Any Ohio University student can see the Marching 110 Saturday nights at Peden Stadium, but thanks to YouTube, people all throughout the world have seen the band.
“The whole thing just fell into our laps,” said Michael Reeves, Marching 110 dance commander.
The band’s instant viral popularity began the week of Oct. 1 after the father of band members Grant and Ben Prater, Mark Prater — or as he’s known online, bex1036 — posted a video of the band’s cover of the hit LMFAO song, “Party Rock Anthem.”
Titled “Ohio University Marching 110 - The Party Rock Anthem,” the video has since accumulated 2,560,656 views as of 11 p.m. yesterday. It has been featured on ESPN.com, CNN.com, Billboard.com, Fox 28, WBNS, and has captured the interest of The Today Show.
“I just take the videos of the show for my kids and anyone else in the band in case they want to see it when they are older or later on. I didn’t expect anything like this; most videos only get a few hundred views,” Mark Prater said. “I am just glad the band is getting the recognition and notoriety they deserve. They work so hard.”
The band’s rendition was also entered into the Kia Soul contest but was later disqualified.
“I have no idea who submitted the video, but we were taken out the running,” said Rocco Contini, dance commander. “They thought we cheated because we got so many votes in such a short amount of time.”
The expanding popularity has left the band ecstatically shocked.
“I’ve felt like a kid in a candy store just watching the numbers go up,” Reeves said. “I’ve been enjoying the crap out of it. It has been so fun. We just do the same thing every week; nothing changed.”
Dance commander Tyler Charles expressed similar excitement in regard to the video’s popularity.
“The attention has been nice, but there is no better feeling than playing for our own crowd. The video attention has just been the cherry on top,” Charles said.
The video also has created sound waves across the globe.
“I actually received a message from an individual in Hungary,” said Seth Winegardner, a senior studying aviation and field commander for the Marching 110. “He said he was in a marching band there and wanted to know if he could get the music so they could play the song.”
Director Richard Suk said he selects the songs the band plays. Selections are made from student recommendations, the radio’s top 40 and classic rock. Most songs are arranged by OU, but the LMFAO song was actually arranged by Dr. Randy Dickerson from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
“One of the first things I said to the band was that I expected complete perfection this year,” Winegardner said. “But so far this year, the band has been great and I have received a lot of compliments from alumni.”
During Homecoming week, the band can be seen at Saturday’s Homecoming parade starting at 10 a.m., the football pre-game starting at 3:30 p.m., halftime, and post-game where spectators will see and hear the band’s own traditional arrangement of Led Zeppelin.
“We’re playing some really sweet songs this week. We want our new fans to enjoy everything we do, and we want them to see how hard we work to entertain our awesome fans,” Charles said.
lf32861@ohiou.edu
