The dining halls of SUNY Oswego aim to please, striving to provide quality menu choices to their customers. They also do their best to create a friendly and relaxing atmosphere by playing music through the speakers. When it comes to the music choice in the buildings, people are going to have different thoughts on what counts as “good.” Maybe some people are tired of the same old ‘80s hits on the classic rock station. Maybe those people are also wrong and should suck it up. Dad rock and new wave have re-entered the mainstream music sphere in part because of the power of “Stranger Things” so nobody should be complaining to begin with.
To the credit of Lakeside and Cooper dining halls in particular, a variety of stations are played over the speakers ranging from modern pop to hair metal. If students were given the opportunity to request songs or have complete control of the aux entirely, that might create unnecessary friction for the dining hall workers. Who, by the way, are largely made up of students as well. Managing whose turn it is to play a song would be an unnecessary extra task to oversee. Someone is in charge of it and they clearly rotate enough to where each worker gets a turn, but other times the aux is off and the ambience is just the sound of other people.
There is not much to be gained by allowing song requests or aux control but certainly much to lose. Everybody has different tastes, yet the lack of control is what maintains the peace in the dining halls. Going from Megan Thee Stallion to The Eagles does not exactly create a calm dining experience and would result in too much whiplash between vibes. Perhaps that is the state of some playlists out there, but it does not translate well outside of blasting it alone in your own vehicle. Some people simply put on headphones or earbuds or airpods and eat to whatever music they like, immediately making the student aux argument null and void. Some things are better left alone and this is one of them.
Perhaps hearing “Careless Whisper” by George Michael at approximately the same time every day is annoying to others, but it adds a sort of comfort to the space. Nobody is going to the dining halls expecting club music, save for if a special occasion is being put on. Cooper Dining Hall played Christmas music at the beginning of December, complete with matching wintery decor. Lakeside played some jazz for one of their Casino Night activities last year. Still, not usually club music.
Most people own bluetooth speakers and perform concerts in the showers anyways, or walk around with them booming when the weather is nice. If students want the aux, they should consider joining WNYO and learning how to operate in a studio. There are plenty of opportunities on campus where students can get involved and share their music taste and the radio station is a good place to start.
Photo by Josh Sorenson via Pexels
