Last stop: The years 2000-2023
The Military Bands After the Wars
From the early 2000s onward, the IDF gradually lost its status as a true “people’s army.” (Tsva HaAm).
The percentage of 18-year-olds enlisting for mandatory service has steadily declined, reaching only about 50 percent of each cohort. Reserve forces were reduced by tens of percent and, over time, were no longer considered a central component of Israel’s routine defensive deployment along its borders.
At the start of the millennium, it was Prime Minister Ehud Barak—a former Chief of Staff—who coined the phrase "A Small and Smart Army." This was an attempt to adapt the IDF to a new Israeli reality, integrating advanced technology into combat and security.
Since then, the face of Israeli society has fundamentally changed.
The era of unified leadership and a single ideological path is gone. Israel was fractured into sectors and segments, divided by social classes and divergent values. There is no longer one dominant "mainstream" voice that sweeps the public along. While shared principles remain, there is no consensus on how to realize them.
Music, too, sounds different.
Rapidly evolving technology has opened an infinite space for musical production, and the internet has provided new channels for distributing and consuming music: YouTube, Spotify, podcasts, and curated playlists. The "Hit Parade" no longer dictates a singer's popularity; instead, stars are born on reality TV singing competitions.
Soldiers are no longer a captive audience for dictated art. They arrive at their military service with smartphones in their pockets, consuming their preferred music through personal playlists and streaming services. Throughout their service, they consume a variety of non-committal entertainment, where the military's musical ensembles are just one minor option among many.
As Israel marks 75 years of independence, and as of 2023, the IDF continues to maintain musical frameworks under the "Entertainment and Culture Branch." Soldiers who enlist and wish to serve as singers, musicians, actors, producers, or sound technicians may be assigned to these roles. These ensembles perform at unit events and state ceremonies, typically featuring a standard setup of keyboards, guitars, and drums.
While these groups are still called "Military Bands," anyone who lived through the 1960s and 70s knows that they are something entirely different from what once existed.
The name remains, but the phenomenon has vanished.
The legendary military bands have moved to the shelves of nostalgia. Their records are sold in second-hand shops, and their stories are told in Facebook groups and websites dedicated to childhood memories. On YouTube and Spotify, their songs still garner millions of plays—accompanied by comments filled with a longing for a time that was good while it lasted, but is now gone.
The Military Bands – Model 2024
Click here or on the image to watch on YouTube
Thus ends the musical journey tracing the ethos of the military bands.
It was a journey across eras—each marked by its own war, each war reshaping Israeli society in its aftermath. And between those eras unfolded countless small encounters: between singing soldiers and combat soldiers, between desert dust and the hit parade, between the army and civilian life.
Each encounter carried within it the texture of existence in Israel—life in a country surrounded by enemies, gathering exiles from distant lands, blending cultures and values, and constantly weaving new narratives.
From those narratives emerged the idea of the “people’s army,” a uniquely Israeli institution that shaped not only security doctrine, but everyday life, culture, memory, and identity.
For a time, the military bands were its soundtrack.
They sang of landscapes and longing, of duty and youth, of collective dreams and private moments.
They accompanied generations of Israelis through wars and ceasefires, marches and ceremonies, hope and disillusionment.
Today, their songs remain—no longer as a living institution, but as echoes.
Echoes of a country finding its voice, of a society believing it could sing itself into unity, and of a moment in history when music, army, and nation moved in step.
This is the last chapter from the musical monograph on Israel’s IDF military bands—an extraordinary cultural phenomenon that flourished between the wars and shaped the music and culture of Israel for over 40 years.
The full monograph spans eight separate chapters, including an introduction, summary, and table of contents. You can explore the complete series by clicking the link below:
Research, Writing, and Editing: Shlomi Rosenfeld
