Each dining hall on Villanova’s campus has its own vibe, but nothing compares to the immediate rush of serotonin or sadness like walking into Pit and hearing its playlist for the day.
I enjoy listening to music during pretty much everything that I do. One can usually find me only a few inches from my speaker, playing some sort of music at any given time when I am in my room. Though I typically listen to many of the same playlists over and over again, I welcome new music recommendations.
I have found countless bangers simply from sitting in Pit and listening to what randomly comes on over the speakers. “Don’t Gotta Work It Out,” by Fitz and The Tantrums came to me one breakfast my freshman year, so I made sure to add it to my liked songs before it disappeared back into the abyss.
Similarly, I was graced with “She Don’t Know,” by Carrie Underwood during one lunch last year, and it became one of my most frequently listened to songs for the remainder of that week. Yes, one might hear anything from alt to country when eating a Pit meal, including many other genres in between.
My hands-down favorite playlist at Pit was a Sunday afternoon in early February of this year, where they played exclusively 50s music.
Listening to Frank Sinatra while eating a turkey sandwich from a red plastic basket was exactly what I needed that day.
As I thought, Villanovans have all sorts of varying opinions about the music choices of main campus’s largest dining hall.
“It’s a strange variety of genres at times, but that’s definitely part of the charm,” sophomore JP Tampe said.
“It’s so quirky,” junior Carter Smith said. “Kinda feels like it was put together by a kindergarten teacher.”
The question remains: Who is generating the mysterious, ever-changing Pit playlist?
The music is wildly altered day-by-day, from decade to genre to the emotions evoked among listeners. I have been in Pit for 80s jams followed by depressing folky guitar songs, early 2000s cheese rock and 90s grunge.
Though we may never find out exactly who is responsible for what we listen to, alum Sean Evans offers his thoughts on how we listen to it.
“The volume control is completely exposed on the wall, more people need to use it,” Evans said.
See, I disagree with Evans on this. One evening, I was peacefully eating my dinner when a Taylor Swift song came on.
After mere moments, someone sprang from their seat and ran over to the volume dial, cranking it up so loud that no one could even hear themselves think. Just because the volume is able to be controlled by anyone does not mean that anyone should be controlling it. Just saying.
As I mentioned before, there are many other options for dining on Villanova’s campus besides Pit. For lunch, I usually go to Cova. After years of observation, I have actually discovered that the music playing in Cova is the same music that plays in Pit simultaneously.
So, when Cova is open, one can have the same musical experience without going down a flight of stairs.
And then, of course, there is Spit. Spit notoriously does not play music at all. Some argue that it should, as adding music to a dining experience improves the ambience.
However, others strongly suggest that Spit stay music-less. Being that I never lived on South campus and thus never had Spit as my home dining hall, I cannot weigh in on this issue.
Objectively, I would always choose to listen to music since I love music, but I also understand that Spit has its own vibe, separate from the other dining halls, that should be preserved.
All in all, being a music-lover, I greatly enjoy the added excitement that a mysterious Pit playlist brings to my meal. Kudos to whomever has put those lists together; as long as it stays at an acceptable volume, I support.
