A long time ago, drums, horns and entire bands of musicians were used as a means of communicating on the battlefield, and supposedly for boosting morale. And I have several questions regarding this.
I can see a bit of music and marching songs building some team spirit on a large scale, but would such music during a battle really inspire soldiers to fight harder, or to not run?
If so, could it still be effective today?
At what point did it become obsolete, for what reasons? Radio and artillery seem like likely suspects, but are there other reasons?
And to what degree may it have been merely a wasteful expression of vanity?
Morale and music in battle
Jeremiah Roberts
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Jaxon Johnson
Tbh i would say that playing soldiers some fast rock or metal before an assault or battle could do wonders to their morale, or at least help pump them with adrenaline
James Allen
Have you been around a big band before playing their hearts out? It gets the blood flowing.
We don't fight in formation anymore.
Angel Garcia
So, take drums or horns and such. You want to make a clearly understandable order to march as a unit. Do you, a) make a recognizable pattern of flat drum hits, or b) make a recognizable short tune. It seems everyone went with b. Was it super effective for raising morale? Probably not, especially if the guy playing got shot. Did it help somewhat in an unquantifiable way? Yeah, probably.
Hudson Torres
First of all, I imagine a large part of music's role was simply keeping time for marching. Marching in perfect time, with everyone's foot hitting the ground at the same time, asserts discipline and order.
Secondly, walking (marching) is monotonous. Soldiers don't walk as much any more. When they were walking for hours on end, hungry and tired, minds wandering, feet sore, music kept them awake and lively. This is probably a large part of what "boosting morale" is - not necessarily building team spirit or encouraging anyone - simply keeping them awake and moving, giving them something to focus on, and just putting a little bit of jollity into a shitty situation.
Thirdly, there probably was a much stronger emotional response back then because wars actually meant something as opposed to the purely political fights we have nowadays. If you're fighting for your country's rights or independence or for a cause you truly believe in, a little tune written about it can keep that cause in the back of your mind. When you're in danger of death, or you're hungry and tired, or you just feel like you want to totally give up, that music makes you remember that you're fighting for something important and don't really WANT to give up.
Ethan Clark
Quintessentially american history knowledge my friend
Colton Flores
Heard the brits did rock some tune when they were charging in the 'stan.
The lost of music is very deary miss tbh, nowadays battles are just about fucking money.
Aaron Rogers
Well the main Polish contribution to military music is the march we used when we hanged people.
Hunter Bailey
The Enemy can hear you when you play loud music. Marching songs are good when you are marching far away from the enemy position, they are fun and make the marching more fun. Singing in enemy territory however is 89iq
Anthony Jackson
He was french tho
Anthony Jones
lol u r an negro
hergen bergen durgen
—Homer
Elijah Gray
heh
Just so you know, Der Untermensch was not anti-Slav, merely anti-Bolshevik.
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niggers
you goyim might not like this truth, but modern military marches started with the Ottomans.
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Connor Baker
He was a mutt.
Jaxon Price
So it's true what they say about Zig Forums and kaycea overlap?
Henry Jones
Zig Forums has flags and the least retarded userbase on hatechan so it isn't surprising there is quite a bit of overlap with kaycee. kohl is fast and shit, ernst is slow but high quality. I think ylilauta is still running a board for the kc rapefugees too.
t. knower
Justin Evans
First and foremost im a Bernd
Juan Gray
Because the guy with the drum is a really obvious target in the middle of a battle, and the time gap between "rifling made the drummer easy to kill" and "pre-recorded music was a thing and robust enough to take into combat" killed off the notion of music and battle going together.
Ethan Scott
Nigger, we have speakers now.
Put speakers on tank or vehicles.
Spread it all around.
Ian Martinez
I was replying to this section of the OP; I suppose I should have quoted it.
Liam Baker
When they invented radios.
Radios. Also nobody fights wars primarily with bayonets anymore. Also not to draw attention. Also because marching band members are more useful as soldiers because those fuckers are absurdly fit.
Jose Rogers
Music used as a way to raise morale during battle? No, at least not by the military. Or at least not in conventional warfare.
During the clashes at Mier City during the infamous Gulf Cartel-Zetas Split, Zetas were reportedly blasting their narcocorridos through the speakers of their trucks during the gunfights. So when the Mexican Marines were patrolling the turf after the government reinforcements arrived, they started to raise the volume of their stereos to make know to the sicarios they were approaching. Yes it was a retarded idea but that was their approach to psyops