MUSIC ON THE MARCH: AMERICANISM, VETERANS’ ORGANIZATIONS, AND DRUM AND BUGLE CORPS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract

The American Legion and other military veterans’ organizations played a significant role in shaping twentieth-century American politics, civic life, and cultural (including musical) identity in service of Americanism: their conception of the political, social, and cultural values of the United States. Through its deep-rooted association with the Legion and related organizations, drum and bugle corps—a marching arts tradition derived from military music practices— represents a unique intersection of Americanism, veterans’ organizations, and music, serving as an important medium for the cultivation and expression of Americanism. Following World War I, the Legion developed competitive drum and bugle corps as an activity at first for military veterans and later for civilian youth that reflected the political goals of the organization, instilling and promoting the Legion’s ideological values. Drum and bugle corps then spread to other veterans’ and civic organizations that concerned themselves with Americanism, including Veterans of Foreign Wars, Boy Scouts of America, and Catholic Youth Organization, before developing its own sense of community and tradition. As the politics of Americanism evolved over time, especially regarding the role of the military in American society during times of war and peace, the expression of Americanism in drum and bugle corps evolved with them.

Major developments in Americanism in drum and bugle corps coalesce around three twentieth-century wars and their aftermaths: World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War. The origins of competitive drum and bugle corps are directly tied to the origins of the American Legion, a veteran’s organization founded by and for veterans of World War I. Consequently, the Legion (and to a lesser extent, the VFW) defined the early parameters and aesthetic of the activity in the 1920s and 1930s. Following World War II, drum and bugle corps grew even more popular, with junior drum corps (for participants under 21) becoming a significant branch of the activity. During the 1950s, drum and bugle corps absorbed Cold War attitudes toward Americanism from a new generation of participants looking to expand the activity, and the Legion and VFW maintained a vested interest in its governance. The Vietnam War drastically recontextualized the values of Americanism and militarism in American society. As a result, many drum corps began to downplay the overtly militaristic aspects of the activity in favor of a more outwardly entertaining presentation. In October 1971, thirteen prominent junior drum corps formed Drum Corps International, offering an alternative to the Legion’s regulations and forging a new competitive, educational, and artistic identity for the activity. The militaristic elements of drum and bugle corps were thus tempered, abstracted, and recontextualized, and less polarizing expressions of Americanism were cultivated instead. Americanism remained at the heart of the drum and bugle corps tradition through the end of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. As the evolving expressions of Americanism in drum and bugle corps demonstrate, military music and the marching arts represent complex and nuanced networks of meanings and associations in the construction of musical Americanism and American cultural identity.