When listeners aren’t writing to NPR to comment on a story, they mostly just want to know what music was played between segments. We call those buttons or breaks or deadrolls, and they give a breath after reporting a tragedy, lighten the mood after you most definitely cried during StoryCorps, or seize a moment to be ridiculously cheeky. How could you not play Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold” following a story about why women shiver in the office?
Lindsay Totty, who directs Morning Edition, listens to the stories on the show and chooses the music.
“I look for what the emotional tone of each story is, but I’m also looking for a certain kind of cultural context,” he says.
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