Soundtrack of the Seniors: Senior Brennan Montalbano aims to make a playlist featuring song suggestions from every member of the senior class

With every Snapchat and iMessage notification that lights up his phone screen, senior Brennan Montalbano really only cares about one — Google Forms: “you received a new response to your form.” It means someone’s just submitted a song request to add to his “Legendary Senior Playlist.” And that he’s one step closer to curating a playlist featuring a song from every member of the senior class. 

The diverse Spotify playlist featuring songs ranging from “My Eyes Adore You” by Frankie Valli to “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)” by Big & Rich is Brennan’s idea of a senior class gift-turned-passion project, and has also become an outlet for his own graphic design and photography hobbies through advertisement posters. 

Brennan always knew he wanted to create some sort of memento for his graduating class. A plaque or bench in dedication just wasn’t enough, plus a playlist is something every senior will be able to add to their Spotify library and listen to for years to come, according to Brennan.

“It’s a learning experience, but it’s also for all seniors,” Brennan said. “Just something to celebrate and look back on because I feel like when we’re off to college, we’re gonna be like, ‘Oh thank God we’re out of high school,’ but it’s one of those nostalgic things to really remember. Think of it as a movie playlist for nostalgia.”

Whether you’ve heard about it from Brennan himself or you’ve seen the QR code posters up around the halls, senior Brennan Montelbano wants anyone and everyone to know all about The Legendary Playlist. At first, it was simply word of mouth — bringing it up in every conversation he could, adding some of his own favorite songs and posting the Google Form link to his Instagram story. 

But in order to get the entire grade on board, he knew he needed to spread the word wider than his own social circle. So with his background in Adobe InDesign and Photoshop, and the help of classmates in his graphic design class, he turned it into an advertisement project: designing and purchasing a quarter page ad in the Harbinger print edition, pumping out posters to hang in the art hallway and fourth and fifth floor stairwell and planning photoshoots with his classmates to be featured in future posters. 

“I’m really trying to expand how [I could] advertise this,” Brennan said. “To both appeal to a younger audience, but also make it so people are like “Oh, what’s that bright thing over there? Oh yeah, it’s that,’ and then they’ll actually do it.”

Pulling inspiration from Pinterest and a modernist art style, Brennan strategically pieces each poster together, often simplistic with bold, eye-catching letters and a posing classmate as the focal point.

“This whole playlist thing is getting to talk with students I haven’t talked with in a while,” Brennan said. “And an unexpected plus of this is seeing people’s music tastes, what they really listen to.  You could expect someone to listen to the Foo Fighters, but they actually listen to hyperpop or they listen to K-pop, and you just wouldn’t know it until they tell you about it, which is kind of what I want to accomplish with the playlist.”

But Brennan’s just getting started, with around 46 contributors to the playlist as of last week. And while he knows his ultimate goal of getting the entire grade to add their one song might be a bit lofty, he’d be happy with even 300 songs. 

Brennan’s keeping the playlist private for now, partly to avoid any inappropriate or repeated song additions, but mainly to have a grand reveal a few days before graduation. Until then, seniors can submit their song submissions through Brennan’s Google Form.