Issue 04
DRUM LINEZ
By Caroline RyderPhotos By Aaron Farley
Illustration By Florencio Zavala
Once upon a time, American teenagers could easily be split into two categories: band geeks and those who laugh at band geeks.
Some would argue that band nerds are natural targets-the Liberace-esque costumes can be pretty out there, for a start. And why do they look so intense, glaring at the audience as they weave around their equally stern-faced school mates? A posting on the website drumlines.org summed up “drumline face” thus: “The intensity of the sun. Fire burning in your eyes. Not of rage, but of wisdom, clarity, concentration, focus, discipline, and pride.”
Scary, right?
But as the influence of marching bands on popular culture becomes ever more apparent, the band geek cliché immortalized in the 1999 movie American Pie is starting to seem dated.
Take the 2002 movie Drumline. It challenged the band nerd stereotype, showing how a young hip-hop drummer from Harlem injected urban flava into a southern university drum corps. More recently, Gwen Stefani added her own seal of approval to marching bands, dancing alongside a fully costumed drum line in the video to her song “Hollaback Girl.” Incidentally, that track was produced by The Neptunes, who have long drawn inspiration from marching-band beats. Then there are bands like 311 and Blink 182, whose drummers both had their start in drum lines. And don’t forget alternative metallers Slipknot, who regularly feature a full high school marching band during their onstage theatrics.
Meat Loaf also used to play in a drum line.
British journalist Steven Wells came up with an interesting analysis, pointing out that watching high school marching bands can be far more entertaining than watching their tortured alt-rock counterparts. “The American high school football marching band, comprised almost entirely, according to tradition, of gays and geeks, is the living embodiment of the true spirit of rock ‘n’ roll,” he wrote in the London Guardian. “I mean what would you rather see - the life affirming spectacle of several hundred pinkcrimpolene- and-mock-leopard-skin-clad sex-hussars bashing seven shades of satanic crap out of ‘Louie Louie?’ Or a slouching quartet of 18-year-old manic-depressives in oversized trousers and black hooded tops moaning on and on and on and about how they’ve got the white suburban lower middle-class blues? Hmm?”
Calling a drum line a “life-affirming spectacle” may seem a little over-the-top, but after just half an hour at the American Drum Line Association championships, I had to agree. I was hooked, rooting for the kids with fire in their eyes as they bashed those seven shades of satanic crap out of their xylophones, snares, and bass drums.
“I’ve seen kids scream with joy and shed tears over drum line,” says Greg Valenzuela, a 24-year-old musician and drum line director. Greg’s been in drum lines for a decade, and even after leaving high school he couldn’t shake the passion. Nowadays he and his friend Alex Mendoza coach a drum line called the Marching Rebel Alliance at AB Miller High School in Fontana, CA.
There’s not much screaming or crying going on when we meet the kids; in fact, they seem pretty laid back. A few of them play in punk bands outside of drum line. Social skills seem good. In a nutshell: they’re not nerds.
“While there are still some kids at school who make fun of the drum line, there are just as many who think what they do is cool,” says Greg. “It’s a little subculture that 90% of people don’t understand. While most kids are at the malls on Saturdays, we are at the high school field. And believe me, it’s a lot more fun.”
Greg says that when kids experience a good drum line performance, the effect can be profound. “I’ve seen people get so excited by it they have signed up straight after.” But Greg believes the appeal of drum lines runs deeper than just the rock-star performance aspect. “It’s about community,” he says. “Think about it - a drum line is a group of people working towards the same goal. All the individuals are working on their own technique so they can improve the ensemble. How often do you come across that today?”
Greg’s ultimate dream is for drum line to be officially classified as a bona fide sport. “It irritates me that it isn’t already,” he says. “It is really physically demanding as well as mentally demanding. That makes it a sport in my book.” Happily, cable channel ESPN2 recently announced it would start broadcasting the championships of drum corps-the military version of drum lines-sometime this year. “That’s dope,” says Greg.
Sid Fuarez, one of Greg’s proteges, sports a seven-inch Mohawk and listens to punk rock when he’s not playing in drum line. The 17- year-old rehearses eight hours a week or more. “I used to be really shy,” he says. “Now I can perform in front of people.” When asked what he thinks about band nerds, he laughs. “I just say drums are cool. I mean, I thought American Pie was kinda funny like everyone else. But in our band we’re pretty loose. Some people just do it for the competition, not for the entertainment. You can tell with some drum lines, all they do is practice from morning to night - that’s when you become a nerd.”
Mendoza, 21, is less tolerant of those who continue to stereotype marching bands. “They are narrow-minded and naïve,” he says. “In fact, it’s people like that who are contributing to the demise of music programs around the country. Music and marching bands give kids something to be proud of and something to work towards.
When they are not used to being admired in other aspects of their lives, that can be a very powerful thing.”
You may not know it, but two very different kinds of drum line exist in American today. One is the traditional, disciplined variety that exists in high schools across most of America. The other is found almost exclusively in the Deep South, where marching band performances have evolved into a unique, carnival-esque spectator sport.
Purists criticize the southern drum lines, saying they are more about crowd-pleasing than technical prowess. “Southern drum lines are very different from ours,” says Harvey Berish, editor and publisher of the World of Pageantry newspaper. “It’s like comparing a symphony orchestra to a rap group.”
Berish, thanks to his knowledge and experience of marching bands, was asked to be a consultant on the 2002 movie Drumline. He spent more than two years working with producers, but was not pleased with the final result. “When the movie came out, we were pretty insulted,” he says. “They concentrated just on the southern-style groups. Southern bands are exciting and rhythmic, but the kids are often from schools that don’t have good music programs. There’s more musicality and sophistication to what’s going on in the rest of the country.”
If you were to name one marching band that epitomizes the north-south divide, it would have to be the Florida A&M University Marching 100 Band. The members of the Marching 100 (who actually number about 400) are the rock stars of the marching band world. The Marching 100 claims to be the most imitated band in the world, and the most televised in America. Its members are demigods not just in their hometown of Tallahassee but across the international drum line world. They have performed at the Olympics, the Super Bowl, and President Clinton’s inauguration, and represented the U.S. At the Bicentennial Bastille Day Parade in Paris.
In fact, for many fans of the Rattlers, Florida A&M’s football team, watching football is only the second reason they go to the games. “They’re the classic southern marching band, in that they just go all out,” says Alex Mendoza. “The dancer will do flips and the drummers will do stick tosses in order to catch the eye of the audience. Some people might view it as corny over here, but over there it’s more about showmanship.”
At the same time, there are also significant distinctions between the east-coast and west-coast drum line styles. On the west coast, the emphasis is on musicianship and technical ability. On the east coast, the visual spectacle that a drum line creates is just as important as how well the musicians play their instruments.
“If you see some of the shows, you would be astounded by what they can create,” says Mendoza. “I saw one high school do a show which played with depth perception by using cardboard cut-outs. People would come out from behind the cut-outs, so you’d see 30 people appearing and disappearing in front of the human eye. It was amazing.”
As performers continue to hone their musical talents and create ever-more-spectacular visual displays, the future of the drum line as a symbol of Americana seems assured. And with their influence being felt in popular music more than ever before, some predict it won’t be long before marching bands become America’s next great cultural export. “There are already strong marching band movements in Japan, and some in the U.K., but it’s going to get even bigger than that,” says Mendoza. “I think consumers and advertisers are going to see that this thing can go global. It’s going to go where people never foresaw.”