A Vessel of Music - The Anteater Express

By: Emmanuel Jimenez 

The Anteater Express serves as a vessel through which as the rider is transported to their destination, they are also transported through the vehicle of music being played over the radio.

When not producing so much static, that it is impossible to discern any other sound, the Anteater Express plays music from time to time. Many may not be aware of this fact, as the typical occupant who sits on the bus receives music straight to their brain through wireless headphones, so it could be easy to dismiss the bus as simply what it is. Oh, but it is so, so much more than that.

The bus as we know it started as the ASUCI Express Shuttle to meet the growing demand for accessible transportation to and from campus. Currently, multiple routes connect campus hotspots such as the Henry Samueli School of Engineering, the Anteater Recreation Center, and the Watson Bridge that connects to the popular University Town Center shopping plaza. 

Once the shuttle made the switch to all-electric buses, it became the Anteater Express that we know today: the one without consistent quality sound coming out of the speakers. Seriously, it’s quite a hit or miss with some of them, and pretty much a dice roll whether a route has even a single bus that plays music without the issue of static. Occasionally there’s a golden bus that has no issues with the music quality at all, but even that same bus may not be up to the same standard the following morning (I’m looking at you, AE-16).

Speaking of, mornings seem to have a higher tendency for no music to be played at all. Perhaps the morning bus operators favor the ambient whirring the vehicle produces, or it may simply be that people are too tired to care for the latest hits at eight in the morning. The last few routes at night similarly have a lower rate of playing music, almost as though the driver has had enough of listening to the same songs over and over again for their entire shift and is just ready to drop everyone off and go home already.

During the day on that golden bus, however, the Anteater Express is a magical room. A liminal space echoing the mighty vibratos of today’s pop stars, such as Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, and Chappell Roan to name a few - whose voices have regularly appeared over the past few months. Rarely does a week go by where I don’t hear “Espresso,” “BIRDS OF A FEATHER,” or “Pink Pony Club” during at least one of my commutes on the N-line.

One reason for this seems to be that the most popular station played happens to be 104.3 MYfm, a frequency servicing the greater Los Angeles area that focuses on contemporary pop. The station plays hits from the 90’s and early twenty-first century as well but keeps a primary emphasis on playing today’s biggest stars likely due to its ownership by iHeartMedia.

I’ve listened to mid-2000s Lady Gaga and the breakout star Gracie Abrams appear one after the other on the station, demonstrating the station’s commitment to variety. At least, that is the case when the music does not inexplicably turn into indiscernible noise. Usually, the music becomes a bit grainy when brakes are applied, or the bus begins to accelerate; this is not consistent for every bus, and it is quite difficult to establish a predictable pattern for each shuttle’s tendency to have the FM radio overwhelmed by white noise or not at all. 

Especially considering that not every bus suffers from this problem, at the very least not all the time, I find myself wondering the root cause of it. Nevertheless, music plays, and not always from pop stations either. Some operators might elect to play stations that favor a Hispanic demographic.

Growing up in a culture where music was played while cleaning, cooking, or even just in the living room for fun, I have been heavily exposed to a lot of the Spanish music that plays at times on the bus. From Tejano icons like Selena Quintanilla to established Mexican music groups like Los Ángeles Azules, the bus feeds into my childhood in a way that is close to my heart.

Indeed, I get transported back to another place as I take my trip back to my apartment from class. During that ride, I return to my tía’s house or next to my mother preparing lunch for my siblings, recalling where I came from in an almost dreamlike vision until I reach my stop and exit the semi-dangerous hydraulic doors. 

It is through the Anteater Express that a rider not only travels to their destination on wheels around campus but also through the invisible realm of music surrounding them in the form of sound waves, an unseen detour that can lose one in the lines of “Please Please Please” or “Die With A Smile” until they eventually reach their stop and suddenly the music ends. The Anteater Express may deserve a little more appreciation, therefore, for linking our voyages of time and space with sensory detail of sound, expanding our experience going to class.