Popular Band Songs
Turn on any college football game this season and you’re bound to hear the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” which in the past several years, has become a stadium rally cry. But college marching bands aren’t just looking at Detroit garage-rock for inpsiration, and in fact, are more in line with the pop charts than ever. Here’s 10 mind-blowing modern covers done by marching bands at these select institutions of higher learning.
This is for you pop. 1) The Liberty Bell - Band Of Grenadier Guards 2) Colonel Bogey March - Band Of R. Skip navigation. FAMOUS MARCHING BAND MUSIC oldiesfan1968. Popular marching band songs. 25 Or 6 To 4 - Chicago. Alexander's Ragtime Band - Irving Berlin. All About That Bass - Meghan Trainor. Basin Street Blues - Louis Armstrong. Classical Gas - Mason Williams. Conga - Miami Sound Machine. Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne. Everything Is Awesome - Tegan and Sara.
Carly Rae Jespen, “Call Me Maybe” (University of California at Berkeley)
When Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” was released in February 2012, it was inescapable for the rest of the year, blasting out on every radio, TV, and iPod in three-minute intervals. It’s only fitting that a marching band would absorb the song’s ubiquity into its act. As Cal swings through the chorus, the audience happily sings along and shows that when it comes to the modern hits, people just can’t get enough.
No Doubt, “Spiderwebs” (Iowa State University)
Although No Doubt vocalist Gwen Stefani would go on to utilize the marching band aesthetic more directly with her first solo album, it’s a hit from the band’s third album, Tragic Kingdom, that gets the collegial re-working. It makes sense in a way: Tragic Kingdom found No Doubt transitioning from a high school ska band into one of the biggest rock acts of all time. As a nod to the band’s brass beginnings, Iowa State increases the song’s horn backing by a hundred fold and takes it from a ska-tinged rocker to a wall of trumpets.
Kanye West, “All of the Lights” (Temple University)
On the fourth single from Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the rapper doesn’t want some of the lights, he wants all of the lights. It’s only fitting that Temple blows up the song into its most grandiose form with a version loud enough to fill a stadium. Would Kanye approve … or is this version not big enough?
Skrillex Medley (Michigan State)
The popularity of EDM proves to be frutiful in the marching band setting, as Michigan State performs a medley of Skrillex remixes, only to stop playing halfway through the performance, and do the world’s largest simultaneous beat drop. Michigan State seems to be asking: does a marching band even need to actually play its instruments to be a marching band?
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, “Thriftshop” (University of Idaho Pep Band)
Macklemore will be the first to tell you that “Thriftshop” has a serious message but it’s housed in a silly exterior. Acknowledging the song’s anything goes atmosphere, University of Idaho blows that twisting sax line up into a massive, ancient Roman battle cry. The song is also fitting: like the clothes at a thrift shop, most of those sweaty pep band and marching band outfits are in their second, or third, or fourth generation of use, much to the members’ dismay.
Robin Thicke, “Blurred Lines” (Jackson State)
“Blurred Lines” might have Robin Thicke’s name at the top, but it’s Pharrell’s sparse, catchy percussion that drives the tune. Like so many salsa and meringue tunes, the song’s energetic and repetitive nature gets up inside your skull and just bounces around forever. Relying on Pharrell’s expertise, Jackson State used the song as a foundation for their huge drum line in order to infect an entire stadium with the tune.
Psy, “Gangnam Style” (Ohio University)
“Gangnam Style” was designed to be ridiculous. The video features Psy dancing through a trash storm. He gets straddled in an elevator. He wears a suit that even Bob Eubanks would turn down. So, it’s even more ridiculous for an entire marching band to do the whacked out “Gangnam” Style dance, complete with male-on-male straddle … and by ridiculous, we mean ridiculously awesome.
Daft Punk Medley (Western Washington University Viking Band)
Acknowledging Daft Punk’s dedication to performance and robotic showmanship along with the music, Western Washington University put on an entire Daft Punk tribute complete with raver glow sticks, Tron suit clad dancers, and strobe lights. Just like Daft Punk works best in a packed club, the band’s thick sounds reverberate through the gymnasium.
Cee Lo, “Fuck You” (Southern University)
Although the original version of Cee Lo’s nasty named anthem never hit the radio, everyone knew what the watered down version declared when he sang “Forget You.” You have to admit that it’s somewhat subversive to have a marching band play an instrumental form of this vicious revenge song.
Beyonce Medley (University of Michigan)
In order to up the ante, the University of Michigan recently brought in a ringer for their Beyonce medley – Queen B herself! Mrs. Carter appears on the jumbo tron and blesses the performance. Does this signify a new era of celebrity endorsed marching bands? Will we see Lil Wayne backing PSU? Nicki Minaj giving props to Pitt? Only if we’re lucky.
The internet offers a lot of things and among them is free music. You can find plenty of websites that offer free downloadable music; however, not all of them are legal. So if you are looking for songs that can be availed safely and free of cost, we have handpicked the best music websites for you.
How to download music for free?
There are lots of people who aren’t sure where to download free music from or how to download songs. To help you out, I have created this following list of best free music download sites. Just visit the links given below and look for download symbols. These sites will offer you free music downloads with just a single click.
Before going checking out these music sites, do take a look at our other lists of free and legal services:
Top 11 music download websites 2019
1. SoundCloud
SoundCloud is one of the popular music sites that lets you stream unlimited music and download songs for free. In fact, it is also viewed as the best Spotify alternative where you can get online music without paying.
In this online music streaming community, the content is uploaded by independent artists and famous musicians. You can search for songs through bands or artists tags in the search bar. SoundCloud was also recently featured on our list of India’s best music streaming services. It contains a relatively small but very enjoyable collection of remix Hindi songs that can be downloaded for free.
However, not all music at SoundCloud is free, and some of them even require you to Like a Facebook page to obtain the track. But many of them can be downloaded instantly by hitting the Free Download button right below the soundtrack.
Visit SoundCloud website
2. ReverbNation
This music website is behind the popularity of bands like Alabama Shakes, The Civil Wars, and Imagine Dragons. It is ReverbNation where they started getting recognition by sharing their music for free and gathering a huge loyal fanbase.
ReverbNation offers free music downloads from a variety of genres, but their collection is well known for pop, alternative, and hip-hop. At present this site caters to nearly 4 million artists, labels, and users and provides a great user experience to music lovers through its impressive catalog.
For those who’d like to discover more can do so through the music website’s Discover section which brings a good collection of audio songs to download.
Visit ReverbNation website
3. Jamendo
The songs uploaded at Jamendo Music are protected by the Creative Commons license, which means you can safely download music offered on the website. All the content present on this site is independent music, so if you are searching for mainstream tracks, you will probably have to look somewhere else or pay for it.
Jamendo is best suited for music explorers as they have well-curated playlists and radio stations that are regularly updated. In case you want to license music for your video, commercial, or film, Jamendo also offers a rich collection at fair prices.
Visit Jamendo Music website
4. SoundClick
SoundClick is the best place to download music directly from artist’s websites. There are several artists on the platform offering their music for free. You can also buy licensed songs or download free ones legally.
One can explore the huge collection of songs available there according to genres. You can stream or download them as per your needs, once you have signed up on the website.
Even though this free music download website is a little cluttered and the UI isn’t that friendly, there are some cool features such as creating custom radio stations, interacting with other listeners on the forum and reading more about your favorite SoundClick artists.
There is also a feature that lets you mail personalized e-cards to anyone with themes such as birthday, valentine’s day or party with custom text and any background music of your choice on SoundClick.
Visit SoundClick website
5. Audiomack
Audiomack is an emerging music sharing platform that has a user-friendly interface which makes it the best SoundCloud alternative. This free music download website is a hub for artists, labels, and music lovers for discovering amazing music.
It has well-categorized sections such as Trending, Top Songs and Top Albums that will help you to discover great songs. The trending music section has the hottest Hip Hop, Electronic, and Reggae listed in real-time which has made quite popular among the young population.
Not all the songs on Audiomack are free but many artists offer their tracks and remixed music for free downloading. But you can stream an unlimited number of songs through the website on desktop PC, or on phones through free iOS and Android app.
Visit Audiomack website
Also Read: Free Sports Streaming For 2019
6. NoiseTrade
NoiseTrade has an amazing collection of albums by several artists who want you to check out their creations. In case you like the song and, you can render your support to them by making a donation.
Music on this website is completely free and legal to take. However, the songs can be streamed partially and to obtain full access or download an album, you will have to trade your email address and postal code.
Once you are done with it, the album will be saved as a ZIP file containing the MP3 tracks. Finding new songs on NoiseTrade is also quite easy. Just check out the Trending section and Top Downloads.
Visit NoiseTrade website
7. Internet Archive (Audio Archive)
Internet Archive’s audio section not only offers you free music but also brings audiobooks, podcasts, radio programs and live music. The audio library contains over 2 million free digital audio files.
Even though the songs aren’t well categorized, music lovers can sort the audio tracks available according to the year of publish, creator, language, and other filters such as most viewed, media type, topics & subjects. These categories can be a little confusing, yet upon searching hard enough one can still find some amazing songs.
I was able to find free music downloads from all kinds of artists and even the global, mainstream songs ones from Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, Coldplay, and Kendrick Lamar. The best part is you can download music safely and free in multiple file formats such as MP3 and OGG.
Visit Internet Archive’s Audio Library
8. Last.fm
When Last.fm was created in 2002, it initially functioned as an internet radio station. But in 2005, Audioscrobbler adopted the site.
It implemented a music recommendation system that collects data from different media players and music streaming websites to create customized individual profiles based on users’ musical taste and listening habits.
What’s unknown to many users is that Last.fm is one of the best music websites to download songs for free. You can check out the list of downloadable songs from through the “Free Music Downloads” link present at the bottom of the page or by clicking here.
Visit Last.fm website
9. CCTrax
Songs on CCTrax are available as Creative Common music so it’s free and safe to download music from this platform. The website has a nice layout where you can search for music according to license, genre, label, and artist.
However, the website offers online songs in a handful of categories such as Electronica, Dub, Techno, Ambient, etc. But you can listen to or download the tunes without creating an account and there is also an option of getting the entire album at once.
Visit CCTrax website
10. Epitonic
Epitonic is a curated site that has an immense collection of free and legal MP3s available for streaming and downloading. Started in the year 1999, it is probably one of the oldest websites offering free MP3 online created by established, indie-leaning labels and artists.
You can explore new tracks through its web-based audio stream and create your personalized playlist on the website by signing up. The site has been categorized according to labels, artists, and genres to help you discover good music.
Visit Epitonic website
11. YouTube
YouTube is one of the largest sites on the internet offering unlimited video streaming and many of us also use it as a music streaming service because it has almost all kinds of music in it.
But the reason I have placed it at the end is that obtaining songs from YouTube is tricky. Not all songs on YouTube are downloadable but you can search for songs by setting a Creative Commons license filter and the genre you want.
Music tracks with CC license are free and safe to download but depending on the license terms, you might need to credit the artist before using in your video or any other platform.
Visit YouTube website
Listen to free music
Premium music streaming services like Apple Music, Prime Music, Spotify, etc., also provide free trials for listening and downloading songs; you can try them out as well.
Coming back to completely free solutions, the above list contains the best sources where you can find an unlimited number of songs without any cost. However, I would like to clarify that not all musical tracks on these platforms are for free as some of them are paid and available only for free music streaming.
Download free music and start grooving!
One might argue why download free music when you can just stream it. Well, streaming online music is cool but what do you do when your mobile network connection or Wi-Fi is down? That’s where you need offline music, and the best part is you can carry your favorite tracks wherever you go without spending a single penny.
This is why I have listed down the aforementioned websites on the basis of ease of use and popularity. However, in my personal opinion, the audio section of the Internet Archive makes it the best free music download website because I can find almost every artist there. You are free to choose the one which suits you the best, so go ahead and explore these sites.
In case you didn’t like anything on these websites, here’s a list of best free radio apps where you can explore new music.
List of best websites to download Hindi songs for free and legally
The sites mentioned on this list mostly provide English MP3 songs and tracks with the exception of SoundCloud, which offers a small but decent collection of Hindi songs. Recently I found that a lot of readers search for free and legal sites to download Hindi songs as well. So I was thinking of covering that too in another article. Do let us know in the comment box whether you’d like us to cover Hindi songs websites as well!
Also Read: Free And Best Android Music Players