Dance moves inspired by a viral music video were a centerpiece to Saturday’s football game, beckoning cheers from the stands as the Ohio University Marching 110 performed a routine to rival their “Party Rock Anthem” rendition.
Their moves parodied “Gangnam Style,” a music video released by Korean pop sensation Psy on July 15. By Sept. 15, the video became the first K-Pop song to top the iTunes charts.
Here's a video of the performance.
When Richard Suk, the director of the 110, was first shown the video for “Gangnam Style,” he wasn’t sure what he was watching, said Rocco Contini, the field commander and a tenor-saxophone member of the 110 and a fifth-year senior studying music education.
“At first he thought it was weird, but when they started dancing, he saw that we could do something with it,” Contini said. “He actually called me up when he found out about it and asked me about what I thought, and I said I was pretty skeptical.”
After putting everything together, the skepticism went away quickly, Contini added.
“Being in charge of keeping an eye on marching fundamentals and techniques, I go into teacher mode and freak out, and I don’t know how it’s going to turn out,” he said. “But everyone always pulls it off, and I sit back at the end and wonder why I was worrying.”
The music was passed out on Monday, and the performance was put together by Thursday night, said Dan Mills, a snare drummer in the 110 and a sophomore studying music production.
“It’s all done at an afternoon practice, but then we break it all down into counts and learn the different sets,” he said. “It’s a real tight schedule, and the show we did this week is not the show we did last week.”
The band’s ability to live up to its name “the most exciting band in the land” is what draws the audience in, Contini said.
“Our energy and our spirit is the driving force behind attracting people to performances,” he said. “You can tell that everybody is having the time of their life.”
The 110 definitely lived up to their reputation, said Katie Powers, an undecided sophomore.
“I thought that the performance was amazing and that it was the exact reason why the Marching 110 has such a reputation for being ‘the most exciting band in the land,’ “ she said. “It is such a popular song and dance right now that whenever people hear it, they automatically do the dance.”
ao007510@ohiou.edu
