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Tuesday • March 25, 1 997
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Students say CD clubs turn out to be anything but a bargain
CAM
By Daphne Phillips
The Battalion
l J" ore music. Twelve free compact
yt discs for the price of one. Big
o A. discounts. Music clubs reel CD-
fazed college students in like fish ask-
gforthe hook, line and sinker.
With the first big package of free CDs
minding too good to be true, students
now they are in for a long haul.
Kimberly Campbell, a senior microbi-
)gy major, was a member of a CD club
[two years.
“It looks like a good deal,” Campbell
id. 'But when you sit down and do the
ath, it’s not.”
Campbell ended her music club
By Stephen Llano
The Battalion
D avid Bowie’s newest al
bum, Earthling, sounds as
if the inhabitants of Earth
re the last thing on his mind
lenhe composed it.
Released soon after the rock-
well-publicized 50th birth-
ybash, this album easily
uld have been a boring tour
out
agreement after receiving a “selection of
the month” she did not want. She was
gone for three months during the sum
mer when her mail backed up. Campbell
said she did not send her monthly re
sponse cards in on time and she wound
up with a CD she did not like.
“With all the mail they’re constantly
sending me, I’m probably responsible for
a rain forest,” Campbell said.
Michelle Odajima, a sophomore bio
chemistry and chemistry major, said she
also was stuck with a selection of the
month CD she did not like because she
forgot to mail in the response card. Oda
jima said the selection of the month is
good from the company’s standpoint
but bad from the buyer’s.
“I think I had lawyers hassling me be
cause I would never pay
for this Bon Jovi CD,” Oda
jima said. “I didn’t want to
pay for it, not only be
cause I didn’t want the CD,
but I got tired of them
bugging me.”
Odajima said she quit
because the only thing she
liked about her club was
the 12 free CDs.
“The regular club prices
were around $15,” Odajima
said. “You can go to Best
Buy, pick out any CD from
all kinds of music and buy it for $10.”
Regular club prices for CDs usually
“It looks like a
good deal, but
when you sit down
and do the math,
it’s not.”
Kimberly Campbell
Senior microbiology
major
run from $12.98 to $16.98, and the clubs
state that shipping and
handling charges and
sales tax are additional.
Students may find used
CD stores cheaper, consid
ering all the money spent.
Students also may find
a club’s selection of music
lacking in variety. The
type of music one checks
in the membership agree
ment is the kind of music
catalog a club often
sends. This can be a disadvantage if one
listens to different kinds of music.
Kristen Miller, a sophomore agricul-,
tural systems management major, said
her club’s selection does not suit every
one’s desires.
“The selection of the month is aimed
toward elementary school-age twits,”
Miller said.
Miller has been a member of her club
for four years and has attempted to quit,
but the club still sends her mail.
“It was the thing to do in high school,”
Miller said. “All these free CDs were a
good way to build up your CD collection.
But it’s really annoying that they’re con
sistently sending you things.”
See CD Club, Page 4
b all earthlings: David Bowie's newest album orbits Planet Shallow
Virgin
Records
★★ (out of five)
of a comfortable musical style.
Not many artists are in an ex
perimental mood at his age, but
Bowie still seems to show en
thusiasm and excitement about
the creative process.
“It’s extraordinarily exciting
for me because I honestly don’t
know what’s going to happen,”
Bowie said in an interview avail
able on his Web site http://www.
davidbowie.com). “In a wa,y I’m
taking quite a chance. I really
feel that if I had to lay back on
what I’ve done before, I’d much
prefer to stop. While I’m still
wildly excited about what I do as
a musician, then that’s the
course that I choose to take.”
The new album may be exciting
for Bowie, but at first listen, there is
nothing truly memorable about
the album. The most exciting thing
about it is the fact that Bowie de
cided to rely primarily on comput
er-generated music, and not the
rock band that usually backs him.
But cool sounds do not a solid
album make. The songs are
plagued with empty lyrics that fail
to serve the critical listener’s need
for direction. Bowie’s experimental
intent, which in most cases would
be good, is fairly obvious. But this
time the experiment seems to lack
a real purpose.
“I mean, we wrote the album,
other than the two older songs
that we’re doing, we wrote the al
bum in something like nine-and-
a-half days,” Bowie said in the
same interview. “It was done in
credibly quickly. But that sort of
within itself was kind of the point
of the exercise, was to work really
quickly and write really fast and
just see what happened really,
more than anything else.”
See Bowie, Page 4
Running out of time
for your
housing search?
Rousing Fair ‘97
MSC First Floor
Thursday, March 27
10:00 AM - 2:30 PM
• Free Rent Drawing • New Survival Manuals Available • Fun Giveaways
• Over 50 apartment managers • Representing over 80 apartment complexes
• Mediation Information • Come see Alice and the White Rabbit
A
^Student
AggieHostel '97
Student Host Applications Now Available!
Application and
The Association of Former Students will present
AggieHostel '97 from June 15-June 21, 1997. The
Student Hosts are the link to the Texas A&M of
today for the Aggies of yesterday.
Information Sheet are
available at these
locations:
♦Student Activities
♦
♦MSC Student Programs
Office
♦
♦Clayton Williams Jr. Alumni
Center
♦
♦218 Beutel Health Center
Sponsored by:
Off Campus Student Services
w
Applications are due Friday, March 28, 1997
For more information contact Cynthia Hernandez at 845-0280.