The Music of the Marching Band: Collectivity, Embodiment, and Performance

Abstract

This paper explores the ways that music embodiment and performance can make students in marching band have closer relationships compared to many other group organizations, clubs, or jobs. In the first section of the text, the author describes how students in marching band often seem to have closer bonds than people in other clubs or organizations, and theorizes that this is because of music embodiment and performance. The next section of the text explores the community within marching band and how hazing, sections, and stereotyping are small problems within the community. The author next discusses how music education promotes empathy in children, then describes Taylor’s ideas on performance and how performance leads people to observe one another’s bodies so that they are better able to mirror those around them, encouraging empathy. Additionally, Koelsch and Berrol’s work on neuroscience demonstrates that embodying music with those around them can make people feel emotions when moving in synchronization with peers.