I dated a chick in high school who was a drum major or whatever at Farragut. She was pretty attractive at that time, so it wasn't a big deal. We ended up at ETSU together as well. Anyway, one day at an ETSU game I remarked that didn't get a "particular formation that seemed silly". She broke up with me. No joke. The chip on their shoulders is amazing. I've never seen another organization with one bigger. While 'they are to be seen, not heard' isn't entirely true, you get the idea.
I have a relative who is the drum major in a local high school band, Dooz, and can confirm. I ask why they don't watch the game, and she says because they're there to be seen - not watch everyone else. They play shitty old stand music ("Living on a Prayer", old shit, ala POTSMB) and I ask why they don't play something more modern to get the crowd going. She says that they've played the same 2-3 stand songs for years, simply because their director doesn't want them taking any time away from rehearsing their performance pieces to learn new ones. I tell her that their main tasks should be to support the football team and school. She laughs and says that's not true, and becomes puzzled when I ask why no more than 50-75 people attend their spring concert, which is held independent of any football game. While not an adequate sampling, I can tell you from my limited experience that it is absolutely a self-absorbed, delusional culture of narcissists - a myth which is perpetuated by all involved (I.e. Band director, band parents, band members, etc.) - who really see themselves as the center of the universe, independent of and more important than both the school and the team. And that's a local high school band - I would assume that this delusion only grows stronger, at the college level.
My senior year of high school I got sent to the principal's office for falling out of my chair laughing when a sub teacher told me that the only reason people came to football games was to watch the band. (Note - her kid was in the band and she was every stereotype of a band parent you could imagine.) The ironic part of this was the band director himself was actually a pretty cool guy. He understood his organization's place and tried to temper the attitudes, with little success.
form the T, play RT, and gtf out of the way. That's all we need. Sitting directly behind the tuba section in the bouquet toss sec champ game was one of the most miserable game experiences of my life.
I was in the pep band and knew we were on equal footing with the cheerleaders in terms of importance, except less attractive. I recall most of us knowing we didn't matter.
Same stale music(anything that is not traditionally tied to UT), getting blown away by opposing pep bands, having your own band mic'd up because you can't be heard and a Band Director who NEVER shows up at the pregame planning for the week's activities is absolutely absurd. Not to mention that bypassing the chain of command and going public with your plight will get you fired in most job environments.
Lol - Sousa placed on administrative leave for the rest of semester. Sounds like he really rustled their jimmies.
I'm laughing on the insides and the outside right now. This is going to be fun. If the band tries anything in "protest" Saturday they should have their scholarships revoked and be required to repay anything they have been given up to this point. And if on the field, should be arrested for trespassing.
Whether the like him or not, they seem in lock step over this, as well as the alumni that I am friends with. They are all defending Sousa AND the band. I can see a few of them trying to protest Saturday. And if they do, I hope they are hammered.
The alumni I know are most certainly not. Now that details have come out over the last few days, they are rolling their eyes and saying "typical Sousa." Before that, their knee-jerk reaction was to rally around the band. I think as the facts of the matter come out, he will be left high and dry. I mean, they are putting Ryder in charge so they clearly recognize that this isn't a systemic problem. It was a leadership problem. My question is, if Sousa wasn't attending or sending a representative to the event meetings for years why wasn't some action taken before then? This is his job. This is pretty much all a college level band does (there is actually more to it before the college level).