From the school fight song
to “You Are My Sunshine,” the National Anthem to “Singin’ in
the Rain,” the red clocks we pass on campus have a song for
any day. Sure, it’s nice background music for a walk to class, but
have you ever wondered just how these tunes are decided? We did, and
decided to seek out the people behind the clockwork.
Andrew Lowry, assistant director of building systems for the IU Physical Plant, explains that eight categories of songs – 100 songs total – are programmed into each of the four clocks around campus. Only one category may run in a clock at a time. For instance, if the “General” songs category is chosen for a certain time of year, the clock alternates between 38 songs.
Walking to class on an
overcast,
dreary day? If you’re lucky, the clock music will match your mood;
that is, if the category “Songs for a Cloudy or Windy Day” has been
programmed . Other categories associated with weather
include “Songs for a Sunny Day” and “Songs for a Rainy Day.”
Then there’s also the “Custom Selections,” or songs about IU,
“Christmas,” “Patriotic,” and the National Anthem song categories.
The clock company, Verdin, chose these categories, Lowry says.
If you notice the clocks’ tunes to be a little perkier lately, it’s because with the warmer weather and budding flowers comes a switch to the category of “Songs for a Sunny Day.” The song “Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows” is surely more of a pick-me-up than songs like “The Little Black Raincloud” that have been playing throughout winter.
All in all, the clocks seem to be a hit on campus.
“We get a lot of compliments
on them – on aesthetics, on the music itself,” Lowry says. “The
only complaints we get are that they’re too loud.”
Mia Williams, director of landscape architecture who helped design the clock locations, agrees.
“While the function of the
clock may be a little less significant in these days of cell phones," she wrote in an e-mail, "the fact that they chime and create an atmosphere of their own
is a great addition."
