HOT Stands Music

[USFCollin]

Thread was turning into a music discussion (which is fine by me)... so I moved some ideas over here.  Tell me what everyone thinks:

Please remember this is just a rough draft, I'll put together a full proposal later:)

First, #8 is the best thing the band has ever done.  If you bleed green and gold and that song doesn't get you fired up, clearly you're already dead.  I think its time to take it a step further, and add some words.  Not a lot of them, just four.  There seem to be four emphasized beats before the horn section comes in, so what if the entire band yelled some words on those beats at the same time:  i.e.

1st beat: FIGHT!

2nd beat: ON!

3rd beat:  BULLS!

4th beat:  CHARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGE!

As the music gets faster and faster, with the crowd screaming in unison, I think this could really fire up the troops.  Plus if the words catch on, they could really become a "back-of-the-T-Shirt" type slogan, such as "Boomer Sooner," "Gator Bait," "War Eagle" "Wooooo Pig Sooey," etc.  

Secondly, one song the entire crowd can sing at the same time of every game.  I previously recommended "I'm So Glad I go to U of M" from Memphis (USFHOTPR, did you find a .mp3 of it?  If not, let me know), as a starting point.  And it has to be played at the same time each game.  

Memphis plays it at the first media timeout of the second half every single game so the fans know its coming.  I know Kansas does "Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk" at the under 12:00 in basketball.  But its gotta be a song everyone can sing.  "Hey Baby, I wanna know" is great, because of the crowd participation.  I think if we could find a popular song and tie it to the Bulls (even if via changing a word or two), that would be ideal.  Its such a shame the theme from Rocky doesn't have any words, it would be perfect.  

For football, I'd say the best time would be between the third and fourth quarter.  Everyone sings and gets fired up for the final 15 minutes.  But to me the key is finding something where everyone can get involved.  No matter what you select, its going to take at least 3 football games to make it stick.  Just keep with it, and if its good the crowd will get on board eventually.  

Third, one of the most impressive things I've seen was at the Miami game with their band playing the "Imperial March" from Star Wars every single time their defense took the field.  Add that to the entire student section waving a two-handed "U" towards the field; it was about as good a tradition as I've seen.  Can we find a similar piece of music that strikes fear in the hearts of opponents?  No easy task I'm sure, but if you can do that... the students will find something for the crowd to do at the same time.  

Lastly, the drumline after games is just awesome... is there anyway to have the drumline start immediately after the game in the stands, be let onto the field after everyone starts heading back to the lockers, then leave out the tunnel under the student section and meet the students who are leaving Ray Jay as they're heading home?  Don't know if its feasible, but a lot of students might stay behind for the drumline, especially if we could give them a participatory vocal line in it somewhere.  

Again, rough draft here... other ideas?

[bullman3]

I liked to the new cheer song you guys started last year, which was followed by GO BULLS.  We need more unison type melodies like that, which gets the whole stadium to say a chant or phrase like go bulls.    

One example, have a short 4 or 5 note tune followed by the crowd chanting U, then the short tune again followed by the crowd saying S, finally the tune again followed by crowd saying F.  Then the crowd says USF all together at the end.  I think UNLV and UCLA do something similar.   A lot of times the crowd starts USF chant but its too choppy and not together.  Playing the tune would get everybody to chant, U -   S  -    F ,    then USF  

, which would be really loud and would sound great.  I will leave the HOT people to develop the 4 or 5 note tune.   Fans would also have to know to shout the U then the S then the F, followed by a USF.  Maybe jumbotron, or having the band start it, then the students would pick up on it, then the adjacent sections would join in once they hear it done a few times.  

[sdgukhsdgl]

Third, one of the most impressive things I've seen was at the Miami game with their band playing the "Imperial March" from Star Wars every single time their defense took the field.  Add that to the entire student section waving a two-handed "U" towards the field; it was about as good a tradition as I've seen.  Can we find a similar piece of music that strikes fear in the hearts of opponents?  No easy task I'm sure, but if you can do that... the students will find something for the crowd to do at the same time.  

"We Ready" Pastor Troy.... students can even chant WE READY!  

extremely ghetto, but possibly effective, very easy to do

*discalimer* if anyone looks up the song, I wouldnt listen to it at work

[80mins]

I think we're definitely looking in the right direction with additional crowd participation. A few things I'd like to see, in addition to what's been said:

-It would be great if the drumline could do a "stampede" effect. I'm thinking like a triplet followed by an accented stroke (if you can, think of the four legs of a bull hitting the ground unevenly) that starts slow and speeds up into a stampede, and hopefully gets the crowd involved as well.

-As other schools do, it would be great if there were a portion or reprise of our fight song where we dropped out to just low brass and percussion and the rest of the band sings the fight song. Hopefully it would catch on and people would actually learn the lyrics, and I think it could build into a frenzy throughout the verse with people shouting "HERE AND NOW AND WE WILL WIN THE VICTORY!" If you're familiar with the Cavaliers of DCI, think of their last time through their "We are the corps the Cavaliers" song.

-I think it would be great to take a break in another song in the catalog and add a "Go Bulls" in the middle that people can expect and join in on. Similarly, I think people need to be ready for the "Go Bulls" at the end of Wooly Bully

-As was mentioned with the Imperial March, I think it would be great if there were something ominous when our defense took the field. Alot of the good ones have been taken (Imperial March, O Fortuna, Night on Bald Mountain, Mars, Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah) but I think we could work with a theme taken from Malagueña. I wish I could sing/play the part I'm talking about, so I'll try online. Humor me--think about the break in Malagueña that leads out into the percussion accents at the following:

ONE (and two and three and) FOUR (and one and two and three) AND FOUR (and)/

(one and) TWO (and) THREE AND (four and one) AND (two) AND THREE!

OK, it doesn't look the best, but count through it, and if you speak drummer, you know what part I'm talking about. Consider that, with its accompanying horn parts, followed by laying with all your might on the following downbeat in the low brass especially with a bass drum/low tom/snares off roll. Lyrics could even be added, something to the effect of (on the above accents)

GO!... BULLS!... GO BULLS!/

...U-S F!... LET'S-GO BULLS!

Perhaps i'm optimistic that an entire student section, much less the entire stadium, could hit all those on beat, but imagine the effect of it! that is, if it was even legible/comprehensible. Sometimes, the internet isn't as great as it seems. :-P

[80mins]

"We Ready" Pastor Troy.... students can even chant WE READY!  

extremely ghetto, but possibly effective, very easy to do

*discalimer* if anyone looks up the song, I wouldnt listen to it at work

Ghetto, but effective. Similarly, I'd love to see us do Trick Daddy's Shut Up, particularly for bad ref calls.

[Sitting_BULL]

The biggest request I would have (and this regards Basketball more than anything,) is can the PA system not turn the place into a "rap fest" evey game?

Admittedly, I only went to a few BB games this year, but every time it seemed like 50 cent and lil john was running things.

[pdiddybull32]

Posted by: Wild_Wild_West Posted on: Mar 14th, 2006, 11:41pm

The biggest request I would have (and this regards Basketball more than anything,) is can the PA system not turn the place into a "rap fest" evey game?

Admittedly, I only went to a few BB games this year, but every time it seemed like 50 cent and lil john was running things.  

The reason for a lot of rap during pregame is because the players for the most part request these type of songs because it gets them pumped up. The dj tries to mix things up from time to time, but for the most part plays rap music that was just released to pump up our players:) GO BULLS!

[USF03]

Thanks for getting back on track.  As much as Rush is a fav for me... I need opinions, ideas, and proposals!  We have been working hard on getting the crowd involved, as this is a large part of why we are at games anyway!  It's easier to hear 250 to 300 bandsmen than 15 cheerleaders in Ray Jay  

Anyway, I'll check both theads for good ideas.  The director already got a huge list of requests from band members, but I figured 600 or so more people thinking about it wouldn't hurt!

Thanks for the effort!

[mutt]

First, #8 is the best thing the band has ever done.  If you bleed green and gold and that song doesn't get you fired up, clearly you're already dead.  I think its time to take it a step further, and add some words.  Not a lot of them, just four.  There seem to be four emphasized beats before the horn section comes in, so what if the entire band yelled some words on those beats at the same time:  i.e.

1st beat: FIGHT!

2nd beat: ON!

3rd beat:  BULLS!

4th beat:  CHARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGE!

Third, one of the most impressive things I've seen was at the Miami game with their band playing the "Imperial March" from Star Wars every single time their defense took the field.  Add that to the entire student section waving a two-handed "U" towards the field; it was about as good a tradition as I've seen.  Can we find a similar piece of music that strikes fear in the hearts of opponents?  No easy task I'm sure, but if you can do that... the students will find something for the crowd to do at the same time.  

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST!

I LOVE #8 and am quite pissed when I see people in the stands not doing it... I think the words will add that extra "punch".         Good thinkin.    

As far as the Miami "U"/Darth Vader thing, I agree we need something -but it has to be original.  

[USF03]

I did foward the addition to #8 (vocal part) to the band's leadership and staff, we shall see how it goes over.  We try to add words into things all the time, its just hard getting to vocals out to the fans.  We need to work on that part.  Some vocal parts can be found on the band web site at http://band.arts.usf.edu/standsspirit.htm.  I want to add song clips to this page, as soon as that darn CD comes out!