Marching Bands... American Style! (& Cheerleaders!)
All Spangled Marching Bands and Cheerleaders...
I've been a long time fan of military parades. I love watching the UK's Trooping of the Colours, France's Bastille Day parade and India's Republic Day parade to name but a few. I like precision formations, emasculate synchronisation and spiffing uniforms, and also a good band!
But, as usual, when searching for such spectacular events on the world's favourite video platform good old YouTube has a habit of taking you inexorably down some weird rabbit hole. However your search prompt began you inevitably find yourself - some time later - watching the most peculiar things (only tenuously related to your original intended preference)!
And so, as such, my adventure into searching out 'marching bands' led me to the very odd world of American college bands, their cheerleaders and eventually NFL Pom Squads! Oh dear!
But, let's start at the beginning with what I think we all might think of as a typical American college/university band...
1. OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY MARCHING BAND - 'RAMP ENTRANCE 2011'.
Now, the quality of this video is a bit iffy, but I chose this one as it has a nice close up of the highly choreographed 'ramp entry' of the band onto the football field
Despite my bias towards less 'showy' military bands I do actually appreciate the traditional American college style and tempo of this band. The sound and movement are very much what you expect from to see accompanying American football games and do a lot to hype up the atmosphere for what I think is one of the most over-rated and tedious sports on earth (yes, I'm not a fan).😉
With such monotonously long games with excruciating 'stop and start' play it's no wonder that someone felt the need to invent some energetic entertainment to take the fans' attention off how bad the actual game is! Well, that's my theory of how University Marching bands came about anyway! 😂
Anyway, jibs aside, I do find the 'traditional' performance of this band entertaining in a sort of strange nostalgic way as this kinda harks back to my older impression of American 'collegit' marching bands (and here my mind may be overly influence by 1940s and 50s Hollywood movies, like 'Music Man').
I especially like the band major's strutting entrance, which is very definitely Hollywood-esque. And along with the gymnastic display and sped up tempo of the 'fighting' tune it all exudes 'apple pie'. But in a nice way.
And this leads us to...
2. USC 'SONG GIRLS' - CHEERLEADING AT PREP RALLY
Nothing says American college/university sporting build up more than cheerleading and when I was looking at various marching bands the University of Southern California Trojan Marching Band caught my eye.
This band is not only typical of the kind of showmanship that US marching band love, but also have their famed 'Song Girl' cheerleading team accompanying them. This is worth noting as it's so quintessentially American, yet while cheerleading has evolved a great deal since it's inception - typified by movies and TV shows like 'Bring It On' and 'Glee' - the USC Song Girls have maintained a more traditional style.
Although USC has different variations of cheerleading teams - displaying traditional and modern styles of cheer performances - this video harkens back to cheerleading roots as the Song Girls perform their USC 'Fight On' routine while accompanied by the Trojan Band singing the University's 'fight song'...
3. The Alcorn State University - The Other Side of America
Now, while the USC Song Girls represent a version of marching band cheerleading that we Brit might think of as 'typical', cheerleading and marching band styles are many and various being very much influenced by the culture of the university or organisation they represent. And, as I said, cheerleading - in particular - has evolved a long way from 'rah rah' and pom poms!
The Alcorn State University 'Sounds of Dyn-O-Mite' band really highlight the diversity in marching bands and cheerleading in both a cultural and stylistic sense of the term.
Alcorn State University is a public historically black land-grant university adjacent to Lorman, Mississippi and was founded in 1871. As an African-American university - naturally - the musical and dance styles are highly influenced by Black culture. And it's rather interesting to compare the USC style to the Alcorn style.
The cheerleaders of Alcorn are really something, displaying a performance style that could not be any more different to that of the USC Song Girls (and yet has very much influenced the way that American 'school' cheerleading has developed). And yet, it was the Alcorn male band majors that really caught my eye!
As a fan of classic Hollywood dance musicals the African American influence in the band major's 'strutting' performance reminded me very much of classic 1940s Black dancers like the Nicholas Brothers. The highly stylised movements of the Alcorn band majors really expound Black American dynamism in dance, and I love it. It's hugely entertaining and really is - as their band name says - 'Dyn-O-Mite!!!
4. 'IN TEXAS EVERYTHING IS BIGGER'!
I could not do a post of American marching bands without highlighting the amazing synchronicity - and size - of the the 400 plus Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band Halftime Drill. We Brits might be a bit snooty about what we think represents a 'great marching band', but *this* performance is very impressive indeed!
5. THE PINICLE OF CHEERLEADING? THE RAIDERETTES...
Collegit cheerleading is one thing, and while you might think of 'Buffy' when you think of what a stereotypical cheerleader is (er, minus the vampire hunting) the NFL - American professional 'football' - has taken cheerleading to a whole different level.
This is where my YouTube rabbit hole finally lead me and while - perhaps - marching bands have been somewhat replaced in Superbowl half time entertainment by big star performance by the likes of Rihanna, Snoop Dogg and Shakira, cheerleading is still an integral aspect of the game.
I watched several performances by NFL cheerleading professional dance groups and while I can see the attraction of this evolution of cheerleading for the 'big stage' of football field entertainment, they were mostly 'not my cup of tea'... Until I came across the RAIDERETTES! Wow!
The Las Vegas Raiderettes are the cheerleading squad for the Las Vegas Raiders professional American football team. They were established in 1961 as the Oakland Raiderettes. When the Raiders moved to Los Angeles in 1982, the cheerleading squad became known as the Los Angeles Raiderettes.
Now what I found fantastic about these cheerleader was - ironically - directly connected to my interest in military parade and band drills that started this whole YouTube sorty into marching bands in the first place... Synchronised and coordinated displays.
Just watch this performance of 'Tambourine' by the Raiderettes, and pay special attention to the beautifully choreographed transitions in formation. The change in diagonal movements completely wowed me in very much the same way as I marvel at the legendary 'Wheel Formation' still wows me when I see it at The Trooping of the Colour...
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