FUNLINER REACTS | College Marching Bands

Glad you reviewed an HBCU. I also marched for one while in college. Each HBCU band prides itself on having a unique style and sound, but definitely check out bands like Florida A&M, Southern, Norfolk, Tennessee State, Alabama A&M, North Carolina A&T just to get a few more examples of different unique styles.

Great video! Check out the Jacksonville State University Marching Southerners. They’re very corps style and are highly respected in the university - they march between 450-500 in a school of 9,000 students. All their shows are great. It I’d recommend reacting to their closer from 2019!

You should definitely check JSU Marching southerners, they use the same arranger as my HS band and sometimes some of our old show music, so they they are very close to me! And of course florida state and university of south alabama have great marching bands too!

Fun fact- the Texas A&M band is a military-style band so they rely a lot less on dot books and coordinates, and a lot more so on following the person in front of them (with the exception of the drill movements where everyone moves at the same time) as well as the drum major's baton movements. It's a lot more conducive for marchers that have little to no previous experience, as well as making and learning the drill. That's also why their foot timing among other movements is more synchronized- because the style of marching focuses more on matching the person directly in front of you and guiding with your line Their style is so military-esque because the band is comprised of Corps of Cadet members and that also results in their shows looking like they're "rooted in the past." Along those lines, they mostly march at 120 BPM because they either mostly or entirely play marches like Semper Fi or The Stars and Stripes Forever

I came from a college marching band (University of North Alabama) that had a semblance of drum corps mixed with traditional marching band. My days in the band, we had several people who marched Crown, Phantom Regiment and Music City. Our new assistant director March BD back in 2002 and taught with Blue Stars and Teal Sound.

Glad to see an HBCU up here. You'd be surprised how many different styles there are within HBCU bands as well. You have your Madison Scouts, but you also have your Cavvies, Cadets, and BD equivalents in terms of just how many different approaches there are. Some great DCI cats also marched in HBCU bands (Ricardo Brown from Cadets/Bloo/Mandarins) comes to mind, and many of us like to infuse both DCI and traditional techniques. My HS band director was Ken Bodiford (Spirit, and now at Jacksonville State) and he put me on to DCI when he gave me a cassette tape of the 1988 DCI finals (Madison is still my favorite show of all time). Two former students of mine, Ralph Nader and Alex Blake, marched BD and have a few rings. But yeah, you'd be surprised at the depth and history you'd find among HBCU bands.

Jacksonville State University! They are fantastic:) if I was in a college marching band, I would love to go there

Insightful video, love that you highlighted an HBCU marching band, marching bands from a different perspective, love to see it !!

I just marched my first ever college half time yesterday with The Florida State Marching Chiefs and it was such an amazing environment especially seeing people’s reactions to our forms during half time.

For HBCUs, please check out NCA&T as well as Norfolk! Both are very Corps influenced and are known to be some of the best!

No wayyy!!! You need to get on WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY! pride of the mountains, you will not regret it! They went to BOA last year to preform exhibition as well so there might be a really good video out there. They have also won the sudler trophy for outstanding collegiate band!! Pretty plz 😂❤

Surprised nobody mentioned the JMU MRDs, they're great. Over 500 people creating some of the most powerful sounds.

There are certainly some amazing college marching bands. Cool to see all of the recommendations in these comments - I'm going to check out the ones I'm not already aware of as being stand-out programs. If I had to pick ONE college band to recommend Funliner react to, though, it would hands-down be the Jacksonville State University Marching Southerners. The sound their 500+ member band tucked away in rural Alabama produces is unreal. Even better, go see them live.

I'm currently a second year in OSU's marching band and I think it's awesome that a DCI youtuber is reviewing people like us! It's really humbling 😊. Anyways, I really enjoy your DCI content, keep it up man!

The bass drums in most HBCU bands aren’t actually tonal bass drums like we have in corps style shows, they’re actually tenors or “single tenors”. Some have tonal basses too

I wish you would watch OSU’s ramp entrance that’s my favorite thing the band does.

You should watch the Purdue All-American Marching Band. Purdue University doesn’t have a music school but their directors are incredible and have one of the best balanced and sounding college marching bands. They have a dedicated YouTube channel that posts fabulous videos (I recommend pregame show). Even if you don’t react to them, it will still be a great band to watch nonetheless! They have historically been one of the first bands to do many things. They were the first band to break ranks and create the iconic block “P” which has now led to all marching bands creating forms on the field.

I’d love to see you watch more Ohio state and big 10 in general, I’ve tried out at Ohio state for a few years and it’s so difficult. I’m hoping to get in next year.

Fantastic choice of bands! I’m so glad you looked at OSU! You should also look at the Ohio University Marching 110. Ohio is proud to have two fantastic marching bands that are less than 60 miles apart from each other!

I would be really cool if you reacted to UTK's Pride of the Southland. Their pregame, and especially their Circle Drill, is incredible