For everyone involved, Homecoming season is a marvelous time. Spirit week motivates students to dress up and show their school spirit; the pep assembly excites students for what’s to come in the long-awaited weekend; and most of all, the extravagant dance known as Homecoming rounds out the week.

One thing that is essential to the Homecoming experience, other than the clothes and memories made, is the music choice. It may not seem like a significant part of the Homecoming culture, but it can shift the atmosphere of the dance in its entirety.

On Friday, October 14, AHS Student Council will host the annual Homecoming pep assembly in the main gym. What many students and faculty may not know is that an enormous amount of preparation goes into making the pep assembly both fun and memorable.

“When we plan the pep assembly music, the songs we pick depend on our plans for that assembly. This year, for the assembly we have wristbands for all the students that can light up different colors, so we have picked songs to play that contain color lyrics- examples include “Yellow” by Coldplay, “Greenlight” by Pitbull, and “Little Red Corvette” by Prince,” said Student Council member Allie Ziniti.  “So when a certain song is on, we will have the wristbands light up that color. If we play songs while games are being played, we try to pick intense or fun songs that hype up the gym because the games get everyone energetic. As far as guidelines go, the songs have to be school appropriate so we listen to them all before we pick them to make sure they are clean.”

One of the best ways Student Council involves students is by allowing student singers and performers to show their talents at the pep assembly.

“When we pick performers for the pep assembly, we brainstorm the people in our school who we know sing or perform, and reach out asking if they would like to perform at the assembly. Students sometimes have their own ideas of what they want to sing, and the song must be approved,” said Ziniti.

Saturday, October 15 marks one of the most anticipated events of first semester- the Homecoming Dance. Interestingly enough, Ziniti shows that Student Council is not too involved in what is played at the dance.

“We have a DJ named Paul Adams who has a list of music already prepared for the dance. So when we plan the music, we are suggesting songs to our DJ that are based on what is currently played on the radio. We pick popular songs that everyone will know/recognize so that students can enjoy them at the dance. Not all of our suggestions make it on the final list.”

Even though Student Council does not get final say on what is played at the dance, they always attempt to outdo what they have done the year before.

“Music is important to the planning of Homecoming so that the dance is fun; however, the music is not relevant to the theme. Since we have a DJ with a list of music made for us, we have no guarantee that what we suggest gets picked. However, with decorations and spirit days, all of that is done ourselves, so we work really hard to brainstorm ideas for decorations, order the materials we need, and then put it all together to display at the dance.”

Time, work, and dedication go into providing a memorable week for students that will please many and will look back with reminisce. The music choices are important to planning the theme but are not always under the control of Student Council. That being said, Student Council takes the music choices at these events seriously and hope for a great pep assembly and Homecoming dance on October 14 and 15.