With tracks ranging from jazz to classical to pop to '80s throwbacks, who controls the music in the Brodhead Center?
According to Student Affairs Operations Supervisor Garrett Grimshaw, the answer is simpler than students may expect. Rather than a mastermind behind the scenes creating specifically curated playlists, songs come straight from the radio.
“Panera [Bread] controls the downstairs level and then whoever's running The Commons controls the second and third floor,” Grimshaw explained. “And there’s [a radio] in Krafthouse that they control.”
Grimshaw said that he believes The Commons uses “some kind of classical station” and that the downstairs areas use SiriusXM.
“We've used [SiriusXM] in the past and we still will use it, but I think right now we’re focusing on internet radio,” Grimshaw said in reference to the main floor of the Brodhead Center, where he works.
Sophomore Ben Armentrout wrote in an email that he appreciates the musical differences between the floors.
“I really enjoy when they play jazz sometimes mid-late afternoon,” Armentrout wrote, referring to the main and top floors. “Also, the pop music outside [Au Bon Pain] was kinda kitschy, and it seems like Panera has moved in a better direction.”
Other students are less impressed, or are simply confused, by the music.
“In [the Brodhead Center], I typically hear French or classical music in the women’s bathroom, but some guys told me they hear German in theirs … kinda weird,” sophomore Emma Evans-Nolet wrote in an email.
Junior Hannah Stone regularly studies by JB’s Roasts & Chops section in the Brodhead Center and has noticed a frequent repetition of tunes throughout the day.
“I’ll realize that I know all the songs that are playing, and then I’ll realize I’m humming along to the same song that already played around an hour ago,” Stone said. “So I feel like they play the same 10 songs over and over and over, specifically Olivia Rodrigo, the Jonas Brothers, Billie Eilish.”
Sophomore Eavan Murray “personally [doesn’t] like” the “hyper-pop, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo, SiriusXM core” of the Brodhead Center’s music choices.
“I like the ‘80s style music when I’m doing work that I don’t really need to focus on, but otherwise, I find it distracting,” Murray said.
Similarly to how different vendors control the radio station of their respective floors, each location also has control over the volume.
When asked about the volume of the music, Grimshaw responded that “there’s no rhyme or reason on the volume. If it’s too loud, I mean, that’s all subjective.”
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Madeleine Berger is a Trinity senior and an editor at large of The Chronicle's 119th volume.