Nation's top marching bands, Monica featured at Battle of the Bands

The Super Bowl of college marching bands stormed into the Georgia Dome over the weekend.

GALLERY: Honda Battle of the Bands

The top eight marching bands from the nation's Historically Black College and Universities were in Atlanta over the weekend for the Honda Battle of the Bands. The battle is a showcase rather than a competition as the bands demonstrated the pageantry, showmanship and musicianship of  each school's program. Since the showcase isn't a competition, it allows the bands to spend more time on creativity and skills as opposed to certain technical aspects of the performance.

Bands were selected to participate following two voting contests. Participants this year were Albany State, Bethune-Cookman, South Carolina State, Virginia State, Winston-Salem State, Jackson State, Prairie View A&M and Tennessee State.

The Honda Battle of the Bands was created in 2002 to celebrate, support and recognize the excellence of black college marching bands and the unique academic experience of historically black colleges and universities. Honda annually awards more than $200,000 in grants to participating marching bands.

The participating bands gave the packed Georgia Dome crowd plenty to cheer for, but to add to it, R&B singer Monica performed, too.