Seeing Music Day And Night By Mia Lepp

After five days of waiting for the GRAMMY Camp firld trip, with students wondering such things as, "Does anyone know where we're going?" and "I wonder if we'll see anyone famous?" the day finally arrived. The exodus off the USC campus into L.A. began with the Campers being split into three different groups; one going to the GRAMMY Museum, one to the Village Recording studio, and one to the headquarters of IMAX.



As my group arrived to the GRAMMY Museum we were greeted by a huge vibrant and modern mural on the right wall that showed different popular places in L.A. We split up and started looking around on the fourth floor, where the first thing I saw were actual GRAMMY Awards. Further back on the fourth floor I saw the paper where the lyrics to some of the Beatles songs were originally written. Also on display were clothes worn by members of the Beatles and their guitars. Electronic Music Production's Mia Lalanne, who is a Beatles fan, said, "I'm a fan of the Beatles even more now that I see really what John Lennon behind and I think it is great to have a place like this to honor his work over the years."



Throughout the GRAMMY Museum there were areas where we could "play" the drums or the keyboard, remix original songs like Roy Orbison's "Beautiful Girls," or use "The Amazing Talking Machine," where you could talk into it and it would play back what you said.

The third floor, where they had outfits from stars like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and Rihanna, was a favorite of many Campers. The Trombone track's Jonathan Huggins said, "My favorite part of the GRAMMY Museum has been seeing all of Michael Jackson's clothes." Vocal Performance's Maija Pinkins agreed. "My favorite part of the GRAMMY Museum has been seeing all the clothes." Before leaving the third floor we saw an area of the Museum dedicated to the Latin GRAMMY Awards, where they had a video playing from past years as well as one of Celia Cruz's outfits.



After the GRAMMY Museum we went to Club Nokia, where we got to the dressing rooms as well as go on the stage. There were already GRAMMY Campers who were singing and dancing on stage. Pinkins stated with excitement, "Club Nokia is so bomb and big and I hope one day I will make a show here and sell it out." She was not the only Camper who expressed these hopes.




During this time another group of Campers were at the Santa Monica, California headquarters of IMAX, where they saw trailers for movies about Michael Jackson's life and the Rolling Stones and also a six-minute clip put together from the Dark Knight movie. Songwriter student Vikki Pritchard mentioned, "It was so cool and my favorite was the one about Michael Jackson."




Another group of Campers went to the Village Recording studio, where they walked around and saw all records on the wall from the likes of Lady Gaga, Steely Dan, Bob Dylan, and more.




The three groups reunited at the Recording Academy and then went to the Grove shopping center together for dinner and free time. We got the chance to compare notes and through this field trip we discovered different parts of the music careers, like how legacies live on as well, as what to do to start your music career, and then end the day by seeing just how beautiful L.A. is at night time.