Final Re-Purposing
From my final draft to here, I only made a few minor changes. The layout changed a bit, since the original platform, Blogger, did not give me as much freedom with the layout as I would have liked. I added captions to some of the media, hoping to make some of the meanings and significances a little more clear (one of the downfalls of the original piece) and I changed a little bit of the writing, particularly at the end. Other than that, I kept everything from the original final project.
Response to Jim Rome: Marching Band Stereotypes
The words “marching band” and the words “nerds”, “dorks”, or “geeks” just seem to go together. Even people who participate in marching band use these terms to refer to themselves because they're just so used to being called them.
These stereotypes, however, are real and cause people to look down on marching band and can cause people who do marching band to look down on themselves. To people who believe in the stereotypes, these “dorks” do not deserve respect for an activity that they work very hard to master.
I believe that there are better words to call marching band members: “performers”, “artists”, and “athletes”.
Performers
People like Jim Rome do not understand the effort, the dedication, and the passion that goes into a single show. To them, the marching band is just stupid halftime entertainment breaking up the football they came to watch. What they don't know is that, to the people out there, this show is the culmination of hours of practice learning basics and discipline, and memorizing music, drill (the movement around the field), flag work, body moves, and whatever else goes into that particular show. That show is a performance and the performers put everything they have into making it the best performance they can give.
Artists
Would anyone today call Michelangelo, Picasso, or Monet dorks? There might be people out there, but most people think of them as artistic geniuses. Not every marching band show ever is a work of artistic genius, I will admit; however, not every drawing every is a work of artistic genius, but it's still considered art. To fold in the previous idea, marching band is a sector of the performing arts. In the same way that concert and symphonic bands are, marching band is also art. Marching bands create music in the same way that concert bands do.
And, in the same way that dance or theater is, marching band is also art. These artists use their movement on the field as their dance. Color guard members (the ones who spin flags, rifles, sabers, etc.) typically do some form of dance during their routines, which is an obvious involvement of performing arts. But the formations on the field and body moves of the entire marching band also fit that same definition. Marching band involves so many artistic aspects that it is pretty much impossible to argue that marchers are not artists.
Athletes
My last and potentially most important point is that marching band members are also athletes. This is probably the most contested idea that I've presented. So many people believe that marching band members "just walk around the field", which couldn't be considered a sport. That, however, is far from the truth. In the Michigan Marching Band we have a band week every year that is basically two weeks at the end of the summer of all day marching and music practice. This past year a leader in my section wore a device that told her how many calories she burned and, in one day she burned over 3000 calories. As a student leader, she spent half the practice watching and giving corrections, so the members who marched the entire time most likely burned even more. This isn't the only time I've seen someone measured while they were marching. The following video further proves that marchers are also athletes.
Just checking out the Facebook page Body by Drum Corps shows the amount of athleticism that goes into marching band (Warning: Do not click the link if you are offended by hot shirtless guys and girls in sports bras). Imagine doing what can be described as high knees with a bit more technique to them all the way onto a field then not being able to breathe because you have to immediately play music (as shown in the video below).
These marching band performers and artists are also athletes.
So, to all those people out there like Jim Rome who think marching band is for nerds, dorks, and geeks who "run around with their instruments", think again. These are dedicated performers, talented artists, and hard-working athletes putting on an amazing show.
The color gurad is told to perform through anything. They always keep their perfomance face on, no matter what happens.
People in marching band show extreme perfomance quality by never losing their "cool", despite bugs, itches, or anything else that might happen while at attention.
Here is a marching band doing what they do best: making art out of music.
Not only do they play beautiful, artistic music, but they move around while doing it.
The movement around the field is beautiful, like all good art should be.
The combination of dance and color guard (when he throws the saber) is as artistic as dance is.
Body moves are almost like the entire marching band dancing which, as we've already determined, is an art.