Dartmouth has long served as an excellent testing ground for musicians on their way to global stardom, and Green Key weekend, with its guaranteed audience of 3,000 “spirited” students sprawled across Gold Coast Lawn, has hosted more than its share of them. In an era of fractured musical tastes, the spectacle of an entire student body gathering to hear a single act feels increasingly rare. While that shared experience often feels more special than the music itself, it certainly helps when there is a good lineup.
Over the century-plus history of Green Key, Dartmouth has been graced by some legendary performers, almost always before their commercial peaks. This booking strategy has been a winning strategy for the College so far, and the Programming Board should continue it by seeking out burgeoning groups rather than legacy artists far past their prime. It may look less appealing on a Green Key poster today, but down the road, it may prove to be a thing of legend.
To prove the existence of a “Dartmouth Effect” for performers who have made their way to Hanover over the years, let’s examine the most notable campus concerts.
The most famous — and perhaps only — rock band to come out of New Hampshire, Aerosmith, performed at the College twice in October 1971, the year they formed. Their first performance at Dartmouth was only the 47th time the band had ever played and was preceded by a set at the Lake Sunapee Yacht Club and a four-night residency at The Savage Beast nightclub in Brownsville, Vt. The band proved to have staying power and now boasts 25.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
A few years later, Bruce Springsteen played two sold-out shows at Thompson Arena, Dartmouth’s hockey venue, in October 1974. The Boss was originally slated to play a single show, but student demand far exceeded the 3,500-seat capacity, and he graciously added a second performance scheduled a mere 45 minutes after the first ended. Dartmouth students certainly left fawning over the young singer-songwriter, who would release his landmark album “Born to Run” less than a year later. Springsteen has 21.7 million monthly listeners on Spotify — not too shabby for an old-timer.
An obligatory mention must also go to homegrown folk hero — and Hanover High School graduate — Noah Kahan, who performed at the Collis Mainstage during Green Key in 2016, well before his mainstream breakout. The Vermont native has made quite a name for himself in the decade since. We can forgive him for not being this year’s headliner, as he is preparing to set off on a nearly sold-out world tour in support of his fourth studio album, “The Great Divide.” Kahan has 34 million monthly Spotify listeners, making him likely the most famous person to ever come out of the Upper Valley.
As it turns out, the “most popular” prize goes to The Chainsmokers, who, then a relatively unknown duo, performed at Gamma Delta Chi’s Green Key event in 2014. Their 50 million monthly streams place them at #64 among all artists on Spotify — a number highly unlikely to be surpassed by any future Green Key performers so long as the Programming Board continues to bring in artists well out of their prime.
This year’s headlining group, the Los Angeles-based alternative rock band Grouplove — which stands at 8.4 million monthly listeners — occupies a purgatory between legacy act and relevancy. They were formed in 2009 — making the band almost old enough to vote — but they can still be called “youthful” compared to many of the Green Key headliners in recent years, like the ’90s reggae star Shaggy, who performed in 2024. Grouplove will perform the one song that just about every Dartmouth student is guaranteed to know — 2011’s “Tongue Tied” — and after that, the excitement will wane.
These legacy acts may be reliable semi-crowd pleasers, but they are predictable and unimaginative. Next Green Key, the Programming Board should invest in a relatively unknown but promising band. It may be a greater risk than choosing an act like Grouplove, but the audience might actually have their expectations exceeded — rather than waiting the entire set for the band to play the one song people want to hear.
Opinion articles represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
