done. Even if this mate doesn't know how to mix, they’ll be able to create noise. And, more times than not, it’s really about drinking in public and having some sort of ambient noise going on in the background than it is about having a well-played set. It might sound cynical, but the role of music on Castle Street is akin to that of a street light attracting moths.
Hosting bands is just a lot of admin. They take up more space than a DJ and the risk to reward ratio is skewed because, as good as a lot of bands are, there are also a few that wouldn't appeal to drunken Castle breathas. If the band flops, that's just bad for everyone. People leave the host and the band feels bad and is less likely to perform in the future.
If you're hosting on Castle Street, you most likely have a trashed flat and hundreds of broken bottles outside your doorstep to look forward to. Combine that with the prospect of a band playing music that people aren't keen for, with them risking their equipment as well, and you have a shit time for everyone involved. Maybe one day people will get sick of DJs playing DnB, but at least for the foreseeable future it's a proven option that allows people to get on with what they value most about a night out on Castle Street: drinking.
Live Bands
Dunedin is facing a live music crisis. Venues are shutting down, and it's becoming harder and harder for bands to get recognized in the cluttered streaming landscape. Pint Nights are great and the Crown still exists (for now at least) but the number of venues available for bands to play is ever dwindling. O and Flo events always bring along a crowd, but in recent years there’s been a lot of discussion about how “dead” Castle feels. Regardless of whether that's true, inviting live bands to perform is a great way to create interest and get more people out and amongst it. For bands, it's a great chance to get exposure and practice in front of a live audience, and for the hosts it's only slightly more effort than having a live DJ outside.
Dunedin has a proud tradition of live music and it is something that has, in the past, made Dunedin distinctive and provided a clear identity. The Dunedin Sound still exists and will continue to exist. It’s perhaps a bit hyperbolic to suggest that getting bands to perform for Castle Street hosts can address the decline of live music in general across Dunedin, but it still remains a positive thing that can, at the very least, create more interest in Dunedin bands. The people who went to Hyde this year can attest to how cool it was to see bands perform live, and it's not that difficult to imagine that something similar could happen on Castle. How do you think Six60 started out?
A band is also way more dynamic compared to a DJ. You can get a variety of genres and covers, and sometimes it's just fun to jam out to a punk band when you can barely understand what lyrics they're singing/shouting. Sure, a band can sometimes be a bit hit or miss, but there's even something to be gained from the misses. Live DJs playing DnB are like vanilla ice cream: it's safe, but it's also boring. By trying something new, flat hosts have nothing to lose.