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Can we talk about how shitty Gator Growl has become
Posted on 9/25/19 at 2:29 pm
Posted on 9/25/19 at 2:29 pm
Chase Rice? Last year was a popular rapper and some shitty emo band. This year they have some cliche pop country douchebag and that's it?! Remember when we had premium peeps?
Chappelle, Seinfield, Kevin Hart, etc. Wtf is going on here? I used to be so excited for it...now I want to skip the performance(s) because it's so bad. Whoever is determining the live acts needs to have their duties removed.
Chappelle, Seinfield, Kevin Hart, etc. Wtf is going on here? I used to be so excited for it...now I want to skip the performance(s) because it's so bad. Whoever is determining the live acts needs to have their duties removed.
3
Posted on 9/25/19 at 3:17 pm to Gatorbait2008
I haven't been to Gator Growl in 20 years. Surprised that it is still going on.
Posted on 9/25/19 at 3:20 pm to UFMatt
Back in the old days Gator Growl was about alumni coming back to Gainesville and the main fare was comedy skits by amatuers….but they were funny and made fun of other schools
Posted on 9/25/19 at 3:38 pm to Gatorbait2008
First, the decline in the football program from 2008 has to be a giant part of this. There was at time where Gator Growl was about the only way you could take your family to a football-related event at BHG. I can't imagine that the general decline in wins and the kind of hallowed image The Swamp developed had to have something to do with it. But that was before I was there, so I only know of the Spurrier/Meyer years through the nostalgia tinted glasses of older Gators.
Aside from the 80s, if anything, you might argue that spotting up-and-comers is really what has gotten worse. Seinfeld and Chappelle were both a couple of years out from becoming household names. Seinfeld started in 1989 but really didn't start becoming huge until around the third or fourth season. Chappelle was a GG in 1998 and still five years away from Chappelle's Show. If you were into comedy, you knew who they were, but they were no where near as huge as they would become.
It looks like these days, they mostly pick people who are popular but on the back end of their careers.
I think a lot of the issue was just an identity crisis. Aside from students generally losing interest, taking it out of the Swamp definitely made it feel like less of a big deal. But really the biggest problem in later years with talent might have been trying to balance family-friendly with acts students wanted to see and figuring out which to appeal to. Tracy Morgan left parents clutching their pearls, but unless you're a student from the Panhandle or Plant City, you probably don't give much of a damn about Lynyrd Skynyrd. When you look at those legendary GGs back in the 80s, someone like Robin Williams is pulling students and families. Hard to find people these days that are a draw for people from 18-50.
I never went when I was there from 2010-2014. I hated Sister Hazel and the Goo Goo Dolls when I was in high school and college. I sure as hell didn't want to see them in the twilight of their careers when they were a cheap get. While I certainly know people my age who'd love to get hammered and reminisce over some teenage romance to "Iris," I can' imagine there are enough of the to put a dent in BHG. I definitely can't imagine very many undergrads in 2011 wanting to kill an evening watching that. That's some of the decline there - betting on nostalgia acts to bring in families and students.
And as far as the pop country douchebag, that stuff is popular in Florida, so blame yourselves! And as much as I hated it, I had some good time at :08 Seconds while I was a grad student due to it. Given Jason Aldean and Florida Georgia Line's connections to Florida (the state, not UF), from growing up to breaking their careers, you can make an argument that Florida was one of the breeding grounds for bro country. Hell, even Pittbull had a song aimed at modern country bars.
Maybe you've just got decent taste in music. Most people really don't.
Aside from the 80s, if anything, you might argue that spotting up-and-comers is really what has gotten worse. Seinfeld and Chappelle were both a couple of years out from becoming household names. Seinfeld started in 1989 but really didn't start becoming huge until around the third or fourth season. Chappelle was a GG in 1998 and still five years away from Chappelle's Show. If you were into comedy, you knew who they were, but they were no where near as huge as they would become.
It looks like these days, they mostly pick people who are popular but on the back end of their careers.
I think a lot of the issue was just an identity crisis. Aside from students generally losing interest, taking it out of the Swamp definitely made it feel like less of a big deal. But really the biggest problem in later years with talent might have been trying to balance family-friendly with acts students wanted to see and figuring out which to appeal to. Tracy Morgan left parents clutching their pearls, but unless you're a student from the Panhandle or Plant City, you probably don't give much of a damn about Lynyrd Skynyrd. When you look at those legendary GGs back in the 80s, someone like Robin Williams is pulling students and families. Hard to find people these days that are a draw for people from 18-50.
I never went when I was there from 2010-2014. I hated Sister Hazel and the Goo Goo Dolls when I was in high school and college. I sure as hell didn't want to see them in the twilight of their careers when they were a cheap get. While I certainly know people my age who'd love to get hammered and reminisce over some teenage romance to "Iris," I can' imagine there are enough of the to put a dent in BHG. I definitely can't imagine very many undergrads in 2011 wanting to kill an evening watching that. That's some of the decline there - betting on nostalgia acts to bring in families and students.
And as far as the pop country douchebag, that stuff is popular in Florida, so blame yourselves! And as much as I hated it, I had some good time at :08 Seconds while I was a grad student due to it. Given Jason Aldean and Florida Georgia Line's connections to Florida (the state, not UF), from growing up to breaking their careers, you can make an argument that Florida was one of the breeding grounds for bro country. Hell, even Pittbull had a song aimed at modern country bars.
Maybe you've just got decent taste in music. Most people really don't.
This post was edited on 9/25/19 at 3:41 pm
Posted on 9/25/19 at 4:26 pm to LuciusSulla
Yea the Tebow years had very good Growls.
I wonder if the fear of offending people has pushed out the comedians. So many soft kids take offense to anything and everything so they cant bring comedians anymore.
I wonder if the fear of offending people has pushed out the comedians. So many soft kids take offense to anything and everything so they cant bring comedians anymore.
Posted on 9/25/19 at 4:43 pm to Gatorbait2008
Fear of offending people definitely pushed out the comedians, but it isn't the students. The older crowd had a complete melt over Tracy Morgan. Notice we haven't had one since?
Say they had Chappelle again - would there be some students who protest? Sure, and they'd get a lot of coverage because it kind of fits into this pack journalism trope that always gets lots of clicks. You post ultra-left students protesting something, and you're going to get tons of comments and clicks, so you see a lot of it. There would be way more students grabbing a ticket than protesting though.
I'm a professor myself, and overall, students really aren't all that different than they were 15 years ago. Parents can be more of a challenge these days, but somehow the kids stay mostly the same. It's just a helluvalot easier for the squeaky wheel to find an audience these days.
Say they had Chappelle again - would there be some students who protest? Sure, and they'd get a lot of coverage because it kind of fits into this pack journalism trope that always gets lots of clicks. You post ultra-left students protesting something, and you're going to get tons of comments and clicks, so you see a lot of it. There would be way more students grabbing a ticket than protesting though.
I'm a professor myself, and overall, students really aren't all that different than they were 15 years ago. Parents can be more of a challenge these days, but somehow the kids stay mostly the same. It's just a helluvalot easier for the squeaky wheel to find an audience these days.
Posted on 9/25/19 at 4:52 pm to LuciusSulla
My GF is at UF and says about the same but does think they are more sensitive to her(shes a little older). She said the professors in her classes have been more liberal than a lot of the kids. Though her English professor for Mcbair was libertarian and joked about how rare he was lol
Posted on 9/25/19 at 9:54 pm to Gatorbait2008
The idea behind Gator Growl was something that entertained alumni who were in their 50s and also students. To call it shitty is not exactly right...remember, homecoming is about alumni coming back to UF and renewing old ties.
Students should take the time to say hello to senior alumni and make them feel welcomed...it doesn't cost a penny to be friendly and you might learn something. Unfortunately we are in an era of ME.
Students should take the time to say hello to senior alumni and make them feel welcomed...it doesn't cost a penny to be friendly and you might learn something. Unfortunately we are in an era of ME.
Posted on 9/26/19 at 7:03 am to Gatorbait2008
GG went soft after the Dane Cook blowback.
Posted on 9/26/19 at 8:31 am to real_gator8
I don't think Alumni want to see pop country.
Posted on 9/26/19 at 9:40 am to real_gator8
quote:
Back in the old days Gator Growl was about alumni coming back to Gainesville
Exactly, today's students want it to be all about them.
Posted on 9/26/19 at 4:46 pm to UFMatt
quote:
Exactly, today's students want it to be all about them.
Once again, I haven't really noticed that. I started college as a student 20 years ago, and I am a professor now. I obviously can't speak for before the mid-90s, but my first hand experience since then is that everyone from about 15 to 23 or 24 is a bit of a self-centered sociopath. I also think that is part of being that age and is dictated by biology to a large degree, so I suspect that, at least among the middle class who could go to college, it's been about the same for a long time.
Look at the acts for the first 20 years or so. I'd say without even really understanding the cultural significance of Bob Hope OR the lack of entertainment options in 1985, probably 80% of the acts from 1977-1998 clearly would be popular among a ton of people between 18 and 40 or so. Pop culture has massively stratified in the last 10 years - basically, who are you going to get that has as much cross generational pull as a Robin Williams in 1982. You can see by 1998 that they are trying to use a pretty good cross section of comedians, Ray Romano, Dave Chappelle, Carlos Mencia, and Larry the Cable Guy, to appeal to a lot of folks.
Additonally, it's not like the older alumni were showing up in the same numbers either, even when trying to book acts more toward that market. Sticking to BHG shows for the last 10 years they were there, you have:
2004 Bill Engvall, Dane Cook
2005 Greg Giraldo, Wayne Brady
2006 Jim Gaffigan, Gabriel Iglesias
2007 Frank Caliendo, Lynyrd Skynyrd
2008 Jon Reep, Steve Miller Band
2009 Dana Carvey, O.A.R., JabbaWockeeZ
2010 Aziz Ansari, Kevin Hart, Dan Levy
2011 Joel McHale, Goo Goo Dolls
2012 Tracy Morgan, Josh Turner, Dara Torres
2013 The Fray, Sister Hazel, New Directions Veterans Choir
There is at least as much stuff there for alumni as students if not more. Bill Engval, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dad Carvey, Goo Goo Dolls, and Sister Hazel just to name a few are not acts you book if your primary interest is appealing generally to the 18-22 crowd in the years they were booked. Those are clear pitches to people who were older and out of school.
I don't think anyone is at fault really. We can throw darts at who books the talent, selfish students (and by the way, the original generation labeled the "me" generation was the Baby Boomers), or whatever else. The simplest explanation is that it has simply suffered what all other entertainment has suffered. It's an ever more stratified market with more and more options every day. Record sales have shrunk, TV ratings have shrunk, stadium attendance for college and high school football continues to shrink, and on and on. Gator Growl more than likely just ran its course for most of the demographics for which it used to be of interest.
Things move on. You can either get bitter because things don't last forever or you can be thankful that you at least got to see it at its high water mark.
This post was edited on 9/26/19 at 4:48 pm
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