On the subject of "modern" music, most of our local scene in Lexington, KY is Christian rock (Isaac's Blessing, Change 58, 9 Ball). However, the real dominant form of music around here is high school marching band. Unlike what you probably see around your state (the three "big" states for this are Kentucky, Indiana, and Texas), marching band is more than just entertainment for the halftime shows. Bands practice just as much (if not more) than the athletic teams. Shows are at leat 7 minutes long, and they are symphonic in nature (they usually have 3-4 movements, with at least one "ballad" type song). The showcases for their performances do take place during football halftime, but the main event are the Kentucky Music Educator's Assembly sanctioned competitons on Saturday. Bands are given ratings evaluating their performance on a scale of 1-100. Bands that achieve a rating of 80 or higher get a "distinguished" rating. A band that has at least 1 such rating at the end of the season (mid-October) gets to advance to Regional competition. The 8 best performing bands from each class (like sports teams A-AAAA) in each region (there are 2 regions, making a total of 64 bands) are allowed to advance to semi-finals. 4 bands from each class then get to advance to state finals. Each member of the State Champion band gets a personalized State Championship ring. If you want to know more, visit
http://www.kytnmarching.com/