“I love music. I love live shows, the energy of the crowd, the whole experience of the concert … from listening to these songs on Spotify to seeing them performed live, it’s awesome” says this week’s IUP Campus Celebrity. Meet Kiana McLeod, senior, and executive contemporary music chair of The Entertainment Network.
A former pre-med major turned communications media major/English minor joined The Entertainment Network her freshman year after thinking, “Wow, I really love music.” The next year she applied for the executive chair and got the position. Kiana was a marketing intern over the summer at Stage AE in Pittsburgh and plans to go to grad school for research in communications and is interested in maybe pursuing promotions and PR in entertainment.
I sat down with Kiana in the middle of the most recent concert the organization put on, up and coming country artist, Eric Paslay, where she told me All Time Low was her favorite show to work band and personality wise, but Chance the Rapper was her favorite show in general. Though going antique shopping with Eric Paslay before the show really topped it all off.
Curious as to how the process of getting these great artists to come to our school, I asked Kiana a little bit about the whole process. “I just look at what everyone’s listening to, what’s popular, and go from there,” she says. “Since IUP is smaller school, we take who’s really popular and find a similar sound with a smaller artist, someone who’s more up and coming. For example, a lot of people wanted Fetty Wap, so we brought Rich Homie Quan since he’s from the same scene and has a similar sound,” she continues. When I asked about hints to next semester’s shows, she just laughs, “I’m not even sure yet!” She tells me that spring entails more of an “anything goes” feel and it’s not as much pressure.
Her advice for freshman or anyone wanting to join the TEN is to get involved in something before you set yourself on a specific career path, that way you can know what you can do before you take it as far as a career. She also says to get as much as you can out of what you’re doing, “it’s all about experiences.”