Category Archives: Musical

USC marching band horn section cadence chant/dance

Nationality: Jewish-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/9/2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

INFO:
Note: text in caps is spoken, text in brackets is directions and actions

Set to this drumline cadence:
USC drumline cadence (2007)

DRIVE IT, FRESHMEN – upperclassmen yelling at the freshmen to march in place
HEY, HO, HEY HO WHERE’S HOPO?

OHHHHH, OH YAY! BEAT THE [opposing team’s name], EH!
[sporadically shout EH]
ONE TWO, SOUND OFF, ONE TWO, PENN STATE SUCKS (in call and response; usually men call, women respond)
[imitating a double snare sound], x3 SMOOTH
[swing horn side to side, and make a wiping motion with left hand during SMOOTH]
[Repeat]
HEYYYYYYYYYYY
[raise horns, bells up]
ONE, TWO, THREE FOUR SIX NINE
[spin over your right shoulder]
[repeat entire section]

[galloping sideways]
KILL DESTROY, KILL DESTROY, REPEAT!
[raise horn bells, roll your tongue and scream]
MUHAMMAD ALI
FREAK OUT! HEY EVERYBODY, WATCH THIS!
[jump, while criss-crossing legs and making small arm circles] x2
WHOO! WHOO!
[repeat entire section]

SHAKE WEIGHT! [raise horn and shake it]

KILL, PILLAGE AND BURN
WE’RE GONNA KILL PILLAGE AND BURN AND EAT BABIES
KILL, PILLAGE AND BURN
WE’RE GONNA KILL PILLAGE AND BURN
[repeat entire section]

[insert personalized cheer for whomever is the current USC football head coach] x4

SHAKE WEIGHT! [raise horn and shake it]

KILL, PILLAGE AND BURN
WE’RE GONNA KILL PILLAGE AND BURN AND EAT BABIES
KILL, PILLAGE AND BURN
WE’RE GONNA KILL PILLAGE AND BURN
[repeat entire section]

[insert personalized cheer for whomever is the current USC football head coach] x4

[singsong DOO to the beat of the cadence while spinning and smiling with arms up] WHOO!
HEY I’M HAPPY! HEY [insert random person’s name]’S HAPPY! HEY, EVERYBODY’S HAPPY! HEY, EVERYBODY’S NAKED!

HEY [opposing team’s name]! EAT MY BUTT OUT!
BUT HOW? WITH A FORK, ASSHOLE!
EAT MY BUTT OUT WITH A FORK x2

WHOO! [wave arms in opposing circles] x2
[imitate drum hits] BAM BAM, BUM BUM BUM BUM, GOOSH! [wave arms in opposing circles]

[singsong DOO to the beat of the cadence while spinning and smiling with arms up] WHOO!
HEY I’M HAPPY! HEY [insert random person’s name]’S HAPPY! HEY, EVERYBODY’S HAPPY! HEY, EVERYBODY’S NAKED!

HEY [opposing team’s name]! EAT MY BUTT OUT!
BUT HOW? WITH A FORK, ASSHOLE!
EAT MY BUTT OUT WITH A FORK x2

WHOO! [wave arms in opposing circles] x2
[imitate drum hits] BAM BAM, BUM BUM BUM BUM, GOOSH! [wave arms in opposing circles]

[wait for the drumline to finish their line, then point your horn bell and your hand toward the sky] BADUM, BUM

[while moving arms in circular motions]
BEAT THE [opposing team’s name] x3
THEY ALL SUCK!/THEY WILL LOSE!
[repeat entire section four times, but don’t move arms during any other time]
[note: during the third time, instead of saying THEY ALL SUCK!/THEY WILL LOSE!, say WHOO! twice instead, while raising your arms and leaning back a little bit]

[buzz lips and move your left hand like a puppet mouth] BWA BWA BWA

[wait for the drumline to finish their line, then point your horn bell and your hand toward the sky] BADUM, BUM

[while moving arms in circular motions]
BEAT THE [opposing team’s name] x3
THEY ALL SUCK!/THEY WILL LOSE!
[repeat entire section four times, but don’t move arms during any other time]
[note: during the third time, instead of saying THEY ALL SUCK!/THEY WILL LOSE!, say WHOO! twice instead, while raising your arms and leaning back a little bit]

[buzz lips and move your left hand like a puppet mouth] BWA BWA BWA

HEY, HO, HEY HO, WHERE’S HOPO!

[while swinging horn up and down six times in an exaggerated power walk]
OH! THE ROW! LET’S GO!
[repeat three times, without vocals]
[repeat entire section]

[step left, right, kick with your left]
OHHHHHH!!!!!! [mimicking pulling on a lawnmower to start it]
[while hip-thrusting as walking] OH! OH! OH! OH!
[raise horn bell] THREE, FOUR, SIX, NINE
[repeat entire section]

[repeat entire cadence as needed until the band is called to halt and attention, in which case drive the last five beats and yell DOWN]

BACKGROUND:
Whenever the USC marching band travels as a group, however small, between halts and attentions (called out stops), band members have to chant the cadence in time to the drumlin.

Every section in band has their own lyrics and dances to the cadence. The cadence evolves over time based on whoever the section leaders are and also the current events/history surrounding USC, USC football and the USC band. For example, the cadence line “Everybody’s naked” has to do with a trombone section tradition involving the bi-yearly Notre Dame away game.

CONTEXT:
I spoke to my informant during an on-campus event.

ANALYSIS:
As a former horn marching band member myself, I love the cadence and what it stands for. Even just in my three years as a marching band member, I’ve seen and heard the cadence change not just for my own section, but also for other sections. The changes reflect current events, such as the many head coach changes that we’ve had over the past couple of years, and also random in-band jokes, and as such, serves as a dynamic reflection of both the marching band’s demographics and the strength of the organization’s traditions.

I Don’t Wanna Be a Chicken

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/27/14
Primary Language: English

Text:

“I don’t wanna be a chicken, I don’t wanna be a duck, so shake my butt”

Background:

My informant learned it from a couple girls in second grade who made fun of him and shook their butts at them. He said that it feels like it means an insult because you’re calling the other person a chicken/duck. He remembers being very offended.

Context:

This was a song that was sung from time to time among young kids.

Personal Thoughts:

This seems to be the start of young children learning about gender differences, and a way to cope with them. One could even argue that this was a way that girls started learning about their own sexuality since the butt is a fairly sexualized part on a female’s body. Perhaps this was just a way that kids could bond within their own gender.

Chanda Mama

Nationality: Indian
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/29/14
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: English

Original Text:

“Chanda Mama Door Ke

Puye Pakaye Bhur Ke

Aap Kaye Taali Mein

Mune Ko De Pyali Mein” (Hindi)

Direct Translation: 

Uncle moon from far away

Is making Puye (dessert) with sugar

You eat in a plate and

give the little child a little plate

Background:

This is a lullaby that the informant remembers hearing as a child. His dad mainly sung it to him, although his mom would sing it from time to time too. There was one night that his dad didn’t sing it to him and he couldn’t sleep. The informant said that it reminds him of his childhood now and going to bed.  When I asked if there was a deeper meaning to the lyrics, he said that it seemed pretty nonsensical, but he said that it’s significant that you let parents eat first out of respect.

Context:

The informant’s parents sung this lullaby to him when he was a child. He said it’s a pretty common song that parents would sing to their children in Indian culture.

Personal Thoughts:

When I first asked him what it meant, he said he didn’t know. But when I asked him to type out the lyrics, he started to realize what it meant because he speaks Hindi. I thought this was interesting because the song had simply started to represent a warm feeling of bedtime with parents, rather than what the lyrics actually were talking about.

 

Cure to Song Stuck in Head

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Jose
Performance Date: April 5th, 2014
Primary Language: English

Information about the Informant

My informant is a college student at a community college in San Jose. He’s an avid amateur photographer, and we know each other through going to the same online high school. His family’s very closely-knit, with his parents very involved in the lives of their children. I collected this piece of folklore that him while he was visiting me on campus at USC. I mentioned having a song stuck in my head, and that reminded him of this piece of folklore that he had heard from his father.

Transcript

“My dad has said that, uh, the cure to having a song stuck in your head is the Beatles. It might have been because…that’s an easy one to get stuck in your head and replace whatever else was there before. And it…it’s good, but I’m not actually sure.”

Collector: “Did he just make that up?”

“I don’t know. I think so, but he might have gotten it from one of his more-musical friends.”

Analysis

My informant and his father share a common interest in music, largely fostered through his father sharing his collection of CDs and records with him since my informant was a child. His father constantly shares interesting music and trivia about music with my informant, and this piece of folklore is one of them. The Beatles, in addition to being an English band that’s well-known in America, is also a band that both my informant and his father enjoy, which is probably why my informant’s father decided to share this with him. There are various supposed “cures” for a song that’s stuck in one’s head, usually involving engaging oneself in a mentally strenuous activity, such as a sudoku puzzle or a crossword. This “cure” however isn’t really a cure at all, as it merely replaces one song with another, making it more of a joke with regards to how easily Beatles songs will stick in one’s mind rather than an actual cure.

Kamigami-sama Eisa Dance

Nationality: China
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: March 13, 2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Japanese, Mandarin

Eisa is a traditional Okinawan folk dance, and it uses small handheld drums called paranku. People used to dance eisa during traditional festivals, but now it is just performed for cultural entertainment. It is closely related to taiko.

Our taiko group dances eisa to a song called “Kamigami-sama”. It’s from the soundtrack of Hayao Miyazaki’s movie Spirited Away, and it incorporates many elements of traditional Japanese music. The song’s title means “The Gods”, and it’s actually a silly song about all sorts of gods needing to take all sorts of baths. But people who don’t understand Japanese can’t really tell.

This song has been in our repertoire for quite a number of years now, and we basically just have older members teach the new members every year. Sometimes we might change a bit of the movements or formation, depending on the Artistic Director or on the dancers’ opinions, so each performance is a little different.

Kamigami-sama

—

The informant is the Executive Director of her taiko group, so she is knowledgeable about the group’s repertoire and the stories behind most songs.

It is interesting that this piece is never performed the exact same way more than once, since the performances are never written / made “sacred”. With this more fluid nature, performances of “Kamigami-sama” could potentially take big changes as the years accumulate.