Review: Duncan Student Center Playlist

Please don’t stop the music, Duncan Student Center. Such is what I thought as “Don’t Stop the Music” by Rihanna played throughout the building. Yet, with a quick turnaround that only Duncan Student Center is capable of, “You Found Me” by The Fray followed Rihanna’s 2007 smash hit because who doesn’t like to cry when completing their homework? 

Atmospheres matter to music — it would be criminal for a crowd to remain quiet and motionless at a live concert. This is a Duncan Student Center playlist review, but it’s impossible to write it without addressing the important role of one’s surrounding environment when listening to music.

I cannot go on further without critiquing Duncan’s poor audio level. It’s nearly impossible to hear the playlist when the student center is full of loud voices in conversation. The only opportunity to properly hear the Duncan Student Center playlist is at night when the entire student body has cleared the building. If somebody increased the audio a smidge, it would make a big difference. 

Some praise for the atmosphere: Depending on your seat position, the time of day and whether somebody who is musically inclined has chosen to frequent the building, you may be subject to an interesting duet between the grand piano near Hagerty Family Cafe and the playlist. The two juxtapose each other in the best way possible. I never expected to hear “The Way I Are” by Timbaland and the melodic sounds of piano keys together.

It might depend on the day one visits the Duncan Student Center, but the playlist gravitates toward the pop 2000s hits that we knew and loved during those better days of music. It’s difficult not to feel the growing sense of nostalgia for songs that played on the radio when your mother or father drove you to middle school. It’s difficult not to feel the passage of time when you’re working on your second English paper due the same week, instead of enjoying that drive to your sixth grade classes. Yet the playlist balances these feelings well by going from 0 to 100, playing “Yeah!” by Usher then “Numb” by Linkin Park right after “Best I Ever Had” by Drake then “Apologize” by Timbaland. It mirrors the Notre Dame experience well — constantly vacillating between some of the highest and lowest points in your life on this wonderful campus.

Even if your dorm is far from Duncan Student Center, you should make the trek at least one weeknight when you have the brilliant opportunity to hear the speaker. You won’t regret it. Or maybe you will.