TCNJ

22 The College of New Jersey Magazine For Sony Music's Jennifer Fowler and Billboard's Jason Lipshutz, college was the opener for what would be their life's work. Words Renée Olson Illustrations Agata Nowicka ong before ong before she became senior vice-president of marketing and commercial partnerships at Sony Music, Jennifer Fowler '96, who had majored in communications, called WTSR home. Billboard's executive director, music, Jason Lipshutz '10, always knew he wanted to write and found himself drawn to music in college, binging on concerts in Philadelphia and New York City. Given their mash-up of professional expertise — Fowler cultivates business partnerships that drive artist development and discovery, and Lipshutz gets one-on-one time with the likes of Taylor Swift and Spotify's CEO, Daniel Ek — we asked them to share insight on the perennial yet shifting connection between college students and the music industry. To kick this off, we shared with Fowler and Lipshutz a list of musicians whose shows brought them to campus from the 1960s through now (see "The Playlist," page 27). "It's a pretty cool list with impressive performers like Kool & The Gang and Springsteen, who were then just potential superstars early in their careers," says Lipshutz. We wondered about Bob Dylan, a 23-year-old who already had three stu- dio albums under his belt in 1964 when he performed here, but who wouldn't rent his first electric guitar until six months after playing on campus. "He was just like any rising artist who has a couple hit songs and is trying to reach an audience of college kids in a meaningful way," says Lipshutz. "Back then, he wasn't Bob Dylan, the legend. He was just a singer-songwriter trying to connect with people. The value of college tours to artists from any time period is that you're playing to the exact demographic — young fans — that you want to reach." Fowler traced a line from then to now. "Because college students can be highly influential tastemakers and gatekeepers," she says, "college touring remains an important part of how artists build fanbases." What did Megan Thee Stallion, who performed here in 2019 at age 24, have starting out that Dylan didn't? That secret sauce — the intersection of social media and streaming — which can catapult performers to an exponential number of followers and great fame under the right conditions. "College students can directly interact with Megan Thee Stallion in a way that Bob Dylan listeners 60 years ago simply could not," says Lipshutz. "It's a fun cultural wrinkle within the history of these performances." (Continued on page 28)

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