From dolphin noises to Radiohead on repeat, Rockbot seems to have it all. The mobile app, which enables Northwestern students to play music (among other sounds) at on-campus dining commons, has made background music a front-and-center topic of dinner conversation.
Students can use the free mobile app to influence music playing at all four on-campus dining halls, plus Lisa’s Cafe and the ground floor of Norris University Center.
“(In) Allison Hall, especially, it’s annoying because sometimes they’ll just play thunder noises or dolphin noises,” Weinberg junior Jenny Guo said. “I’d rather listen to a song while eating.”
Guo has enjoyed using Rockbot since her freshman year, frequently adding tracks by Kendrick Lamar, WILLOW and ABBA to the sound system’s mix.
She said she likes hearing her peers’ music tastes as well.
“It’s good to hear a little bit of what students want to play rather than just the curated playlist that the app has,” Guo said.
Even so, Rockbot has limits. Users can queue up three songs in a row before a cooldown period kicks in, and even the most enthusiastic maestros must resign themselves to the shuffle of others’ song suggestions or the dining hall’s default playlist.
Each dining hall also has a varying catalogue of music available for Rockbot fans to choose from. Norris and Sargent Dining Hall boast the widest selection of tunes.
Students’ picks are often placed into the queue of upcoming songs arbitrarily. If no one recommends a song on Rockbot, the music in the dining halls consists of one of the app’s default playlists on shuffle.
“Usually, the random shuffle goes from zero to 100 very quickly and it’s always centered around rock and very intense, energetic sounds,” Communication freshman Nora Barksdale said. “It just becomes the same old music playing over and over again.”
Despite the unpredictability of the default playlist shuffle, some students may feel hesitant to use Rockbot at the risk of being heckled online on Fizz or Instagram, where students often share their opinions on the music that their peers choose to play.
If they aren’t feeling brave enough to put their own music taste on display, users can also interact with the playlist by upvoting and downvoting the recommendations of other users and of Rockbot’s algorithm itself on the app. Upvoting a song can cause the app to play it sooner while downvoting it can cause a delay.
“It’s always a nice feeling when some random person upvotes a song that you put in,” said Communication sophomore Tallulah Sarig, who started using the Rockbot app regularly during her freshman year. “None of us know each other, but it’s a niche community of people who are banding together to upvote each other’s songs and downvote Rockbot’s bad recommendations. There’s an entire web of Rockbot etiquette.”
Some Rockbot users may not feel as inclined to play by these unspoken rules, though. This academic year, patrons of Allison Dining Hall have heard dolphin noises, thunder sounds and repetitive songs dominate the dining hall playlist at the behest of some mischievous users.
Some students wonder about a future beyond Rockbot’s seemingly aimless reordering and vulnerability to trolling.
Barksdale proposed students add their own songs to a custom playlist that would play in these common areas in place of Rockbot’s default music.
“If you’re letting students control the music, just let them control the music — all of it,” Barksdale said.
Sarig suggested Rockbot users meet and follow a similar structure as the Music Tasting Club to bond over their strong music tastes.
Yet one of Rockbot’s greatest draws lies in its ability to create natural conversations and musical memories.
“It makes it feel like you’re allowed to connect with the environment more,” Barksdale said. “Being away from home, college students want to connect with the environment any chance they get and this allows that to happen. The smallest thing can help to build a community here.”
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