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What will be the trends for 2018?


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One trend I hope continues:

The Blue Knights being the most "out there" corps ever.  :tongue:

Honestly, I can't say I've loved/liked/understood all their programs... some have knocked me out, some have left me scratching my head... but I have nothing but 100 percent respect for a corps that stays true to itself year in and year out.

IMO, they are in their own category. BK over here... the rest of the drum corps world over there.  LOL.

Edited by Fran Haring
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2 minutes ago, jwillis35 said:

No doubt this was true, but I doubt it's what BD wore as a uniform or hat that allowed them to win. Talent, show design, and excellent teaching lead to winning and/or higher placement. Boston wearing hats was not what made Boston amazing this year. It was the talented MMs, the designers, the teachers, the admin.  I'm not saying a good uniform or costume isn't important -- it is -- but developing the show and the talent is first. By the way, I loved Boston's uniform and that plume was used to cool effect. 

As for the OP's question, I still think you will see costuming, some corps will not use hats or shakos, and despite the malfunctions at Indy with electronics I believe we will still see electronics and amplification used to enhance ideas or for soundscapes. I doubt that vocals will go away because both Boston and Cadets used them well. I still think what Bluecoats began about 4 years ago will continue to peak the interests of other corps, but there is no doubt Blue Devils show design from this past year will also get looked at by many design teams who will break down every little detail as they decide on their next program.

Let's see what happens. 

I'm curious: what about metamorph, specifically, would/could other corps borrow? Very little of what Blue Devils does is possible without a huge depth in marching and performance talent and experience. Half of the finalists couldn't play Flight of the Bumblebee cleanly while sitting in an air conditioned performance hall.

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2 minutes ago, MikeRapp said:

I'm curious: what about metamorph, specifically, would/could other corps borrow? Very little of what Blue Devils does is possible without a huge depth in marching and performance talent and experience. Half of the finalists couldn't play Flight of the Bumblebee cleanly while sitting in an air conditioned performance hall.

True. Like I said, designers will look at BD's show; but the best designers know who they are working with. The music that BD plays (and Crown, and in the past Cadets) is often beyond most other corps. Bluecoats and SCV have come a long way, and Blooo in particular can handle some pretty amazing and demanding music. Even the great BD brass line had to make a choice when playing Bumblebee. You can't do such a tune to whiplash drill. 

What I think other corps might borrow from BD are the staging ideas, how they time events and how they re-stage to introduce new events.  You may possibly see a little more park and bark. Honestly I have no problem with that if done well. I was always a fan of the concert number back in the day. I am not advocating that the concert feature reappear, but on the flip side how hard do these shows really need to be? Demand is fun to watch and hear, but it doesn't always make a show better. More demand does not always equate to effect. I think a lot of drum corps need to look at their music books and the construction of those books and find moments where the visual gives way to the music -- a place where the music can really shine without any visual or limited visual. 

Having said that, I do think Bluecoats style of the last 4 years will continue to be one of the models for many corps. It may only be in a tiny way, but even this year's show introduced some excellent concepts and some staging ideas that I do believe will get another look, perhaps by Blooo themselves and certainly by others. 

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22 minutes ago, jwillis35 said:

No doubt this was true, but I doubt it's what BD wore as a uniform or hat that allowed them to win. Talent, show design, and

excellent teaching lead to winning and/or higher placement.  

 

 

 Yes... and thats my belief as well. What a Corps has on for attire ( or hats, or no hats ) has never had any effect on the Corps scores or placements. The Cadets, for an example, had an iconic Cadets styled uniform , colors, and shako that essentially was unchanged for 80 years. During those 80 years they won multiple Titles in the Pre DCI Years with it, as well as multiple titles in the DCI years with it ( as recently as 2011 with it). But they also have finished out of the Top 30 in it, and  also years when they almost went bankrupt wearing the cadet styled attire. The thing we learn from this 80 year of uninterrupted lesson is that the unchanged attire had nothing to do with the years the Cadets won Titles, nor the years the Cadets finished out of the Top 30. What a Corps wears for duds is meaningless to their scores and placements. Its a non factor really, imo. Just as you said, talent, show design, excellent teaching are the catalysts for success. Thats why there really was no reason at all for the Cadets to change their Cadets styled attire, as it did at least provide the uninterrupted continuation of the 80 year successful brand. 

Edited by BRASSO
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 It seems to be the best way to compete with Blue Devils is to not let your marching members leave your corps to go to their's. How many former Phantom Regiment members marched for Blue Devils this year? I heard a lot.

Just like in all competitive activities, talent and experience covers a lot of ground. When you can get stronger while simultaneously weakening your competition, it's pretty easy to stay on top. How many Blue Devils marchers moved to phantom regiment, or Crossman, or blue stars?

In fact, I think retention will be the single most important aspect of this offseason. There are in fact twice as many destination corps now as there were just two years ago. Less movement means more contenders. Top corps with a lot of age outs may have to look at their open class feeder corps more, just as cadets did last year.

Edited by MikeRapp
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8 hours ago, BRASSO said:

The Blue Devils, undeterred by the hatless trend of 2016, went out in the single most traditional shako and traditional Drum Corps plumes in all of DCI.... and went undefeated this season in the process.

Or you could say Blue Devils spent half of their show in non-blue, hatless costumes... and went undefeated this season in the process. 

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3 minutes ago, BRASSO said:

 Yes... and thats my belief as well. What a Corps has on for attire ( or hats, or no hats ) has never had any effect on the Corps scores or placements. The Cadets, for an example, had an iconic uniform , colors, shako that essentially was unchanged for 80 years. During those 80 years they won multiple Titles in the Pre DCI Years with it, as well as multiple titles in the DCI years with it ( as recently as 2011 with it). But they also have finished out of the Top 30 in it, and  also years when they almost went bankrupt wearing the attire. The thing we learn from this 80 year of uninterrupted lesson is that the unchanged attire had nothing to do with the years the Cadets won Titles, nor the years the Cadets finished out of the Top 30. What a Corps wears for duds is meaningless to their scores and placements. Its a non factor really, imo. Just as you said, talent, show design, excellent teaching are the catalysts for success. Thats why there really was no reason at all for the Cadets to change their Cadets styled attire, as it did at least provide the uninterrupted continuation of the 80 year successful brand. 

I think I did say in that post that the uniform or costume is certainly important, I just elaborated on the fact that talent, design, teaching, admin and all that is more important. I get what you're saying too. I thought Boston's uniforms were critical to their show. Are they going to stay with that design or will they be more like Crown and do variations on it each year?

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I notice there were not too many vocals in the first-place show (all prerecorded: historic drum corps announcements at the beginning and end, some chanting by a bass voice in a foreign language from time to time, and the samples of Rihanna and someone else (Sia?) singing "Diamonds") and none in the second-place show.

That would be a trend I'd like to see continue and grow.

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11 minutes ago, jwillis35 said:

I think I did say in that post that the uniform or costume is certainly important, I just elaborated on the fact that talent, design, teaching, admin and all that is more important. I get what you're saying too. I thought Boston's uniforms were critical to their show. Are they going to stay with that design or will they be more like Crown and do variations on it each year?

 We just respectfully disagree then that attire has any effect on a Corps scores and placements. I like this season's Bluecoats attire FAR better than their 2016 attire where they went hatless. The Bluecoats 2017 bowler hats, suspenders, Fosse like outfits were super cool, imo. But they finished 5th in them... a 4 placement drop, despite the far better attire that the Bluecoats had on for this season compared to their 2016 DCI Title winning season. Thats because, just as I posted, a Corps attire is essentially meaningless to scores and placements,  

Edited by BRASSO
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20 minutes ago, BRASSO said:

 We just respectfully disagree then that attire has any effect on a Corps scores and placements. I like this season's Bluecoats attire FAR better than their 2016 attire where they went hatless. The bowler hats, suspenders, Fosse like outfits were super cool, imo. But they finished 5th in them... a 4 placement drop, despite the far better attire that the Bluecoats had on this season. Thats because, just as I said, a Corps attire is essentially meaningless to scores and placements,  

If attire is meaningless, then why the emphasis on costuming? 35 years ago when a corp wore the same uniform every year I may have agreed with you. But if it didn't matter then there wouldn't be so much thought and money put into it. SCV didn't decide not to look anything like SCV because they didn't think the look mattered.

 

And as far as Bluecoats attire in 2017? Just about the stupidest costumes ever. I'll bet they'd have placed higher without such a cheesy getup.

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