TLDR — Military Bands, Music, Art, Culture
- Music is not a universal language. It’s “universal like language.” You can copy sounds and still miss intent.
- Most conflict is a context problem. Better “conditions” beat better arguments. Music can help create those conditions.
- Military bands are “soft power.” It’s also more human and organic than most people assume.
- Setlists aren’t mainly about censorship. They’re about audience, energy, and respect. Though certain songs can be restricted based on profanity or the artist’s politics.
- Cultural exchange can honor — or disrespect. It’s important to remain humble and take on a learner mindset when performing pieces from other cultures.
- Art is functional and necessary, not a nice extra to have. It stabilizes people and communities.
- Bonding through music is measurable. Group singing increases feelings of connection and markers linked to endorphins.
- Where YOU come in: Watch the full podcast episode, then share it with one person who would benefit from it.
Meet Military Band Veteran Alex Nikiforoff
You’re on stage at an event in a country you’ve never visited before, about to perform. It might be for a military base ceremony. It might be for a foreign summit. It might be for dignitaries, soldiers, or even children in poverty.
The mood is tight. People are polite, but guarded. They have their arms crossed while their eyes scan the room, trying to read everyone.
Then you and your colleagues play the first notes of that night’s setlist. In a single moment, the mood shifts. Shoulders drop. Faces soften.
This was Alex Nikiforoff’s life for 23 years as a working musician inside the U.S. military. Starting in the Marine Corps, he would ultimately perform music in the Army National Guard and Air Force, as well.
Given his experience, Alex has a lot to say about the intersection of art, music, culture, and power. So when he reached out to me after hearing my podcast with session musician Lance Ruby, I was happy to sit down with him.
Here are a few of the most actionable takeaways from our interview.
Is Music Really a Universal Language?
I started out by asking one of the most thought-provoking questions I could: Is music a universal language?
Alex’s response was to note that this oft-spoken phrase isn’t really accurate, at least in his experience. He suggested a minor tweak to make the adage truer:
“Music is universal like language.“
Every culture has language and every culture has music. But that doesn’t mean you automatically understand each other. You can learn the notes and know the content, but still miss the intent.
Indeed, a lot of cultural conflict rests in these exact mistakes:
- Confusing fluency with understanding.
- Thinking similarity means there is a shared meaning.
- Believing that being able to perform something is the same as respecting it.
So as we move deeper into this, I want to give you something to keep in mind and return to: Music is a mirror for how humans communicate. And the best communication happens when you have shared context and a truly mutual understanding of each other.
When we don’t have this, a lot of times what we’re actually engaging in isn’t so much communication, as talking past each other. We can both be using the same words, but with wildly different intent.
How Musical Structure Changes What Music Can Convey
If you’re a musical amateur like me, you might believe that the major keys are for happy songs and minor keys are for sad songs.
Alex calls that a “distilled” Western lens. And he points out the obvious truth: Humans don’t have two emotions. We have anxiety. Apprehension. Excitement with fear mixed in. Joy with grief underneath it.
Then he goes deeper.
Some musical systems don’t even use seven notes per scale. They might use five. Or twenty! He describes microtones as a kind of expanded vocabulary. More “words” means more ways to express yourself.
Thinking about this, especially when considering that half of American adults now read at or below a 6th grade reading level, it’s honestly no wonder that our politics have become so polarized.
It’s not just a morality issue. Sometimes the problem is vocabulary. We are trying to discuss a 20-note reality with a 7-note language.
What Military Bands Actually Do
Eventually I got around to asking Alex a pretty loaded question: Are military bands propaganda?
Alex responds by saying that the military absolutely uses music as a messaging tool. They call music a “soft power” for this reason. Soft power is a real thing in international relations, where culture is used to influence people and countries in a non-coercive way.
Alex says the band’s job, in multinational settings, is often to smooth the environment. Not to promote policies or sell war, but to remind everyone there are shared human goals. Goals like safety, family, health, and achievement.
By doing that, Alex says, it allows for a more relaxed opportunity to have hard talks.
Music Really Does Enhance Social Bonding
Studies on group singing and music-making back this notion up. They consistently find increases in social connection, positive emotion, and measures linked to endorphins. Other work describes singing as a fast ice-breaker for bonding.
Music doesn’t erase conflict, but it can reduce the perception of threat. And threat is what makes humans stupid. When we feel threatened, we narrow our scope and move toward black-and-white thinking.
So if you want real diplomacy — between nations or neighbors — you don’t just need better talking points. You need better conditions to make those points in.
That’s the under-discussed value of the arts.
The Line Between Influence and Propaganda
Certainly the line can be blurry between music as cultural exchange and music as propaganda. To be clear, I’m not writing this — nor did I interview Alex — as part of a flag-waving commercial.
I did it because, as Alex notes himself, humans are not monolithic. And neither are institutions.
These two things can be true at once:
- The U.S. has used culture for influence.
- Music is a bridge, even inside compromised systems.
I don’t trust institutions by default, but I also don’t think we should dehumanize the people inside them, either. If we want a less violent world, we need more nuance and understanding.
What Music the Military Allows Bands to Play
At one point, I asked Alex what’s allowed and what’s forbidden when it comes to music setlists.
Alex says most things are fair game, with obvious exceptions.
He names two big filters:
- Excessive profanity can turn off audiences.
- Strong politics can imply the military endorses a stance.
He gives a blunt example: Military bands probably wouldn’t play Kid Rock because his politics are part of his public persona.
However, Alex notes that music isn’t necessarily filtered by artists. It’s filtered more by energy and purpose. At an orphanage? Play kids’ songs. Special operations team about to roll out?
Fire them up with ACDC or Pantera. Parade? Use hymnal marching music.
It’s a lot less about what is and is not allowed. It’s more about what fits the occasion.
Cultural Exchange Without Cultural Cosplay
Cultural exchange can be beautiful. But it can also come off colonial or disrespectful.
Alex describes trying to learn local music to honor the culture. But he also notes the risk. You can do it wrong, or diminish and marginalize what you meant to respect.
He’s honest about the imbalance between American culture and other cultures, too. America is a melting pot that is about 250 years old, he says. Other cultures carry thousands of years of history.
So if you show up with disposable pop culture music like Katy Perry and act like it’s equal to an ancient prayer hymnal, you can look ridiculous or disrespectful.
Alex says the best approach is to come at it less like a cultural exchange of comparable content, and more like simple appreciation of each culture, wherever they’re at.
I think this is the basis for a great guideline that can help separate the blurry line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation:
- Aim to appreciate, not compete or compare
- Ask permission before borrowing.
- Credit the source.
In other words:
Be a learner, not a performer.
That applies to music, culture, politics, religion, tradition, fashion, and so much more.
Military Bands: A Study in Extreme Contrasts and Catharsis
Alex describes playing in Angola and seeing extreme inequality. One day he was performing at a five-star hotel with political leaders. The next afternoon he was playing in a dirt patch with kids without clothes or shoes.
He details the way your internal attitude has to change with each performance and event. You can’t bring a “cocktail hour grin” into a survival moment.
They were there to play music, yes. But also to build connection. And when they played for the “have-nots,” Alex and his bandmates always tried to bring supplies like school items and water.
Alex’s experience playing for different audiences highlights one of the understated truths of performing music: Situational empathy. Because art is not always about self-expression. Often, it’s also about shining a light on others, and making them feel seen and heard.
Later, Alex describes moments where service members would vent before or after shows. He makes it clear that he’s not a counselor or priest. But he’d tell people, basically:
“Share some of your weight with me.”
Because, at the end of the day, music absolutely provides therapy, connection, and catharsis.
Not Everything Valuable is Measurable
Alex says it’s hard to quantify the impact of military bands. You can count attendance. You can count views. But the deeper impact is indirect.
He compares it to knowing the exact moment you started liking pizza. Most likely, you don’t. It’s something that has always been that way or developed slowly over time.
The way we approach the value of military bands, and the arts in general, speaks to an unsettling truth: Very often, these days, we only honor what we can measure. (And the measurement system is often profit.)
But that turns humans into spreadsheets. Art suffers first — then empathy, followed by community. Eventually even larger systems suffer; like our system of democracy.
So when people ask, “Why fund arts programs?” Or, “Why keep bands?” Alex makes a concrete point: The cost can be tiny compared to impact.
He tells a story about telling his pilot brother the band’s annual budget, and the brother replying that he “can’t even fuel up” a plane for that.
You don’t have to agree with every military dollar to understand the logic: If something builds cohesion, lowers tension, and connects communities, cutting it isn’t actually penny-wise. It’s soul-stupid.
What is Art? What Makes Something “High Art” or “Low Art”?
I asked Alex another thought-provoking question: What is art?
He responded by saying you can make art out of almost anything — even making an omelet or drawing a picture for your wife’s lunchbox.
He also rejects the “high art” / “low art” hierarchy. He says that people want music to be like writing the Constitution on a grain of rice. But military bands often have to paint with “broader strokes” to reach many audiences.
It’s not unlike the contrast between, say, a Van Gogh and a comic book.
One isn’t necessarily inferior. They both serve different audiences and hold different functions for those audiences.
The Unspoken Value of Music & Art
A society that devalues art and music is a society that ultimately destroys itself.
It gets less flexible and less elastic in its thinking, becoming more rigid and brittle. That makes it less adaptable, less capable of evolving. What’s worse, a lack of art and empathy leads to the normalization of violence.
So if you care about peace, and if you care about having a country or culture that can survive an thrive, you should care about the arts.
Communication Through Arts and Music
A lot of civilians don’t know how to talk to military members, or even understand their experiences. Civilians often worry they’ll say the wrong thing. Meanwhile, a lot of military members feel vilified or misunderstood.
We can take lessons from art and music in bridging this divide. It’s not necessarily about saying all the right things or hitting all the right notes. It’s about crafting a safe presence.
And music can be a shared container when words fail. I don’t say this poetically. I say it as a matter of utility. Music-based interventions show evidence for reducing anxiety in clinical settings.
What To Take Away From This
The point of this episode is not that the military is good or evil. Or music is amazing or farcical. The point is that humans need tools for connection.
And music is one of the oldest tools we have. Here are simple ways to apply what Alex shared.
Do an intent check during a hard conversation
If a musician can copy a song’s notes, but miss the larger meaning, so can you.
If you find yourself in a hard conversation, make sure you understand the other person’s intent. A simply question like “When you say X, what do you mean?” can work wonders. Then mirror what you heard back in one sentence. Not with the intention of being right, but with the intention of increasing understanding.
Speaking of which, make sure you’ve thought intentionally about your own reasons for engaging in a difficult conversation. What do you hope to take away from it?
Warm up and lower your threat level
Alex describes music smoothing tense environments so talks can happen more calmly. Do the same thing at the beginning of a hard conversation:
- Name a shared goal: “I want us to feel safe and be on the same team.”
- Take 60 seconds to share a calming song, short walk, or cup of tea.
This is a great way to see each other as a team vs. the problem; rather than you vs. them.
Practice reading the room empathetically
Remember Angola? Remember Alex’s offer to share the weight of other’s burdens?
When you’re in a hard conversation with someone, ask them:
- What do you need right now?
- Do you want solutions, listening, or resources?
- Do you want advice, or do you want me to listen?
Your attitude has to change based on the room.
Where To Go From Here
Pick one of these and do it today.
- If you feel yourself stereotyping “the military,” then text one veteran you trust and ask, “What do you wish civilians understood?”
- If you feel yourself stereotyping “civilians,” then ask, “What do you think people get wrong about why we enlist?”
- If you feel stuck in the same arguments, then do an intent check before replying.
- If you feel tense before a hard talk, then do a 60-second warm start with music.
How to Support Work Like This
Watch the full podcast episode with Alex Nikiforoff, then share it with one person who could use a more human, nuanced view of music, the military, and cultural exchange.
Not as an endorsement of any institution or way of living, but simply as a path toward curiosity and understanding.
FAQ: Military Bands, Music, Art, Culture, and Power
Are military bands propaganda?
They can be used as soft power, meaning influence through culture. Alex also describes them as a tool to reduce tension so hard talks can happen.
Why can’t military bands play anything they want?
Alex says most music is fine, but heavy profanity and strong political association can send the wrong message. He says energy and audience context matter most when deciding on what music to perform.
How is music used for cultural exchange?
Bands may learn local music to honor a host culture, but Alex warns it’s “touchy” because doing it wrong can diminish what you meant to respect.
Does music really help people bond?
Research on group singing finds increases in feelings of connection and measures linked to endorphins. Other work describes singing as a fast path to social bonding.
What if I’m uncomfortable with the military, but I love music?
You don’t have to resolve that tension to learn from this episode. It is useful precisely because it sits in the middle of art inside systems, humans inside institutions, and connection inside conflict.