Can a dance party be successful without any music playing aloud? The “silent disco” model involves attendees listening to music on wireless headphones instead of a speaker system. The headphones offer three stations, indicated by color; dancers choose between three songs on the red, blue or green station. To an outside observer, a headphone disco may at first appear to be a silent, somewhat awkward affair. 

Yet the Schneider Board of Governor’s (SBOG) annual Headphone Disco was anything but silent. The event kicked off the start of the school year, boasting a packed dance floor filled with cheers and squeals. After a week of adding, dropping, and desperately waitlisting classes, Wellesley students danced the stress away. 

Mallika Sunder ’27, an event attendee, explained her initial reaction, “So I walk in … Immediately it’s lit.” She described a fun experience with friends and “a good mix of popular music from a lot of different genres. You know, they had some dance music they played, like Troye Sivan, Charli XCX.” 

The DJ playing those songs, specifically “Rush” by Troye Sivan and “1999” by Charli XCX and Troye Sivan, was Sophia Wu ’27. Wu, a member of SBOG and music lover, contributed to the red channel which hosted student DJs. Similarly, the blue and green stations each had a DJ of their own. The DJs spent the night spinning songs carefully curated to entice and hype up the crowd. 

The abundance of DJs provided opportunities for listeners to choose music according to their taste, but also come together in moments of musical unity. Sunder noted “when you want to just do your own thing, you can.” Sometimes, the dance floor would be illuminated in a variety of colors. But other times, Wu observed, “There were definitely quite a few instances where it was just a sea of red. And people singing the same lyrics or doing the same dance moves.”  A memorable instance was when Wu played “HOT TO GO!” by Chappell Roan. The field became a chorus of red headphones and arms spelling out the viral choreography. 

SBOG and the DJs spent ample time preparing for the event’s many logistics. Sunder highlighted the event’s other features, like pizza and pictures with the famous SBOG Frog. Additionally, the music choices required careful consideration.

 “I like to think of it as a process,” Wu said about crafting the night’s playlist. “Before I actually started making the playlist, I put something out on social media. I was like, What kind of songs are you guys looking for? Like, what’s the vibe, what do you want to hear? And I got a lot of good feedback back, and I tried to go off of that.” 

Wu and SBOG’s hard work paid off, leading to a well-attended, upbeat event. Headphone Disco gave Wellesley students a chance to show off their skills in planning events and DJing music. The night was filled with joyful, dancing students. 

“Music is something that just has the ability to connect people and to be able to see that on campus during events — it‘s really special,” Wu said. 

Image Credit: Sophia Wu

Contact the editor(s) responsible for this story: Diya Khanna and Phoebe Rebhorn