This week, UCR hosted a silent disco. I didn’t even know what a silent disco was until last year. If there’s anyone else new to the concept, silent discos differ from other discos in that participants listen to music on headphones instead of a speaker. Other people cannot hear the music coming from your headphones, hence the name silent disco. You may be wondering, “why have a disco if there isn’t even music playing out loud?” Here are a couple of benefits of silent discos.
Silent discos give participants more of a say in what music they want to listen to. Often, there are multiple stations connected to headphones, so people can flip back and forth among stations. For instance, at UCR’s silent disco there were three stations: Latin music, 2000s-2010s pop throwbacks, and EDM type mashups. Headphone lights changed color depending on what station each person was listening to. Some songs had dances associated with them such as the “Cha Cha Slide”, so even though you cannot hear other people’s music, you are listening to the same song simultaneously. Also, many songs were childhood favorites that everyone still knew the lyrics to and sang together. Personally, I didn’t feel like headphones limited the fun and in-person interaction.
Silent discos are also environmentally friendly due to limiting noise pollution. People will be singing, but there isn’t music blasting from a speaker. Without having to worry about noise distracting others, silent discs enable people to party as long as they want.
Limiting noise level may also be beneficial to participants. Outside noises such as traffic are blocked out with noise canceling headphones. Rather than listening to constantly loud music, if participants are bothered by the volume, they can adjust the volume level of their headphones or take off their headphones for a bit.
From my experience, turning the volume down once in a while helped me hear others and be able to strike up conversations with new people. After attending UCR’s silent disco, I think the concept of these events is fun and creative, while also being environmentally friendlier than raves. I will definitely be going to UCR’s silent disco again next year!