What recent popular songs would work for drum corps?

[Avert67]

Sigur ros is kinda popular these days...well as popular as icelandic post rock is ever gonna get haha. I've always imagined a lot of their songs translating well to the field...maybe for a reallyreallyreally effective ballad.

[skywhopper]

Heh, I clearly underestimated the loathing for "pop" music on this board. I agree that the Billboard #1 hits are probably not the best drum corps fodder, but if you look at the Amazon top 100 best selling CDs, there's a lot of artists that might feed well into DCI if carefully arranged: Arcade Fire, Interpol, Muse, Black Keys.

As for harmonic complexity, hooray I suppose, but there are plenty of other ways to create musical interest, too. 13th chords are not the end all of musical expression. I think the Blue Stars' repetoire this year is a great example of complex, challenging music with little harmonic complexity, intentionally so. Cavie's 09 used a little of "On the Dominant Divide" from Grand Pianola Music. That's just I-V-I-V-I-V-I-... and it's a brilliant work. I wish they'd used more of it.

[Todd Tanji]

Best use of a pop tune in the past 10 years is "Dancer in the Dark" by Bjork by 2005 Cadets.

Harmonically simple, but beautifully orchestrated.

Edited August 31, 2010 by BDUFLS

[fsubone]

I actually think an Imogen Heap show would work well. Bluecoats and BDB both did Aha! this year, and BDB did Hide and Seek last year. I think a show of that would work really well, put together those two songs and maybe one or two other ones, and I think you'd have a pretty effective show.

[fsubone]

Best use of a pop tune in the past 10 years is "Dancer in the Dark" by Bjork by 2005 Cadets.

Very harmonically simple but beautifully orchestrated.

For sure, and I think a big part of the reason the orchestration was so good was because it was also from a film score. Dancer in the Dark is a good movie if anyone wants to check it out, that piece is the title track from it.

[bluecoats88]

For sure, and I think a big part of the reason the orchestration was so good was because it was also from a film score. Dancer in the Dark is a good movie if anyone wants to check it out, that piece is the title track from it.

Bluecoats also did this in I believe 2002

[Tom Brace]

American Anthem by Norah Jones.

Great luscious ballad potential here.

[N.E. Brigand]

I'll leave with a quote by Arvo Part, the modern Estonian composer (go look him up and listen to some of his music, you might like it!) -- "I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me".

Amusingly, I've only heard of Arvo Pärt because the critic whom I lately quoted before as not liking "Belshazzar's Feast" (whose comments B8 responded to quite thoroughly) identified Pärt's "Cantus" as the greatest piece of music composed in his lifetime.

[WOOHOO]

Many of the songs listed in this thread were really never popular per se.

[Nederland]

Gotta dig into the Steely Dan catalog.

Fred O.

I think this could work..