Yes, I know this topic has been brought up before – because I searched for it, assuming I could not be the first one to wonder why O.A.R. has not been on Saturday Night Live yet. I’m starting a new thread because the last ones on the subject are full of other garbage. I have already tweeted to SNL and sent a message to them on Facebook requesting that they have the band on as their musical guest. But obviously, I am only one person, so it occurred to me to get other fans on board. I thought perhaps instead of just using this board to talk about our favorite songs and gripe when the band doesn’t play our personal favorites at every show that we personally attend, maybe we could use it as a force for good and start a campaign to get O.A.R. on SNL.
Well, I saw that the objections to this fall into three main categories:
1. SNL is lame: Well, like it or not, it seems to be a rite of passage for major bands. I guess I’m just old because I still watch it and think it’s (usually) pretty funny. It’s actually how I have discovered a lot of my favorite musicians. And why wouldn’t the band want to do it? It would be great exposure for them. And it would be a chance for us to give something back to the band after all the great music they’ve given us. And at the same time give something to the world by exposing a lot more people to this music. SNL may not be your cup of tea, but it still has a lot a viewers.
2. It won’t work: I disagree. I think it is almost inevitable that they will be on at some point, but why not try to accelerate that process? What harm could it do? After all, it was an on-line campaign that got Betty White on as the host. So it can work. I wonder how many other bands have fans who are as loyal and well-organized. I don’t know because I’ve never followed any other band. But the show has had a lot of lesser musicians on (meaning they have a good chance), as well as a lot of great ones, so they would be in good company.
3. It will be counterproductive: because it will annoy the SNL producers and turn them against the band. This just seems a little silly to me. Of course, people are lobbying SNL for their own favorites all the time. I’m sure they have people whose job it is to read through all these messages. It’s not as if we would be messaging Lorne Michaels directly. Maybe the intern doing this job will just hit the delete button a thousand times, but maybe, just maybe, they track these requests somewhere and will take notice. If they think it is too much, they can ask us to stop.
I don’t mean to imply that the band needs our help, but it only takes about 10 seconds to send a message on the SNL Facebook page and tweet to them on Twitter. And even if only a fraction of the fans do it, they would have to notice and I think persistence would pay off. They probably would not even realize if it were the same people over and over for a long period of time. And since they probably have their guests lined up for the year ahead of time, it could take a year or more to work. I would just keep bumping this thread periodically to remind people to do it and to catch people who are not checking the board every day. And we could all tweet our followers to write in and encourage Facebook friends to do the same. I’m not sure if there is any point in setting up a separate Facebook group, but I could post on the “others” section of the O.A.R. page to encourage people there to do it.
What do you all think? Okay, I’m ready for the onslaught. And I just want to point out that those of us who want to do it don’t need anyone’s permission, unless the band asks us not to do it. So you naysayers can say what you want, but anyone who wants to join me, let me know.
