In Studio B of Osceola Recording Studio, Jason Houghton records several minutes of an original song he helped write. After standing alone in the recording booth, he waits in anticipation of hearing the song played back. When the first note is played, Houghton scrunches his face tight, hearing the song he just recorded. He shakes his head in mild disgust as though he has made a terrible vocal error. Houghton, a junior in public relations, is not a professional musician, and he does not record in a studio frequently. He is one of 30 students in the COM 498 Music Management class.

Rusty Harmon, the instructor and founder of the special topics class, said he decided to start it several years ago to help students interested in the professional music industry.

“Very few people went to school to be in the music business,” Harmon said. “We wanted to create an opportunity for students to discover the vast array of professional opportunities in the industry.”

As a graduate in mass communication from N.C. State, Harmon eventually came to be the manager for the band Hootie & the Blowfish.

“I was part of something very special,” Harmon said. “The band still holds the record for most record sales from a debut record, 16 million copies and counting.”

A typical music management class involves the discussion and overview of different jobs that pertain to music management and the music industry. This includes producers, engineers, distribution and publicity, among others.

“This semester’s class is pretty special because we had a guest artist (Soni from Hootie & the Blowfish) come in and write a song with the class,” Harmon said.

Lauren Kontos, a senior in communication media, decided to take COM 498 because it looked like an interesting class and fit her elective requirement.

“Most others in the class have musical background and talent. I’ve never done anything like it, and I want to broaden my horizons just in case I want to work in the music industry,” Kontos said.

“I took the Music Management class as soon as I heard about it,” Houghton said. “I have always had an interest in the business side of the music industry.”

The trip to Osceola Recording Studio in downtown Raleigh allowed the students to record the song they wrote the previous week. The studio looked like what one would think. Walking down the hall from the entrance, there were large, framed black and white photographs of famous singers such as Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and other rock icons.

There is sparse overhead lighting and neon lights that glow from the control monitors in the studio. There are many knobs and buttons, of which most people would not know what to do with. A small sound-proof room was adjacent to the control room and held one large recording microphone, a jumble of cables, a music stand and other miscellaneous equipment. There was a giant window that separated the control room from the recording room. Velvet Revolver, Gnarls Barkley and Lynyrd Skynyrd had all been in that same studio.

During the time the class was in the studio, they were able to hear about the job and function of a music producer. Osceola co-owner and former producer for Hootie & the Blowfish, Dick Hodgin, said the job of the producer is to get where the artist cannot go himself and create the final vision of the music.

“There is a bond between the producer and the artist that has to take place,” Hodgin continued.

He discussed climbing up the industry ladder to give the students an account of what may be to come for them. At the age of 14, he started his first band, and at the age of 17, developed an “overwhelming grasp of knowledge that I just sucked,” he admitted. Working the sound for other bands led him to help them in the studio. Learning how to record ultimately led to him co-owning Osceola Recording Studio.

After Hodgin conveyed his personal experience in music management, he allowed the students to pile into two separate studio rooms to watch and listen to two of their classmates record the song.

Before recording, Hodgin created four separate tracks to record each aspect of the song separately, including the lead vocals, lead guitar, backup vocals and backup guitar parts.

Joseph Wells, a senior in communication, sang lead vocals for the song and played solo and backup guitar parts. Jason Houghton sang backup for Joseph and played lead guitar. While the boys seemed nervous to perform in front of their classmates, the song was recorded in a matter of minutes. For the next hour, Hodgin mixed the parts together to form the final copy of the song. The students watched him cut out what was repeated or not needed and enhance the individual parts to match.

“This was my first time recording in a studio, so it was certainly a new and challenging experience,” Houghton said. “I had no idea what to expect going in, and I was admittedly a bit nervous to perform in front of so many people.”

Houghton said having encouraging classmates enabled him to relax during the process.

“One semester I’d like to actually release a record from an artist and the class would help manage the release and everything that is involved with setting up a record,” Harmon said.

The COM 498 class currently meets Wednesday nights from 6 to 8:45 p.m., usually in Winston Hall.