I’ve always had a hard time writing about music because I thought I had to understand every little detail about chords or melodies to form my thoughts eloquently. More than anything, it always felt like the words I could string together weren’t enough. But Off Campus completely rewires this belief, making me understand that I don’t have to understand everything to recognize how it makes me feel, because that’s the thing with music that’s so special. The fact that a few weeks ago, we were all collectively drowning in a whole bunch of overwhelming feelings because of the emotions Noah Kahan’s The Great Divide was evoking. (And now I’m currently crying about an Off Campus fan edit that uses “Dan” as the backdrop to honor the found family within the show. It’s a great time over here.)
But in all seriousness, the way that Off Campus uses music is a beautiful, indescribable detail that makes the show extra comforting. It’s why various scenes hit as hard as they do, and it’s why it’s so easy to believe all the little ways that Garrett Graham and Hannah Wells are falling in love. Justin might be the musician, but Garrett is the one who speaks the same language that Hannah does.
How Hannah’s Singing Centers Garrett in Off Campus
The thing about music that matters so much is the way that it connects us. We don’t need poetic words to describe what the song is about because that’s what the lyrics are for. Instead, it’s about the way we feel, and that first comes to light as Garrett watches Hannah fully let go to Elton John’s “The B!tch is Back.” The fact that we can see his whole body shake towards the end as her light and ease travel to him is glittering. It’s infectious. This is the first time in the show where we really see Garrett Graham laugh, and it’s beautiful.
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You literally can’t watch that scene without grinning because at that moment, he’s just a boy watching a girl have a damn good time, right as he was on the edge of falling apart. As he later tells her when they’re lying on opposite sides of the floor, she centered him. She pulled him free from his demons, reminding him of what joy was like when he’d listen to music with his mom.
The essence of this scene is the one thing that I think genuinely equates to magic of some kind—the way that a song, and by extension, a performance can immediately elicit a reaction out of us. Garrett doesn’t exactly get what he’s feeling as he watches Hannah, not fully—not yet at least—but he feels her happiness. The ripples of the music and the transcendence of her joy seep right into him. As silly and sweet as it is that he also sets the mood during their first time, it works because he’s someone who lets the melodies and lyrics guide him.
He’s open to the way music can touch the pieces of him he’s otherwise too scared of showing. The parts of him that feel bold and bada$$. The part of Garrett who never fully got to grieve his mom’s death feels her impact when music and Hannah are present in his life. When he can fully be himself, without reservations, that’s Garrett Graham at his best, and there’s something really profound about the way music gives us these insights into both their characters. (This also includes the str!ptease, weirdly because that’s also for Hannah in more ways than one.)
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It’s why he can comfortably lie on his bed and hear her practice even when he’s exhausted. It’s the fact that when they’re broken up, all he’s capable of doing is replaying the snippet of “Page One” over and over again. It’s the way that he takes her music recommendations seriously, like when he listens to “Edge of the Earth” by The Beaches on his way back home. And then, of course, there’s the outright manner in which she affectionately (and rightfully) calls him out at karaoke with her song choice of “Cherry Pie,” where it becomes abundantly clear he’s in too deep now.
The way that music is another shared language between Hannah and Garrett strengthens their bond in a way that helps soothe them both into a state of indefinable comfort. It’s why it’s so effortless for them to open up to each other, because their reactions to songs aren’t forced but rather raw and unguarded. It’s just the truth of “this reminds me of x, y, z.” It’s a piece of them that no one else gets to see as intimately.
The Poetic Importance of Hannah’s Song at the Pop Showcase
I wrote about Ella Bright’s performance in “Girl That I Am” in my character deep dive for Hannah Wells, but there are endless layers to the way she speaks her truth through music that helps her find her voice again. It’s the fact that she combines hockey sounds (courtesy of Jules) and how she dedicates parts of the song to Garrett and Allie as a means to reveal all that they’ve done for her in giving her the agency to pull through the pain. It’s the detail that music continues to be an invisible string that tugs on these characters to guide them to the person who’ll take care of them.
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Because that’s the thing about music and TV and movies: they’re a huge part of us. We all have a number of songs that instantly transport us to the people and places we tether them to. They take us right back to a specific time where the person we were then, maybe, isn’t the person we are now. Music is the one thing that I genuinely believe can evoke such a visceral reaction sometimes that no matter how hard you search for the right words to talk about how you’re feeling, you won’t find them.
For Hannah and this moment, it’s about fully taking back her agency. It’s about recognizing that she can do everything on her own, but she shouldn’t have to. She can lean on the people in her corner, and they’ll help her through the waves just as she’ll help them if they ever need her. It’s about standing on her own two feet and belting out the words straight from her heart as the people she loves celebrate her in the process.
It’s a raw, indescribable scene in more ways than one because of how transcendent it is. In addition, because we can feel everything she’s feeling, it makes it so easy to sit with the hope and the joy and the liberation of it all. It makes it easy to appreciate the layers that music adds, taking each of these characters to places where, for a moment, everything’s lovely. And that’s the case in almost every beat where music is an active character in the season. It demands that we sit with the emotions and marinate on them. It ensures that we remember the comfort it evokes, which will, in turn, allow us to associate these songs with some really inimitable TV moments that are each brimming with emotions.
What are your thoughts on the music in Off Campus? Let us know in the comments below.
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