Uni’s annual Winter Formal was held at the Illini Union on January 27. It was planned by the sophomore class.
In years past, Winter Formal has been packed with groups of students hanging out with friends or dancing to music.
However, the music at this year’s Winter Formal has raised questions among students about the curation of Uni dance playlists — the sequence of songs played at the dance.
“Winter Formal was so bad. They were playing two different playlists and skipping songs for some reason … no one was hyped,” junior Jacque Butts laughs.
“The speakers were a big issue,” says sophomore Emmie Vargas. “I think another issue was the playlist.”
Sabrina Lu, sophomore Student Council secretary, clarified what happened at Winter Formal: there were many different playlists for the dance with the same name, and the wrong one ended up getting played. While trying to switch the playlist, sophomore Student Council was also trying to get the music to play over external speakers, not the internal sound system.
“It was kind of messy,” Lu says.
Lu explains that while planning the dance, sophomore Student Council requested music at the Union to be played over external speakers “that were really loud.”
However, Lu says the Union “changed the policy this year to where if you say you want speakers, they just assume you mean the sound system. And they didn’t tell [Student Council] about that change.”
As a result, Winter Formal featured the wrong playlist played over the Union’s default sound system.
“The music wasn’t really loud and the order of the songs wasn’t good,” says sophomore Chizara Onyemere.
Executive Student Council Secretary Noreen Adoni says that a lot of thought goes into making dance playlists.
“When you make a playlist, you think of the vibe of the dance. You try not to have a bunch of the same songs and stagger the types of songs,” Adoni says. “A lot of it is thinking of what people usually like hearing at dances, compiling those songs [and] … coming up with the right order.”
In a January 22 poll uploaded to the Gargoyle’s Instagram, students were asked what songs they believe are must-haves on all Uni dance playlists. The answers ranged from “DJ Got Us Falling In Love” by Usher and “Low” by Flo Rida and T. Pain, to “Super Bass” by Nicki Minaj and “Dancing Queen” by ABBA.
Adoni agrees and adds other songs she usually includes on playlists: “Party in the USA ” by Miley Cyrus, “Lover” by Taylor Swift, and “Come Get Her” by Rae Sremmurd.
Adoni says that it’s important to ensure songs on Uni dance playlists aren’t explicit. “Whenever I’ve made a playlist, the [class] sponsors usually reinforce the fact that the song should be clean … If there’s not a clean version, we usually can’t have it on there.”
She says specific rules around what can and can’t be played vary by class sponsor.
“For sophomore year, the teachers really emphasized that the song should be clean,” Adoni says.
Student Council class sponsors have varying opinions of dance playlists.
Senior Class Sponsor and Uni Social Studies Teacher Ben Leff says that since Uni dances aren’t necessarily student-organized, private events, students have a responsibility to ensure inappropriate or offensive music doesn’t get played.
“Running the school, you don’t want any student or student’s family saying that, ‘My child listened to something or had people saying something that was wholly inappropriate and should never be in a school environment,’” Leff adds.
He emphasizes the importance of creating an environment where students feel free to go to Uni dances “without listening to songs they consider offensive or insulting to their identity.”
Leff describes the process of generating a playlist for Uni dances: having students compile a list of songs they think should be played, and then ensuring those songs aren’t explicit. He notes “while there are certain songs where the swear words are muted, the chorus is still describing something that’s explicit.”
“It’s the job of the school to police that. Holding the line, a little bit, I think it’s appropriate.”
Students have varying opinions on this.
“I mean, I get why it’s necessary,” says Butts. “But also, it’s a dance. People have fun, you know?”
However, Sophomore Class Sponsor and Uni Latin Teacher Brian Lauthen says “I’m assuming students are in charge of choosing clean songs.”
“Usually, our four students who are our sophomore [class representatives] are in charge of that. They have the playlist on their computer or something, and that’s the way we’ve always done it,” he says.
Lauthen says he doesn’t listen to the playlist before the event.
As for the music at Winter Formal, Lu says, “It was mostly miscommunication with the Union. It wasn’t really anyone’s fault.”
The next Uni dance is Spring Fling, organized by the freshman class and usually held in mid-April.
