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2012 Blue Devils


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true and thats why we should celebrate individuality in a corps. We dont have to like or have to toe tap to every corps..Variety is a great thing.

Oh theres still variety in the Corps. I might posit that earlier decades Corps had much more variety, styles, diversity, etc than Corps of today, but not to quibble. " variety " is a good thing, and we've had lots of variety in Corps styles, shows, etc for decades. I don't think we'll ever see a day come where for the 1st time ever, all the Corps and their shows appear to be the same. I hope not anyway. But I do think that not ALL variety needs to be willingly accepted as equally appealing and equally " good ". Thats not a healthy nor honest response it seems to me. If the Corps want to be " open " to designing new concepts, then fans should likewise be equally open to say they like it or state they don't like it, or something in between if they so choose. Freedom of expression shouldn't extend to just the Corps. Not when some fans are paying beaucoup bucks to travel great distances sometimes to see these Corps shows.

Edited by BRASSO
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Oh theres still variety in the Corps. I might posit that earlier decades Corps had much more variety, styles, diversity, etc than Corps of today, but not to quibble. " variety " is a good thing, and we've had lots of variety in Corps styles, shows, etc for decades. I don't think we'll ever see a day come where for the 1st time ever, all the Corps and their shows appear to be the same. I hope not anyway. But I do think that not ALL variety needs to be willingly accepted as equally appealing and equally " good ". Thats not a healthy nor honest response it seems to me. If the Corps want to be " open " to designing new concepts, then fans should likewise be equally open to say they like it or state they don't like it, or something in between if they so choose. Freedom of expression shouldn't extend to just the Corps. Not when some fans are paying beaucoup bucks to travel great distances sometimes to see these Corps shows.

I agree on many things you just said. I do think as much negativity to design choices BD seems to get here I would think there are just as many who love where they are coming from but just dont indulge here. Either way it hasnt hurt them for sure.

Some of the greatest works of Art and Music over hundreds of years to the present met with negative responses and critiques and decades later known as the inovators and the ones who inspired.

Edited by GUARDLING
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So, I was watching TV with my girlfriend, and she was watching that new show "Smash" and a quote stuck out to me. They were talking about a play, and a response to the play was

1.) "I was really bored by it. I just think art should be entertaining"

2.) "So, that makes you a populist"

1.) "Is that really such a bad thing?"

2.) "Only if you're part of the masses"

I think this could be relevant, correct? We fall into this trap, that are we art, or are we supposed to be appealing to the common masses? Can drum corps be both? Can a drum corps show be beauty, can it be art, can it be intellectually challenging, and can it be appealing at the same time?

I think that's really at the center of the argument here. Do we want art for art's sake, or do we want something we can view as art, but is also entertaining and fun to watch?

Best of luck to the Blue Devils this year, and to everyone else marching. Is it June yet?

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So, I was watching TV with my girlfriend, and she was watching that new show "Smash" and a quote stuck out to me. They were talking about a play, and a response to the play was

1.) "I was really bored by it. I just think art should be entertaining"

2.) "So, that makes you a populist"

1.) "Is that really such a bad thing?"

2.) "Only if you're part of the masses"

I think this could be relevant, correct? We fall into this trap, that are we art, or are we supposed to be appealing to the common masses? Can drum corps be both? Can a drum corps show be beauty, can it be art, can it be intellectually challenging, and can it be appealing at the same time?

I think that's really at the center of the argument here. Do we want art for art's sake, or do we want something we can view as art, but is also entertaining and fun to watch?

Best of luck to the Blue Devils this year, and to everyone else marching. Is it June yet?

I think it depends who you might be talking to..There can be so many factors including that entertainment as well as art being subjective all just depends who youre talking to.Some can totally be entertained by something others are totally not.

Edited by GUARDLING
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I think it depends who you might be talking to..There can be so many factors including that entertainment as well as art being subjective all just depends who youre talking to.Some can totally be entertained by something others are totally not.

And I think that's where we find the biggest problem. I know some people that were completely entertained by the Blue Devils the last few years, and some people that would go out of their way to avoid watching it more than once because they were completely un-entertained by it. I guess that's why DCI has 40+ corps all doing different things, instead of all of them doing the same show. I for one wish the Blue Devils would try and ditch the intellectual stuff and go for crowd-pleasing, but I'm not on their design team, so I'm kind of SOL. I'm just a DCI fan.

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And I think that's where we find the biggest problem. I know some people that were completely entertained by the Blue Devils the last few years, and some people that would go out of their way to avoid watching it more than once because they were completely un-entertained by it. I guess that's why DCI has 40+ corps all doing different things, instead of all of them doing the same show. I for one wish the Blue Devils would try and ditch the intellectual stuff and go for crowd-pleasing, but I'm not on their design team, so I'm kind of SOL. I'm just a DCI fan.

I think that could be said about other corps also. I think BD takes more heat on the subject only because they are on top most of the time. Nooone really talks about the lack of entertainment with a corps scoring low although that area as in all areas can be debated if something is or isnt entertaining or good.

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People in this thread have been using the terms "innovative", "cutting-edge", "pushing the envelope", etc., etc. in describing the Blue Devils as of late. In fact, didn't David Gibbs tell the corps during the post-show speech to the corps on the movie theater broadcast of quarters for 2010 that they changed the activity (or something to that extent) with their mirrors show?

Again, can someone explain to me exactly what is SO "innovative", "cutting-edge", and "pushing the envelope" about recent BD shows, at least moreso than any other corps?

Is it using large props on the field, playing fragments of obscure music without much melody, or creating an in-depth theme for their shows that take research and study to understand? There's plenty of all of that going on around DCI with other corps, and BD certainly was not the first to do any of that.

Why exactly do people feel that BD is being so "innovative", 'cause I'm just not seein' it...

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Again, can someone explain to me exactly what is SO "innovative", "cutting-edge", and "pushing the envelope" about recent BD shows, at least moreso than any other corps?

Completely my opinion here, but most of it comes from the visual aspect; there's a heavy WGI influence on staging and movement. The music does take a back seat occasionally (some may say more than occasionally) but that's kind of the way things have skewed over the past decade or so on the sheets.

For me, sometimes it works (Winged Victory opener) and sometimes it doesn't (meandering last quarter of 2010's show) . . .YMMV. :tongue:

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The point that I (and others) are trying to make is that somewhere along the line, Blue Devils transitioned into a "weird" phase, and started ignoring their own identity that they built over a long period of time. For me, this was around the Romeo and Juliet meets West Side Story or Psycho shows.

I'm pretty sure a portion of Phantom's fan base would be upset if all of a sudden they started doing shows exclusively made up of rock music, or Madison all opera music, or Cadets all hip hop music, etc., etc., let alone for one of their big anniversary shows.

I'm not sure about that...I think more to the point is how it will be arranged and designed is whatmay cause flack.

I'm not expecting BD to turn back the clock to 1988. I'd just like a show with long melodic phrases without so much smoke and mirrors visually, drum parts that don't come off as ramming for the sake of ramming. Yes they have visual demand, but a lotof times the demand is masked and not easily idenitifiable.

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Insinuating a lack of intelligence by arguing that some folks don't like a particular show because they just don't "get it" or haven't seen it enough times to appreciate all the intricacies and innuendos is a bit arrogant as well.

you insulted my intelligence by stating that so eloquently as opposed to "you're too thick and stuck in the past to get it"

:tongue:

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