Why do college band leaders wear those big hats and lean backwards till it touches the ground?

Question

I've been editing these university videos and most of them have these band leaders who march infront of the school band and then they stop in the middle of the field and lean backwards until the top of their tall hat touches the field. Why do they wear those hats and why do they touch the ground with it?

Answer 1

First of all, they're not band leaders, they're drum majors. Band leaders are the professors who actually conduct, teach and lead the band. Drum majors are students.

The reason they do that is that most universities are very slow to give up their traditions and traditionally, bands had a drum major and the uniform he wears now differs very little from what he wore 80 years ago. You may notice that many marching bands never change their style of marching, uniforms or instrumentation.

You'll probably notice in your editing that the colleges that do that - are older colleges, usually at least 100-150 years old.

Happy editing!