I was at a pep rally today, also attended by two high school bands.
I love the drumlines of marching bands. Maybe it’s silly, but it reminds me of fresh fall air, football, and the company of friends all crammed into the bleachers together.
The two drumlines today were good, but the music the bands played was quite different from old FHS. The songs could’ve been pulled straight from tonight’s playlists on the local Hip Hop stations. There were songs by Sean Paul, Beyonce, Ginuwine, and Bone Crusher to name a few.
On one hand, the lyrics to some of the songs weren’t what I imagine a school might want to endorse. Especially the one about getting “in your jeans.” At a pep rally last year, the crowd ate up a particularly nasty song by the now late Camoflauge (sic).
But, that’s part of the key. Today, the crowd was completely into it. The band members were far from geeky. These kids were cool. They were having fun. And in the end, they’re still learning to play instruments and getting the benefit of music education. They’d be listening to these songs anyway. And I imagine if these schools played the old classics like my high school did, a lot of the students wouldn’t want to participate.