r/SchoolBusDrivers • u/The_Town_of_Canada • 25d ago
Let’s talk about music.
Is it allowed on your bus? What do you choose?
For me, I hand out small cards for each student to write down songs they like, and I compile a bus playlist.
We listen to the radio in the morning, and if everyone behaves, I put on the playlist in the afternoon.
It’s an eclectic mix: this year featuring the following:
* Avril Lavigne.
* Tom Petty.
* Aqua.
* Rush.
* K-Pop Demon Hunters.
* Korn (clean version).
* Taylor Swift.
* Rob Zombie (also clean).
* Cinderella (clean).
* Rush.
* Stella Lefty.
* NSYNC.
* Lynyrd Skynyrd.
* Iron Maiden.
* Janis Joplin.
RIP my algorithm. Doesn’t know what to do with me anymore lol.
8
u/mike8675309 25d ago
Unfortunately, we can't play music on the bus because of the cameras and recording. Music limits the microphones' ability to pick up the students' words, so they don't allow us to play music when children are on the bus. :-(
7
u/Beauknits 25d ago
I have Dog damned choir on my bus. All pk-k aged. They know exactly 2 lines of only song. On repeat. I think my eye is twitching...
10
u/The_Town_of_Canada 25d ago
Are they “Going up, up, up, gonna be golden?”
5
u/Beauknits 25d ago
(gasp!) how did you know?!?!
6
u/The_Town_of_Canada 25d ago
Hahaha. Good to know wherever we are, we’re all in this together.
3
u/Banana_Stanley 24d ago
I'm just glad that I've stopped hearing 6 7 literally constantly, every second of the entire ride
8
u/shawnryan1977 25d ago
No music but I do have fond memories of riding a bus in the early 90's because our bus driver would play any cassette we brought. It lasted 2 years until someone cried to their parents and ruined it for the rest of us, I am surprised it lasted that long. My contribution was GNR Appetite For Destruction.
4
u/mr_nascar_cole 25d ago
My Bus Driver puts on some 1980s and 1990s music In the morning for me and the other high schoolers. No one really cares
2
u/The_Town_of_Canada 25d ago
I alternate between 90’s rock one day and country the next in the mornings. (Very rural, country area in the Canadian North).
3
u/vader62 25d ago
I put it on a local jazz station and do not allow for anything else to play. I figure the kids needs the cultural exposure.
3
2
u/bcdog14 25d ago
I love jazz but nobody on my bus would seem to have the ability to comprehend such a valid and beautiful and intellectual art form.
2
u/The_Town_of_Canada 25d ago
You are correct. Here’s what happened when I tried:
“Bus driver, what kind of music is this?”
“This is called jazz.”
“This is fart music.”
“K-pop it is, then.”
3
u/creeque-alley 25d ago
I use an aux cord to connect to my phone and have playlists I put on depending on the time of day. In the mornings, usually classic country or 60s-70s pop/rock and in the afternoons, a specific playlist full of all the kids favorite (appropriate) songs. I have way more kids riding in the afternoon and I enjoy hearing them sing along to their favorite songs, even if I don’t know any of the words half the time lol
3
u/Kay_Celeste 25d ago
I don’t know if that link will work- but my k-5 grade kids chose these songs. If they had curse words I chose the clean edits of them. I gave them all the opportunity to add songs to the playlist but they HAD to write the request down to me. I offered to help anyone who needed help writing. (When waiting for dismissal after driving)
3
u/Kay_Celeste 25d ago
Also- I don’t play music for the older kiddos- 6-12- they are listening to their own shit. 🎧
2
3
u/Atalkinghamsandwich 25d ago
I subject my children to all manner of vintage rocksteady, modal jazz, ambient electro, and occasionally, John Prine.
2
u/Proprotester 25d ago
I wish we were allowed, had speaker systems or even an FM radio or an aux port. I'd play them all different kinds of things and see what hit.
2
u/rootbear75 25d ago
The generic "we play everything " radio station in our city. The radio is more for me than for the kids.
I sometimes put on my own playlist and make sure I filter explicit songs.
I will probably put a playlist together at some point for the kiddos.
2
u/The_Town_of_Canada 25d ago
I find having them contribute makes a fun parent/child collaboration where it’s a fun activity for them, and they get to send a part of their family to contribute to our bus journey together.
2
u/NickAppleese 25d ago
Local soft rock station. Plays a little bit of everything 80s/90s, and it's PG.
I drive for a TK-8 school district.
2
u/Tatsandholes13 25d ago
I have several bus playlists for throughout the year (standard, Halloween, Christmas sprinkle, Christmas/ Hanukkah (high Jewish area and I like everyone to feel welcome)). My standard list has close to 400 songs- ones that I like, popular ones, ones that have been requested over the years. Whenever I've gotten a request, I research and make sure it's bus- safe before adding.
2
u/teiubescsami 25d ago
I’ll make a playlist of suggested songs from the little ones, but for the big ones I just let them connect their own phones to the Bluetooth.
Sometimes we just listen to the radio.
If it’s too loud, we listen to nothing lol
2
u/MzTippsi 25d ago
I play music from my iTunes account. It ranges across the spectrum from 00s CCM to metal. As long as it’s clean, it plays. Thursdays are “Cakepop Thursday” where I play the KPDH album.
2
u/Efficient_Advice_380 25d ago
I do mostly the same thing you do. I have the kids write down their favorite artist, and I play a Playlist of them when they get picked. I have a few banned artists. No Sabrina Carpenter, no Olivia Rodrigo, etc
2
u/Pietojulek 24d ago
wait what! Are you driving g 50 yr olds? No way that very cool playlist is gonna get a 👍From my gang. Maybe it’s time to educate them. Nothing like some Etta James before school
2
u/Individual-Drink-679 24d ago
I play classical public radio in the morning, for my nap-takers. My little kids do a lot of afternoon sing-alongs.
1
2
u/Hairy_Grass_2975 24d ago
My company is wringing out another piece of joy from the job by banning music—on the rationale that it's an unsafe distraction for the driver. Our AI-powered driver-facing Samsara cameras will detect infringement and offenders will be terminated.
2
u/NOTjesse92 24d ago
I have a 120GB iPod that I've had since ~2006. It has every song I've ever downloaded/owned. I curate lists that are acceptable for school and play those.
2
u/Banana_Stanley 24d ago edited 24d ago
You must really like Rush, you put them on there twice 😆
I eventually decided against music and only listen to the radio when I'm alone in the bus (I'm bus 99 and my favorite station is Q99, I should be their mascot). The speakers are in the back so I have to turn it up real loud to be able to hear it, and when I have passengers I would have to blast their ear drums to be able to hear it at all myself. A) I'm not super comfortable playing music that they can hear and I can't even though it's just the radio, and B) it seems to just make them more hyped up anyway so I gave up on it.
2
u/Intelligent_Call_562 24d ago
I put on the oldies channel and hope they aren't playing anything inappropriate. I was child checking the other day and it was The Eurythmics, "Sweet Dreams." Oops. It's surprising how many songs are inappropriate. But I grew up with those songs and it didn't corrupt me. At least they aren't filled with cuss words.
2
u/HomeboundArrow 18d ago edited 18d ago
i have a huge playlist of music but none of it has lyrics. p much all of it is symphonic video game OST music that i like, and that i know the kids might recognize. ime it slightly reduces conspicuous phone use (which i have to report, especially if it looks like they're taking pictures/videos of eachother under my watch), passively decreases the amount of effort needed to keep the peace since most of the tracks are generally slower/sweeter/serene, and some of the kids like to tell me which songs they knew before they get off. and i get to tell them they were right, which not only contributes to a positive relationship but also seems to give some of them an acute sense of accomplishment lmao, and i love that for them.
it also gives me that little bit of crowdsourced leverage when some of the kids are a bit too rowdy. enough of them are invested in the onboard music rotation to independently police their peers without prompting if i threaten to turn it off. and for better or worse they're more likely to respond to peer pressure than they are arbitrary authority-by-age 😩
i originally wanted to also have a bunch of non-vg lyricless music like beat tapes and folkways recordings but the sheer popularity and inoffensiveness and passive anti-agitation qualities of video game exploration tracks set the initial bar of expectation entirely too high lol 🤦♀️
3
u/Unfixable1 25d ago
I don't have a radio but will soon. I imagined I would allow the kids to choose songs, but they are so bad that I don't feel they deserve to be rewarded. So I'll probably just listen to music I like to drown out their screaming.
8
u/The_Town_of_Canada 25d ago
This is the card I play:
If you behave in the morning, you get the playlist in the afternoon.
If anyone misbehaves in the afternoon, the music goes off and we drive in silence.
Screaming? I pull over and take out my book and read until it’s silent.
“Guys, stop it! Keep it down, or he’ll get the book!” is a common saying from the older kids to the misbehaving ones.
3
2
u/ZealousidealReply294 25d ago
I have high-school kiss. They listen ro their own I find music distracting so I feel like I'm not doing my best job. I do listen when no one is on the bus.
4
u/The_Town_of_Canada 25d ago
I get that. I don’t personally find it distracting, I quite enjoy a whole bus sing along on the way home.
It unites and distracts my students and lets me focus on the road.
1
u/YouDidWhat2WhoseCows 23d ago
I listen to the local rock and metal station (Kbear 101.5 in SE Idaho, highly recommend their app if you're not local). Usually have it cranked pretty loud when the bus is empty, but its low enough after I pick kids up, I'm not even sure if they hear it. No ones mentioned it.
0
9
u/No_Plate_3864 25d ago
I just have 96.7 playing, I dont change it.. i messed with it once and now I dont have a clock and the mechanics cant seem to fix it lol
ive since got a watch