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Bluecoats getting the shaft this year


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I did read through all of this. I found a common "negative" in everyone's attempt to explain why some other corps is unworthy. Improper application of electronic enhancement and amplification. This business with electronics is beginning to harm our product as much, or more, than it helps.  DCI needs to get a better handle on these new toys.

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5 hours ago, 3PoC said:

I hesitate to post this in this thread as I'm not going to argue scores and I'm not going to cut on any other corps here. I'm just going to make a case for the depth of Bluecoats show design for some of you who think it is just a fluff show or inferior retread. I will offer just my opinion that it is a much more difficult visual and musical book than last year, but in a year where GE and analysis judges seem to be weighing execution more heavily than content, any argument should be about DCI priorities and not nitpicking the other shows that are scoring better. Anyway, follow on if you have a moment (I do have an extensive professional background in this type of thing)...
 

3PoC's totally overly verbose analysis of A Jagged Line from a design perspective:

Firstly, it's a MUSIC show. For all of the "'coats are so pushing the envelope" talk, musically they are playing actual full movements of songs like we did back in my DCI days, including a drum break that is it's own complete musical movement just like we did every year I marched. Anybody here remember Stone Ground 7, Devil Went Down to Georgia, Black Market Juggler, New Country etc...? One Study/One Summary is very much in that lineage. The music book, from beginning to end, makes sense together - adventurous contemporary music with progressive metric and polyrhythmic motifs and strong melodic elements. It's a coherent playlist that is of a kind.   

So what kind of music is it really? Well, it is clear that the designers, because of the irregularity of the rhythms, the way many of the melodic themes jump around in pitch and are bounced around, often in a hocket style from instrument to instrument. decided to go with the adjective jagged. The idea of "jagged" is inherent in nearly every phrase of the music book and it's simple word with a clear visual associations,

I believe the designers likely already knew they wanted to further explore a few significant developments they made over their past few years, particularly; a backstage type area so that performers could exit/enter view to highlight and focus on what they wanted to feature; motion on the x,y and z axes; surround sound design; full ensemble dance and emphasis on personalizing the performers. They took basic extensions of the idea of "jagged" such as zig-zag, back and forth/side to side, leaving and coming back, contrast, black and white, high and low etc... and put it all together to make a show that you can totally enjoy even with no attention paid to deeper underlying thematic concepts,

But they are there. Let's look at some of the significant thematic implementations:

The big center stage - well obviously it's a massive jagged line, but it also creates two fields - a here and there, a front and back, and a down and up. The show starts with an individual with a trumpet slowly going up and back with the words "Leaving on a train, don't know when I'll be back again" playing, and ends with a phalanx of low brass rapidly back down and forward as the music returns "home" to the main opening theme. They also return to using both sides of the field evenly as well as to a reprise of the signature move of the show, the fast side to side run that sums up the to and fro idea (and just looks cool). In between the leaving and the coming back bookends, the group journeys far backfield on side 1 where, beginning with innocence (notice the children's choir sample in the intro)  they grow til tall, then during One Study/One Summary they make their way, starting with exuberance and near the end collapsing as they form a huge arrow pointing to the opposite side downfield, yet they rise in the end to triumphantly conquer the Zomby Woof in style on side 2. The center prop frames the scenes in the (imo wonderfully understated and unobtrusive yet effective) narrative.

The Ballad - Why are they going away from us? They are on a journey far away. They were just in your face a moment ago blasting the end of the opener. now they want a jaggedy close/far contrast and to move the narrative away to a far off place where they will experience growth from the journey. The classic hero archetype in literature always has a Yoda part where the hero gains wisdom and strength in a place far from home before they can take on the Vader (or Zomby Woof) character. Why mic them backfield and have the sound come out of speakers on the opposite side? Apart from trying to capture the sound design of the source material which brilliantly dissolves into ambient cacophony with the distant drumming and shimmering and nearly distorting reverberations, they are also going for a spatial displacement effect where the sound literally zig-zags across the field. Narratively, I'm left to use my imagination on what this represents so I like to imagine that it's like a disturbance in the force type thing that perhaps rouses and foreshadows the Zomby Woof movement since that side is where that scene will soon take place. I dunno, may be wrong but it works for me! I've read other interesting interpretations as well. The best song lyrics almost always leave enough to the imagination to me let me find my own meaning.

Color scheme and costuming - most obviously, black and white are contrasting opposites like many others in the show, but I get a distinct black&white silent movie vibe, particularly with the Charlie Chaplin character The Little Tramp. The Fosse movement vocabulary is pretty apparent but some folks don't realize that the bowler hat and cane Fosse character was his modernized version the Chaplin character, whom Fosse admired greatly.  So I see the performers as variations of the tramp character, a good-hearted vagrant or vagabond type who wanders to and fro(!) getting into antics and surviving on charm, cunning and grit. But why Chaplin via Fosse for a show with such contemporary music? Well, I'm gonna suggest that it is precisely because of that contrast - old/new, 

In drum corps terms, this is an old-school format musical product with modern music, wrapped in a new school "theme" which is premised on very old school entertainment vocabulary. That's a pretty jagged (time)line.

Again, I'm not gonna argue scores about this show, but I will argue it has depth of content (including incredible performance demand) that is pretty apparent if you look. The best part imo is that you can not care a whit about thematic construction and still throw babies at a great cohesive show featuring incredible performances of great songs!

In that sense I guess it is a lot like Down Side Up. And that's a good thing.

Peace!

P.S. Your favorite corps is pretty awesome too! Don't let competition ruin your appreciation of the corps your fave is battling. In 2 weeks this will all be history. Savor them all!

I like the explanation, but I'm not sure most fans want to have to think this hard about a show.  You and I probably enjoy finding the backstories, the whys and wherefores of what has been written and put on the field both visually and musically.  My kids (ages, 25, 31 and 33) are kind of split on it too.  They have grown up watching DCI with me live and on tv.  My daughters - the oldest ones would love the backstories, etc, but my son (the youngest) just wants to go and have a good time.  He doesn't want to have to think about things too deeply at all.  He's a throwback fan that would have loved it in 60s when people were screaming "higher, faster, louder!".  It's just a matter of taste with fans.  I know my son would hear Santa Clara and want to head to the concession stand because of the music they play.  My daughters would want to know who the composers were, the titles of the music and think it was a cool show. By the way, the Zappa picture is great!

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2 minutes ago, Vdad76 said:

I like the explanation, but I'm not sure most fans want to have to think this hard about a show.  You and I probably enjoy finding the backstories, the whys and wherefores of what has been written and put on the field both visually and musically.  My kids (ages, 25, 31 and 33) are kind of split on it too.  They have grown up watching DCI with me live and on tv.  My daughters - the oldest ones would love the backstories, etc, but my just wants to go and have a good time.  He doesn't want to have to think about things too deeply at all.  He's a throwback fan that would have loved it in 60s when people were screaming "higher, faster, louder!".  It's just a matter of taste with fans.  I know my son would hear Santa Clara and want to head to the concession stand because of the music they play.  My daughters would want to know who the composers were, the titles of the music and think it was a cool show.  

I did emphasize that "The best part" referring to the design "imo is that you can not care a whit about thematic construction and still throw babies at a great cohesive show featuring incredible performances of great songs!". I was trying to say that I thought the show was effectively designed in such a way that it could be accessible and exciting to the "higher, faster, louder!" old school type corps fan because of it's music book, and yet still have a compelling concept motivating the action on the field for the more studious types of fans to enjoy. Some shows find difficulty keeping both of those type of fans engaged.. 

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4 minutes ago, 3PoC said:

I did emphasize that "The best part" referring to the design "imo is that you can not care a whit about thematic construction and still throw babies at a great cohesive show featuring incredible performances of great songs!". I was trying to say that I thought the show was effectively designed in such a way that it could be accessible and exciting to the "higher, faster, louder!" old school type corps fan because of it's music book, and yet still have a compelling concept motivating the action on the field for the more studious types of fans to enjoy. Some shows find difficulty keeping both of those type of fans engaged.. 

I love your profile pic. 

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OT but wouldn't it be fun and lighten things up a bit if someone started a thread where we could all post pics of us in uniform?  I call mine my "band nerd" pic.  In the most loving way, of course.  It would be much easier, too, if supported by DrumScorps.  Much easier to post photos.  

Just a thought...:8_laughing:

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Frankly, I blame George Hopkins for this entire post......:4_joy:

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9 hours ago, pudding said:

Just in case anyone actually think that I don't "get" Crown's show, I do. It's about drum corps, its tradition, its evolution, its stylistic loss of direction, and how the way forward is to marry the old traditions with new styles.

Conceptually, it's a fine idea (obviously, since both BD and SCV are doing the same thing), but it falls short in execution. It uses Bach as a representative for "the old tradition", but Bach was never a part of the old school drum corps tradition. The Wicked is stylistically inappropriate for the drum corps stage; even discounting whether I or anyone else personally enjoys the singing, the vocal style that the performer is being asked to do is not suitable when juxtaposed with the drum corps around her. The Akiho is nice, but it loses steam about halfway through when the trumpets have their feature with the triangle props and kick drums. The "transition" back into the Bach is way too abrupt; for a show that's supposedly about unifying old and new, one would expect a smoother transition (a la Promise of Living). On that note, why is the singer so angry when she finds the Bach? She should be happy that she's finally found a direction.

I see it as a technically strong music and visual program....and then a seemingly nice/sweet girl shows up, but then she goes bat-#### crazy yelling at me.

#IDONT'TKNOW YOU 

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14 hours ago, whitedj2002 said:

   Every show other than the top 2 are flawed. My opinion begins with skimpy short shorts and bras being about as non flattering as it gets. Time and a place, I just don't see the need... I find the sequins, suspenders, bowler hats (and their use) Quickly become a gimmick. Bloo's lunging and posing  are not nearly as effective as the body demands exhibited by BD. Not even close! I think the jagged stage  repeatedly interferes  with drill. The striped dancing stick remind me of the WB dancing frog.  Excuse (or not!) my somewhat pointed criticism. It's because I'm sick and tired seeing  BD, and more recently SCV bashed for they're vision.  Last year I loved Bloo's vision.  This year I find the jagged stage an eyesore. Do it up judges! "Midwest" I suggest your bias should be examined not the judges. Where, wear aside!

The curse of the large stage.  Bluecoats are experiencing what Blue Stars 2011 did when they were the first corps to put a large stationary stage on the field (got hammered for it), and to a large extent the stationary stages in Blue Stars "side show" show.  The Cadets also experienced the curse with the "this I believe" show with the stage across the entire front side line.   When I saw this stage I thought to myself, will they also pay the price for the stationary stage.  Props need to be seen as people and move around the field and be used/interacted with as though they were a person.  Bluecoats did that last year with the ramps. SCV is dong it this year with the large circles.

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19 pages, I didn't read them all. Bluecoats have an excellent, truly entertaining show. And it's scoring well. Two weeks left and they're already mid-low 90s, it'll probably finish in the 95-96 range. Any show that finishes around a 95 is awesome and is receiving a truly outstanding score, something that 99% of drum corps shows will never achieve.

 

It's important to remember that something can be great - nay, outstanding - in this activity, even if it doesn't win. Just because someone is better within our subjective game of inches doesn't detract from how outstanding a show and a corps truly is.

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