Why are drum corps shows and titles so pretentious?

[Mac13]

On 6/17/2017 at 3:29 PM, DCI-86 said:

After a few more announcements, why are titles and descriptions so pretentious?  Loads of detail, lots of complex descriptions, "human emotions" and language we don't understand - when in the end it's just marching band- music and visual.

Even musicals or opera are not described in such a pretentious way!

This year seems worse than ever!

Let's face it...with a few exceptions, philosophically inclined shows win.  How do you think the Blue Devils do it so often?  BD 2014 finals night was a tick-fest, but they won with a record-breaking score.  Sure at the end of the night it's numbers on a paper that determine rankings, but shows that are complex in meaning as of late come out on top ('Coats '16 was an anomaly).  

As a result, three of the top world class corps are doing pretty much the exact same concept this year.  As long as shows keep getting more complex and edgy, it's going to keep pushing to the next level for the following season.  

If you think this year is confusing and the uniforms are outrageous, wait until 2018.   

Edited June 20, 2017 by Mac13

[ShutUpAndPlayYerGuitar]

28 minutes ago, 31rabbit said:

the dangerous pretention of current drum corps is the idea that shows WITHOUT elaborate concepts are somehow lacking. the idea that a show with a libretto of ideology is by default a Higher Class of marching band show than 'The Music of _______' is the greater peril towards creativity because it actually narrows the scope of the creation.  

 

Some good arguments in here. Compared to some of BOA's finalists over the past 20 years, however, I still don't think a DCI show has ever truly come close to having a "libretto of ideology" until maybe the past year or two.

Regarding the lack of "The Music of _____" shows: visual and guard folk generally hate doing them. They like to have at least a kernel of a visual concept/arc.