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Whether you're the beloved star quarterback on your school's football team...

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Or the equally beloved star french horn player on your school's marching band... [Boy playing french horn in band]

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You know how important music can be in hyping up both the players and the fans.

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But this tradition didn't start on school football fields. [Football player dancing]

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Brass bands were actually an essential part of the Civil War.

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Yup. We're talking old school. During the American Civil War, regimental

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brass bands were a regular part of both the North and South armies. [Brass band on a stoop]

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These bands—and the songs they played—were seen as essential to the army's spirit. [Band playing as soldier shoots]

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Think of it like exercising – why exercise in silence..

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...when you could exercise to some super-awesome patriotic workout music?

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In fact, famous Confederate General Robert E. Lee once said, “I don't think we could

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have an army without music.”

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So, yeah…music? Mucho important. [Robert E. Lee talking and men playing instruments appear]

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And what song would be more patriotic than our great national anthem, right?

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Unfortunately, the national anthem didn't exist at the time, so each side took up their [Girl playing a piano]

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own individual anthems.

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The Confederates chose a song called Dixie, which sang about how great the land of Dixie

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was, and how it needed to be fought for and protected. [Record spinning]

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And seeing as “Dixie” refers to the Southern United States, and not those tiny little cups, [A sink and a small cup]

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it makes sense why they chose it.

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The North, on the other hand, decided not to go with Dixie because that wouldn't make

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a whole lot of sense, and instead took a tune called “Battle Hymn of the Republic”

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This song's lyrics talked about the Bible and how bad people are judged by God, and [Man playing piano and bible appears]

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compared that to the Civil War, suggesting that their enemies in war were these bad people

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who needed judgment. [Vinyl playing]

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Obviously, the North had a very clear idea as to who they thought were the “good guys”

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in the battle.

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Each side's bands would actually play the songs during the battle. It was kinda like [Bands playing as battle goes on]

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the soundtrack to an action movie… except if that movie was playing two different songs

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at once, which probably got a little bit annoying after a while. [People watching a war movie]

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Once more, bands would often duel one another. Sometimes playing the same song

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over the different lyrics, each advancing their own cause.

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That's right. There were basically civil war freestyle battles going on. [Man on stage at a freestyle battle]

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Except instead of cool rap lyrics and a sick drop, it was civil war chants

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and a brass ensemble.

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Which is cool…in its own way…

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To this day, we can still hear renditions of both songs used in political campaigns, [political campaign boards on lawns]

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movies, and by brass bands across the country – though there's some debate around whether

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or not it's totally cool to use “Dixie,” seeing as it represented the side that was

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down with keeping slavery around.

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So if you want to play it safe, go with the North's.

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Or if you want to pick something controversial, pick something by Justin Bieber. [Brass band playing and Justin Bieber appears]

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He is a Canadian after all.

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