By Aleksandra Bursac
As students drag themselves back to school Monday, their energy levels drop. In order to prevent sour faces from crowding the halls, Student Council has initiated a new Lane custom. An upbeat song is played every morning between 7:45 and 7:50.
Student Council Sergeant at Arms, David Nunez, Div. 454, has been playing the songs for the last few weeks.
“Recently students haven’t been turning in music so I figured I would bring my own,” Nunez said.
Student Council used to play songs only on Mondays. They felt that people coming back from weekends needed some motivation to go to school. Songs were also played on Fridays to anticipate the weekend. Then Student council began playing music everyday since they felt students needed a lift every day.
Students can submit songs to Mrs. House in Room 128. They must be on a CD-R, the only type of disk readable by the stereo in the main office which plays the morning music.
The requirements of the songs are as follows:
– The song has to be no longer than 3 minutes, some exceptions on exceeding this time would be about 20 seconds.
– The song may not contain any verbal language that is considered school inappropriate; clean versions only.
– Songs that are turned in should not contain any references to sex, drugs, or any other misconduct.
– If a CD is turned in, it should have a title of the track along with the lyrics, which will be revised by the Student Council and then decided whether it is accepted or not.
The Student Council hopes this will continue year round, but in order for that to happen people have to submit songs.
“We are asking people to submit songs because we have a limited taste on what to play. In addition, a limited music library. We can’t have the latest songs played unless we pay for the songs on iTunes, and that would be a burden if we had to do this almost every week since there are only 14 Student Council Officers,” Nunez said.
Even though the Student Council thinks playing songs is a good idea, students have mixed feelings.
“I think it’s entertaining, watching groups of people dancing down the halls and singing at the top of their lungs,” said Kate Zitek, Div. 254.
“I wish it wasn’t so loud,” said Emma Gonzalez, Div. 285. “But it’s a great way to get pumped in the morning.”
Students are not the only ones listening in.
“Some teachers love the songs. [They] even dance to them,” Nunez said. “I recall a couple of teachers dancing in the halls to the song Danza Kuduro by Don Omar.”
Not everyone is happy with the song choices.
“I really didn’t like the Eminem song [they played]. I don’t want to walk into school and hear about a guy beating up his girlfriend. Not exactly a positive way to start the school day,” said Patsy Chavez, Div. 251.
It’s not just the lyrics that can upset some people, the lack of variety in the choice of music makes some students feel left out.
“Anything by Cage the Elephant, The Who, The Kills, The Killers, Rise Against, The Beatles, Metallica, Silver Sun Pickups, The Pierces, The Cars, Chevelle, etc. would be good,” said Pioter Lesniak, Div. 574.
Though students have their differences, the Student Council will continue playing songs in the morning. Let the dancing begin.
