Sooner Nation's Light-hearted Heckler

Geoff Roughface is a Broadcast and Electronic Media senior that has grown up loving the University of Oklahoma. Roughface exhibits his passion for the Sooners by supporting most of the athletic teams through a zealous and identifiable manner. 

         After all of his heckling at regular-season games, playoffs and championships, he has managed to not only accumulate several threats, but prizes and ESPNU Campus Connection gigs.

         Fans and players either love him or hate him, but they have to at least acknowledge his dedication to consistently painting his face half red and half white. The self-proclaimed “light-hearted heckler” has become a familiar face among the Sooner Nation.    

Video by: Courtney Goforth

Runtime:1:45  

Josh Sallee is Probably 'Cooler than You'

            The 21^st century has propelled society into an innovative world of technology, which conjures accessibility and convenience in almost all aspects of daily life. Nonetheless, even music fans have experienced many ways of listening to their favorite artists and once again the industry is no exception to modernization. Music digitization exudes the ridiculous availability to produce or access new music and Josh Sallee has mastered it.

Sallee performing for the Honor Roll
Accolades release party in Okla. City.
PHOTO: Courtesy of Baleout Photos

            According to “The Dawn of Commercial Digital Recording,” by Thomas Fine, digital audio uses pulse-code modulation and digital signals for sound reproduction. Additionally, this is not a recent development; by the beginning of the 1980s, all major record companies had embraced digital recording in one form or another, which ushered in a new consumer mass medium. However, modern technology has evolved the development into a silky process of recording, manipulation, mass-production and distribution of sound by storing, retrieving and transmitting signals without any loss of quality.

            Edmond native Josh Sallee is not only a student at the University of Central Oklahoma, but a twenty-two year old recording artist who has already conquered and benefitted from the music digitization process. According to his personal Web site, Sallee has already shared the stage with Paul Wall, Bizzy Bone, The Cool Kids, Cypress Hill, Kidz in the Hall, XV, Ke$ha, Mickey Avalon, 88-Keyz, Donnis, Mr. Dibbs, Cubic Zirconia and Mac Miller.

            “Music digitization has made it possible for anyone to pursue a career,” said Sallee. “There are now avenues for anyone to post a song up to or find music to use. Without it, I would still be doing music, but it wouldn’t have reached a national scale as quickly.”

Cover for Sallee's mixtape "Honor Roll Accolades."
PHOTO: Courtesy of Josh Sallee

            Sallee’s remix of Mike Posner’s “Cooler Than Me,” appropriately titled, “Cooler Than Me (Now Remix),” propelled him to his YouTube stardom, which accumulated over 350,000 hits. A 15-song mixtape is ready for download on his Web site, where you can also watch his two music videos and look for upcoming events.

            “Music digitization has positive and negative effects dependent upon how you look at it,” said Sallee. “For labels, it is a huge negative. They no longer have the music industry monopolized. Hardcopy CD sales are lower than they have ever been, but it is positive for people trying to get recognized. People are lazy now; they don’t want to go to the store. They want to click a button and have the music on the iPod. Convenience over innovation.”

            Check out Josh’s Web site for his free mixtape, music videos and update on upcoming events. Also, become his fan on Facebook!

Sallee performing in front of a crowd at The Hidden Castle in Norman in late July.
PHOTO: Courtesy of Josh Sallee

The Concert Series for Students

             The Concert Series provides free live music for students at the University of Oklahoma at least once per semester. It is a yearlong event that is part of the Campus Activities Council (CAC), which leads 12 other events throughout the year.

            The University of Oklahoma Student Association founded CAC in 1971, in order to create a board that plans and initiates campus-wide events for all students. According to the CAC Web site, it is made up of 23 council members and more than 300 committee members headed by a chairperson elected annually by the student body. Therefore, anyone can join the meetings to help out where volunteers are needed, but there is a small process to become an official member.

            “It takes a bit of work,” said Concert Series Chair Staley Stidham. “You have to fill out an application and go through an interview. Students are chosen based on combined scores of the two. It allows CAC to acquire students who are truly passionate about their branch of the organization.”

            Stidham has helped bring in many bands in the last couple of years including: Modest Mouse, Band of Horses, Jonezetta, Manchester Orchestra, Rocket Summer, Amos Lee, Copeland, Lovedrug, Matt and Kim, Camera Obscura, Owl City, Octopus Project and Yellow Fever.  The shows have been conducted mainly in Meacham Auditorium in the Student Union, but have also been outdoors in front of the Union.  Each show is unique in presentation, derived from the differentiation in performance by the bands.

            “I think my favorite concert was Matt and Kim,” said Stidham. “The energy of the band seemed to permeate the atmosphere of the concert. The crowd was really involved in the show and made it an actual experience rather than a ‘stand and watch’ kind of concert. It didn’t hurt that they were incredibly nice people on top of the great show.”

            The Concert Series gives students an exciting opportunity to see a live show several times throughout the semester, but the students are not the only ones who benefit.

            “I love seeing the end result come together and the happiness it brings the audience,” said Stidham. “Watching a show that you organized and seeing the crowd loving it as much as you do, it kind of unites you with other people. You form a weird, inexplicable connection with everyone there.”

            Stidham also commented about the music scene in Norman outside of the Concert Series.

            “I am really proud of the way Norman has progressed since I was a freshman,” said Stidham. “We now have the Norman Music Festival and great venues like The Opolis. Norman is really lucky to have a few people who are really passionate about music and making things happen.”

Matt and Kim perform in Meacham Auditorium in Fall of 2009. PHOTO: Courtney Goforth

The Early Beat opens up for Matt and Kim in Meacham Auditorium. PHOTO: Courtney Goforth