Marches are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Music that is written to accompany marches. While marches were originally written to provide cadence for marching soldiers, Marches have also been written for parades, funerals, processions, graduation ceremonies, political rallies, circuses, opera... just about anything that requires a steady rhythm between 60 and 120 beats per minute, though concert marches can be significantly faster and circus marches, also known as "Screamers", can really rip. Marches were considered the world's popular music at [[TheGayNineties the turn of the 20th century]] and the bread and butter of famous composers like Kenneth Alford, Edwin Eugene Bagley, Julius Fucik, Roland F. Seitz and "The March King" himself, Music/JohnPhilipSousa.

The standard march form tends to be written in duple meter, with an introduction, two strains, a triple and a stinger...but here at TV Tropes we don't particularly care about that. If you want to know about that stuff, or the usages of theme and counterpoint, consult [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_(music) the other wiki]]. No, our concern is with the use of march music to set theme and tone in other media, for nothing says that things have gotten serious, as in military-grade industrial mobilization serious, as a march tempo. TheEmpire will almost always have a march as their leitmotif, and the hero will too if he needs an especially rousing theme tune. And there was a period during the late 1950s where marches were very popular as movie and TV themes. Some marches have become so ingrained in our popular consciousness that one cannot hear them without envisioning the scenes that they evoke, inspiring creators to include them (or a close knockoff) in order to set the scene.

While it's impossible to select one march as the most iconic ever written, for most people in the English speaking world the term "March" usually calls to mind three pieces: Alford's ''Colonel Bogey'', Sousa's ''Stars and Stripes Forever'', and Edwin Eugene Bagley's ''National Emblem''. Interestingly, Sousa himself listed ''National Emblem'' as one of the three most effective street marches ever written.

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!Marches that are associated with common themes and tropes:

* "American Patrol" (the swing version): {{Eagleland}} type One
* "Anchors Aweigh" by Charles A. Zimmerman: Naval and nautical tropes[[note]]Fittingly, as it is the official song of the US Navy and Zimmerman was a lieutenant in charge of the Naval Academy Band when he wrote it.[[/note]]
** Also "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean".
* "ColonelBogeyMarch" by Kenneth Alford: uniting against a common oppressor
* "Entry of the Gladiators" (a.k.a. Thunder and Blazes) by Julius Fucik: Film/TheCircus!
* "Pomp and Circumstance no. 1" by Sir Edward Elgar: Graduation ceremonies in the United States, patriotic moments in the United Kingdom.
* "The Thunderer" by John Philip Sousa: Parades.
* "The Empire March" by John Williams: TheEmpire.
* "The Raider's March" by John Williams: Adventure!

!Media using marches as theme or important music:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime]]
* ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'': Each school uses the march of the country they represent. See their [[AwesomeMusic/GirlsUndPanzer Awesome Music]] page for details.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'' Three: Chris Rock's "Circus Afro" is a thinly disguised version of Thunder and Blazes
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''[[Film/BenHur1959 Ben-Hur]]'' (The March of The Charioteers)
* ''Film/TheBridgeOnTheRiverKwai'' (Colonel Bogey March)
* ''Film/DocSavageTheManOfBronze'' (The Thunderer)
* ''Film/TheGreatRace'' (The Great Race)
* ''Film/HotShots'' (The National Emblem)
* ''Protocol'' (The National Emblem, again)
* ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' (Raider's March)
** ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' used Der Königgrätzer Marsch in the scene with Hitler and the book burning rally.
* ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' has an interesting variation: while the original [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]] theme wasn't ''that'' bad in a 1960s polyester pants kind of way, it cetainly wasn't weighty enough to anchor a film, especially after the orchestral majesty that was Franchise/StarWars. So the original theme was rewritten into a stirring march, which became the theme for the entire franchise.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'' (The Empire March)
* ''Film/{{Stripes}}'' (The National Emblem, yet again)
* ''Film/{{Superman|TheMovie}}''
* ''{{Film/The Ten Commandments|1956}}'' (the exodus scenes)
* ''Film/VonRyansExpress''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/TheATeam''
* ''Series/HogansHeroes''
* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' (The Liberty Bell)
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' used the march theme from ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture''
* [[Creator/RodgersAndHammerstein Richard Rodgers]] wrote two for ''Series/VictoryAtSea'': the Guadalcanal March and Allies on the March.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* ''Theatre/{{Carmen}}'' (March of the Toreadors overture)
* ''Theatre/TheMusicMan'': Set smack in the middle of the march era, and about the founding of a brass band, "Seventy-six Trombones led the big parade..."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3YzmjmAGoI Hell March]]" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENyxseq59YQ and]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM9uQ1fqV2I its]] sequels serve as something of a theme song to the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' franchise, the last three to ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2 Red Alert 2]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3 Red Alert 3]]'', respectively. ''3'' even gets [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_rbFhbcbT8 two]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm5QxCHbgLA extra]] ones.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'' (War Song of the Urpneys)
[[/folder]]
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