Marching Bands Go Gaga for Lady Gaga

(Aug. 13) -- As a genre, marching band music hasn't topped the charts since the days of composer John Philip Sousa, but it's still a good way to get the beat of what's big in pop culture.

If that's the case, then Lady Gaga's music should be heard as much on football fields as it is in dance clubs this fall.

According to Michael Sweeney, the director of band publications for Hal Leonard Music, the country's largest publisher of marching band music, the most requested songs from high school bandleaders are Lady Gaga's biggest hits: "Bad Romance," "Poker Face" and "Just Dance."

"Those songs have rhythmic tempos and driving riffs, and they are easy to learn," Sweeney said.

Sweeney said that on a year-to-year basis, the most requested arrangements reflect the pop charts -- or at least the pop charts from 2009, since there is a lag time in writing versions of top pop hits that will be suitable for 76 trombones and however many flutes, trumpets or saxes are on hand.

But the marching band charts differ from the pop charts in at least one respect: They are more accepting of older songs.

For instance, even though Hal Leonard Music has sold arrangements of Michael Jackson songs like "Thriller" and Jackson 5 hits like "I Want You Back" and "ABC" for the past decade, the King of Pop's death last year has pushed those songs back to the top of the sales list, Sweeney said.

"We're getting a lot of interest in Jackson's music this year," he said. "But his music has always done well."

The lag time between a song becoming a hit on the radio and its transfer to the marching band circuit means Sweeney doesn't always get surprised, but he admitted he was caught off guard by how the comedy-drama TV series "Glee" has affected sales -- especially since it focuses on a show choir, not a marching band.

"'Glee' has brought back a certain nostalgia for some of the songs that are played on the show, such as 'Don't Stop Believing,'" he said. "That was a huge crossover we hadn't expected."

Dustin Oldenberg of CopyCat Licensing, a company that helps high school and college marching bands, is also a believer in "Don't Stop Believing," but gets requests for Gaga songs and even Katy Perry's "Waking Up in Vegas."

However, he said the sleeper hit for this year's marching band circuit may be "Aha," a tune by British singer-songwriter Imogen Heap, which is getting many requests.

Meanwhile, Michael Yonchak, the director of bands at Otterbein University in Columbus, Ohio, said the success of "Glee" has been positive in that it has inspired many teachable moments.

"The students will hear a song on 'Glee' like 'Don't Stop Believing' and will want to do it," Yonchak said. "Well, I remember it when it came out -- well, not right when it came out. But I can say, 'Well, have you heard the original?'

"That's also worked with 'Guitar Hero.' That game has introduced a lot of classic rock songs to a new generation, and many bands are adding those songs to their repertoire," he said.

Although many band directors have the final word on song choice, Christine Ngeo Katzman, publisher and editor-in-chief of Halftime Magazine, a print publication and website devoted to the sights, sounds and spirit of the marching arts, says the good ones get their students involved.

"Band directors have to give the students lots of leeway of what songs to play because they know what will get the fans excited," she said.

Music instructor James Lindroth, the assistant director of bands at the University of South Florida in Tampa, sees the benefits of incorporating the latest hits into the marching band repertoire, but he likes when it goes the other way around, such as last year when his band collaborated with rapper B.o.B on a commercial for ESPN.

Still, he hopes that his musicians will view the contemporary tunes as a starter course, not the main dish.

"As a band director, you want to grab songs from movies like 'Avatar' or 'Glee' -- stuff that the kids are listening to, but what you want to play at halftime is something that is more difficult -- especially if you're competing against other schools," he said.

Otterbein University's Yonchak shares that opinion.

"The athletic bands should have pop music components; the kids like playing it and the audiences like hearing it," Yonchak said. "I've bought into Shakira and Beyonce. My only concern is that we incorporate pop, but also harder tunes that challenge the students."

That said, Yonchak is no fuddy-duddy. He says that the music of AC/DC and Led Zeppelin both lend themselves well to the marching band format.

"'A guitar-driven song like 'Back in Black' has good stuff for the tuba and the trombones, while Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song' has those high melodic lines that sound good on the trumpet."

But Yonchak says that what is considered marching band music can differ, depending on whether it's being played by a show band in competition with other bands, a drum corps or a "stand band."

"Show bands are most affected by top 40 music, and a lot of the beat is disco-influenced, while drum corps often favor movie themes and complicated rhythmic structures," he said.

Meanwhile, the most experimental are the bands in the stands that play riffs in between football plays.

"For instance, our 'stand band' will play the fanfare to 'Monty Python's Flying Circus,' but I'm not sure if everyone listening gets it," Yonchak said. "At my school, that's where you're likely to hear Lady Gaga, the Black Eyed Peas or even the theme to Super Mario Brothers -- that's always popular."

As for what current songs may catch on, Sweeney said that it's too soon to tell. Although there might be a demand for current hits like Perry's "California Gurls," he is looking for songs that have the potential for long-term success, such as "I Got a Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas.

Many of the same songs that are potentially popular with marching bands could also find success with show choirs, but those groups have to take the sometime salacious words of today's pop music into account, something that doesn't affect marching bands.

"We don't have to take lyrics into consideration," Sweeney said. "Just whether the song has a catchy tune."