This year more than ever I seem to notice how other people in my school view people in marching band... now don't get me wrong, I don't care what other people think because I love doing it and in no way am I whining about it, but I always think that we should be respected and people should like what we do, I know a lot of my non-marching friends constantly make fun of me, and there are so many people in our band that are just weird as crap, like the really weird kids, and they always have this attitude like, "If people don't like us then we'll just be even more stupid so everyone will be like, 'what the ****'". I know that usually the line is looked at a little better than other sections but does anyone else have this go on at their school? Sorry that my post is so long by the way.

Yea man I understand where your comming from. Our drumline pretty well respected from most of our student body...Our football team and our drumline have this wierd relationship. They actually really respect us and support us...and we do the same to them. Its just kinda wierd how much our football players respect us and what we do. The rest of the school body doesn't make fun of us really.
-gtekman

Wow... I hate when people say that kind of stuff to me. I normally end up blowing up on them, because I'm very short tempered. It's normally the jocks or the losers that say it to me, so I ask them where football or doing nothing, is going to take them in life.

But a lot of people in my school kind of realize what it really takes to be in a marching band. I really respect those kinds of people.

Yeah see I am pretty sure that is why they get all in our crap is because people jump on them for it and they think it's funny, but for real I mean it isn't harder then football at all, but marching band takes some hard work and determination, especially during band camp... I mean there are times you just want to drop your drum (carefully) and leave.

at our school we don't get made fun of much but snugglebunny of people cheer for us and when drumline does stuff and at the parades people always cheer. and our director last year said that "the people that make fun of us being in band are the people that aren't talented enough to play a insturment" or somethin like that

our school pretty much likes the line. we get made fun of at other schools for our uniforms though.

It's not that way at all at my school. The rest of the student body LOVES the band, the drumline especially. When we go play for the fans after halftime, they scream their lungs out. The drumline is pretty cool with my school.

Band is usually the most successful sport in my school, so people are generally cool about it. We do get a couple of losers who make fun of us, but there aren't that many of them. The football players especially like the drumline. Even when we warm up with Eights (Eight on a Hand) They'll start yelling, "Oh yeah! That's tight! That beat is funky !"
It's pretty funny.

footballs the big thing in my town, but this year, the varsity's record it 0-7 so nobody's dissin the band this year. when they did, i just told them to come do what we do and then they didn't say anything else

Ok we have our share of nerds in my band. But they keep to themselves. The majority of people in my band are the cool people in school anyway and we are well supported in the school especially the line because of the things we do at parades, football games and pep rallies.

my band of 146 people is approximatly 1/4 of the entire school
We decied whos cool.

here.. losers get picked on, cool people get priase. just depends on the person, not so much that youre in band

Well, my school i guess is like everyone elses. The drumline is looked at as being one of the coolest groups in school. As for the band, they get looked at as being "wierd" and "fruity" partially for our show this year which is a really girlish sounding show until we bust out our drum solo. One of the reasons the drumline is looked as being cool is because we dont have a good relationship with our football team, but instead we have one with our cheerleaders. I personally enjoy things the way they are

from my experience, being a member of hs marching band and then an instructor, there are a few issues that result in a lack of respect for the band.
1. snugglebunny of kids don't look at band from a musical aspect. they just view it as something to kill time and to get them out of class, which takes away from the kids who are doing it for the aesthetics

2. schools don't support music in the same way they do athletics because they see it as something for the kids who don't play sports to do.

it's the responsiblity of the directors and the kids to take it as seriously as a football player and to display confidence and to excell.

Up here at App. the football team and the band have a wonderful relationship. And from what I can tell the band is pretty much respected by everyone. After our football team won the national championship, the athletic department offered to either get the band rings or help send us to London.

ah man im so glad someone made a topic like this, at our school its different than from what ive read on this post...the football team HATES us. but thats just because were a small school, and our football team sucks, so does every other sport team. I live in Piedmont Oklahoma, were the best band in our divisoin in the state, not just class. but division too, and the football team hates us. we know for a fact that its just because there jelious of us (im friends with a few of them and they told me that, plus they used to be in band) and tehy take it out on us by doing things to us, like making fun of us...excessivly, and more recently they put birdseed in our section of the stands and by the time friday came there was bird poop everywere...and i mean like...the most bird crap you have ever seen...ever .... sometimes i hate it so much but we just won class 4a state championchips and got second in our division...by a tenth of a point. and we would have won but tehres always a judge that hates our director, )his name is Mr. Zook and hes one of the best, we think of him as the best, director in the state) and he put us in 8th....so pretty much what im saying is, i know how you feel, our whole school (expecially people in sports, becuase all our sports people suck, literaly) hate us, and i know how you feel. i hate it sometimes but im grateful to be in band


but there are those select few who respect us and actually think were cool. i love them

sorry my post was so long,
~Brandini

Thank you for that explanation, I'd say my school is a happy medium between you and the other posts.

Everyone at my school thinks the marching band is full of losers.
It is quite annoying.

It's funny, whenever I meet someone new and they realise that I'm on the drumline, I usually get something to the extent of "Yo, that's so tite. I saw you banging them drums at the football game."

Not only does my whole school make fun of the band, my whole community doesn't gave a (fill in the blank) about it either. We're a very small band and if there's like a holiday or something where half the band can't make it and we would only have 20-30 people, we won't play. (this only happens once in a great while , like possibly on Thanksgiving games, and we only play pregame anyway) and the community dog if we don't preform but if we do, half of them aren't there to see it anyway, and the ones that are don't even care.

Our community LOVES the band, but they only like two songs we play, so where ever we go...it's those two songs.
the kids at school complain that we play stupid stuff like Mozart...(our show). "Give us something we can dance to!"
if it was most people's choice...we wouldn't even e at the football games.
they only know the friday night football band, not the saturday morning band that's in the top 25 bands in the state.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=1259548218

This is my line at the homecomming game I'm pretty sure. About midway through, they give a shot of the crowd. As you'll see, the kids at my school go crazy over the drumline.

Our band is a nice sized band... however, not too many of them are nerds or anything. Though, a lot of people talk about us... you know, the typical stuff. |Especially| people in other sports. The truth is, I look down on them in correlation. It's quite funny when you think about it.

I think through some point in high school any one in band is going to get some of that flack from someone, it's just how it is. In my case, the d-line really turned around people's views at the school when we just threw down at our school's talent show last year. We got a perfect score the crowd was just blown away. They had no idea that drummers could really do some of the stuff we did, and people were shocked. But in know how that feeling is, and I feel for anyone but its just what we do, and we know how it is. Rock on!

we have 89 percent of the school in our band and the rest of the school hates the band.we have around 250 people in our band. 6th 7th and 8th grades.

Our school also has the majority of the people in the marching band or at least some other music program on campus. So we are all respected as musicians and all that jazz. Even though our marching band isn't all that "great" most of the people are, used to be, or know someone in the band so we are in some way supported and acknowledged for all the stuff we do.

The only reason our band is in any way respected in our community is because of our line. not to brag but our line had no idea what to do until i became section leader and we got our god-like instructor. our "band" is a joke but i try at least to make our line look good so i still have a reason to do the crap...sorry but i don't enjoy being laughed at

My band has been a 4-time straight superior (since it was formed in 2003), in both marching and concert seasons.. however in my opinion it's an all right band.. we're not the best in the county but we're getting closer every year... and when it comes to being harrased by the talentless , apathetic, and ignorant side of the school i just tell them "Hey man chill.. im IN the drumline." and they get all " Oh snap son datzz tight! you needa show me some cool Sh*T like in that movie with nick cannon!"..need I say more?... I feel bad for clarinets.. (no offense to any clarinets of course)

We HAD a good rep among most of the school....but this year we got a 2 in marching. Now we had a record of 27 1's in a row. So when we got a 2 most of the band was devastated by the whole experience. Well, recently the football team hasn't been losing like the used to. The even printed out shirts about their arrival to the playoffs. (It read "Been there, done that 22 times" started in 1920's?!) So we got stomped on by the entire school, we were mocked every time there was a chance, and the school no longer supported us. And every pep-rally everyone brought signs that all read out "2". We had to start locking certain people out of the band hall because off all the harassment that we been receiving. And now the only thing the school and town cares about is the sports programs, and looks down on us as losers. It really disappoints me.

Well, none of my friends outside of the band could understand why I loved marching band and drum corps. So I made a hype video for the 2007 drum corps season this year and showed it to them. They got the idea pretty quickly.

If I can find the video I'll post it up.

My school is suprisingly excepting of marching band people [prom queen 05, homecoming queen 04, 05, 06, homecoming court 04, homecoming king 04 were all band kids, in fact, several of them drummers] Of course there are people who think band is for nerds, etc, but luckily most of them don't express this. To be honest, most of our football game crowd leaves after halftime, proof enough they're here for the band.

Yea all our guy sports suck at our school and the band dominates. Our Marching band is the best 1A band in the state(we beat a couple 4A bands), our concert band is the best 1A in the state, and our jazz band is 8th in the state. The football team won 1 game this year. Plus our band includes 80 of the 160 in our highschool. The football team schedules their practice times around when the band is using the football field. Its kinda funny.

you only have 160 kids in your school? thats like. . . .40 per class. . .you sure you have 160 in your school? im confused

yes im sure. We are 1A. I think I only have like 35 kids in my class. I love being in a small school.

well good job on the huge band, lol, were a 5A school with 600 kids

Were a 3A school so we have a bit over 500 kids in our school and our band is around 125 kids. So band isnt made fun of. People get mad at the band though cause it overshadows all the oter programs like football. Cause we have placed good at state (6th is our best) and they havent made it there. So people get pretty mad at us for some reason lol.


Like we have a shirt that says. "For your viewing pleasure, we will have a football game before and after our performance." - the Band

it made some people mad

other sports dont give us much flak
our center snare was tennis captain
theres at least 3 brass in football
and several more in waterpolo
and of course the school loves the football/pep rally drumline stuff
but we hate football games to death

and yeah the marching band/drumline keeps to itself pretty much
toward the end of the year everyone gets all depressed cause they have to say goodbye to the seniors

Our school is definitely a sports school. Since last year when we (drumline) performed at opening assembly, we are probably the favorites of the arts/music department. The marching band performs at games and stuff, but nobody listens. I guess it's kind of like college.

Ya so our marching band has been nonexistant for a while. We are attempting to restart it, but the only thing we are playing at is the 4th of July Parade. Right now everyone thinks it will be a big joke, but we are determined to prove them wrong. It was kinda funny because we as a band had to talk our director, who is straight out of college, into letting us wear uniforms. This year the Marching Band consists of 15 people, 5 of which are Drumline alone. As a Drumline we are solid but we haven't even practiced as a full band yet. I'm using the word "full" kinda loosely, I know, but we are loud and good, and that's all that matters. I hope it goes well or we will scrap the marching band.

At our school, it's mostly the drumline that gets respect at our school. But mainly, its the snares. It's always been that way. Mostly because we make it known that we are the snares. Its almost like a clique. But since me and "nathaniscool", the other snare, and the rest of the seniors just graduated this year, the whole band is gonna go down hill. Plus we've been through 5 band directors in the past 7 years.

It depends on the crowd I'm talking to, but I can say "I'm in band," and people laugh and make fun, and then I say "I'm a drummer," and they look as if they forgot that drums were a part of band.

People love drums and beats, but don't respect music.

At my school people come to the home football games for the marching band. Then after half time 60%-90% of the people leave.

Disrespect against the band became so bad in our school district, that one of our rival bands got booed off their own field at half time! The District had to put an end to it.
Our Drumline has never has never been called part of the band though. When ever people ask if were in the band we say, "NO, I'm in the Drumline" People have loved us ever since!

Where I go to school EVRYONE in band is a huge band nerd, I mean like almost every single one of them is a recluse to the school, even like half of the drumline are "pro halo players" so Im really not surprised with all the insults get thrown at us. The only people who get at least any respect in our band are the ones who are in other sports as well but thats only like 10 of them. What is really weird about it though is how snotty the band kids are to the crowd and football team! When people play the spongebob squarepants theme, dance to it, and get booed at, you wuoldnt think they would do it again, but ourr brass does. This year, as center snare I am going to try to inform at least the line, that the reason we "work as hard as the football team does" is to entertain people, and maybe come up with ways to make our image better than it has been. And try to raise to the top of the school "hierarchy" or whatever. As for the wind players and guard, i am afriad it is way too late for them.

Feelings towards the band in my school varies. My school is a HUGE football school. Everything is about football. Most kids associate with each other and don't care whether you are in the band. But there is always those few or more idiotic jocks who think they are almighty who try to make fun of the band or just be rude. As during drumline camp a few came and parked there car beside us and just started honking randomly trying to screw with us. That is just those few though. A lot of band people though are also popular. It just depends who you ask.

Its funny, prior to joining band (my junior year), i have NEVER heard of the "band geek" stereotype. in particular, the drumline gets the most props, everyone loves the drumline. especially out percussion competition ensemble (we got 2nd place in the SCPA finals). and our band also wins a TON of awards at parades. so i guess i band is relatively liked.

and its funny how people have been mentioning sports is big at our school. its the same with our school. if your football team is good but you've never heard of notre dame, i would have to assume you're in a lower division (at least at southern California). but yeah, football games are practically life at our school. the football team is pretty much the pride of notre dame. we play the music that the cheerleaders dance to, and as far as i know, they love the band.

people also actually stay to watch our half time shows. other schools people just go "AWESOME! NOW I HAVE TIME TO PISS!" and yeah.

So no, our band does not get hated on.