Modern Band is a school based music program that utilizes popular music as its central canon. Modern band teaches students to perform the music they know and love and to compose and improvise. Styles that are studied include rock, pop, reggae, hip-hop, rhythm & blues, electronic dance music, and other contemporary styles as they emerge. Modern Band also utilizes (but is not limited to) the musical instruments that are common to these genres: guitar, bass, drums, piano, voice and technology. Millions of school-age children currently attend schools in districts that offer Modern Band classes as a part of their standard in-school music programming. In addition, one million children attend schools in districts that have piloted large-scale popular music programming, but have yet to codify those classes into distinct, official courses. Programs like these have been rapidly unifying behind the Modern Band moniker as a means of making popular music programs more systemic, scalable sustainable and accessible.

Prior to Modern Band, the most recent category of music education introduced in the US public school system was Jazz Band, which gained acceptance on a national level in the 1970s. Like its predecessor, Jazz Band, Modern Band is the newest instrumental and vocal music program to expand the horizons of school music instruction, and is spreading quickly through public school districts across the country.

NAfME has already established Regional and National Modern Band honor ensembles. PMEA is currently building the state version. District 8's festival will be the second district festival in Pennsylvania to date.