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Amazing show. 04 and 05 both seem to get overshadowed in that 03-08 Phantom era, but they're just as excellent, 05 especially.

I'm actually really surprised this one is having a debate. The answer seems obvious to me, 89 SCV is the better show. That's not to downcredit Star, nor anyone saying Star is the better show. I'm just saying I'm actually surprised there's a debate. A lot of good points mentioned about demand though.

1. 04 2. 02 3. 99 4. 89 5. 08

To double on this one, I know my old music library in college (separate from the main library) had every Finals DVD. Not sure if that's all colleges, and I haven't actually been to mine in a decade, so things could have changed.

Ya, I'll agree that's semantics, unrecognizable v original. Cavies in the early 00s is exactly what got me on this thinking train. Four Corners is one of the tunes I whistle the most from drum corps of the past. You can easily license what was created for you. We already have visual programs custom made for drum corps. I get that composing an 11.5 minute piece isn't an overnight job, but surely it's within the realm of possibility. Or do people just really prefer their drum corps to be playing tunes with recognizable names by recognizable composers, even if that's in name alone?

Obviously I'm coming from the camp of "corps should write their own music", but for the sake of discussion, can someone explain t me the benefit of playing someone else's music? The majority of corps don't even play an entire piece, and every corps that does license music still arranges it for drum corps. Is recognizable music just more accessible to audiences and judges, or is there something more I'm missing?

That's one way to make it work.

This is the common criticism of this idea, and it's not wrong. But consider this: no corps plays music verbatim anyways, and even after someone (super talented) has arranged it, staff (other than arrangers/composers) make tweaks literally all season. We're at the point now where you don't even need an actual musical score by all days - just a framework that can be adjusted throughout the season. You'd eventually just get decent composers and great tweakers (wrong word?) evolving within the drum corps activity, just like we have great visual techs and designers that have evolved over time. Also with the rise of electronic music composers who can literally put together a 20 minute musical program in a few hours, combined with the rise in transcription software, writing an all original musical framework doesn't feel difficult at all anymore.

All original music solves this issue.

1. 2000 - I absolutely love this show 2. 2003 - Great sequel to 2000 3. 2008 - It's the Matrix, and the drill was great! 4. 1999 - Welcome to Finals! 5. 2017 - They burned people at the stake! (I assume that was pretend though)

Snoring was always a problem with the Couchmen. I think that's why so many members migrated over to Sofa Clara and Pacific Rest.

Even Couchmen and INT are keeping quiet. We'll just have to wait and see.

I can't be the only one who liked Bohemia, right? 1. 08 2. 07 3. 04 4. 15 5. 12

1. 2015 is an absolute work of art. 100% but past me thought the future of drum corps would be, and it nailed it perfectly. 2. 2003 is one of the best designed shows in BK history. If they ever rehashed a show that didn't make finals, this is the one. 3. 2006 is a great dark, edgy show that helped define BK in the mid 2000s. 4. 1994 introduced Trittico, which is a BK staple. And I felt so connected to that show after reading GM's book a few hundred times. 5. 2005 will always hold a special place in my heart. I absolutely loved our music that year (with a few caveats to movement 2).

This is literally the first complement I've ever seen about the last show I marched. I loved that show. Thank you so much.

The bold part, you are 100% right, and this does trouble me. This strategy wins, but it's safe, and safe doesn't instigate interesting paradigm shifts, nor does it make shows that are accessible to a wider audience. No, that's a jump in the logic. You said "Drum corps is not, and should not be considered as, film." I disagree, as is my right and opinion. I evaluate film music the same way I evaluate drum corps; did the audio complement the visual, and vice versa? Nowhere in this does it imply that drum corps shows are film shorts, though I would say they are short stories* told through a combination of audio and visual. The same could be said for Fantasia. *Story is a lose term. I don't mean it as beginning - middle - end; characters and plot development; etc. I mean it as using the visual and audio to take the audience on an emotional ride.

Side note: if you REALLY want to take this approach further, it should be story/theme/elements/whatever the heck is guiding your show other than visual/music, and then portray that story/theme/whatever through visual and music. Same approach that goes into interpretive dance.

This is a personal opinion obviously; overall I disagree. But I will say, your approach to visual-first music-second = chord, run, impact, etc. is spot on, and it's just lazy design. There is a middle ground that can be accomplished that still emphasizes visual as the starting point.

Wow, thank you. I actually woke up realizing I need this info for a meeting this week. Great timing!

Jeez. I''ve been posting actively on DCP for more than a decade, and I was still on the field when this thread was created (just checked, looks like I was in Texas that day). 2007 would be the year for me. This always felt like such an underrated year in retrospect, but the shows were so good! Devils were great, but I dug Cadets, this is the most underrated Cavies show of the 00s (except maybe 09), Phantom's amazing bird show unfortunately gets missed because it's sandwiched between Faust and Spartacus, SCV was great, Crown stepped up the plate as a real contender for the first time, Bluecoats had a show that literally beat the Blue Devils for the first time in their history (early season, but still was so cool), Blue Knights continued that dark trend.... Super great year, was never really rooting for anyone (maybe Phantom, but their time came shortly after) but across the board I loved just about every show that year. Special shout out to Madison that season especially; it wasn't the cleanest show for myriad reasons, but man was that a cool show! Especially that opener!

Considering every corps competes at Championships, and a handful of Open Class beat a handful of World on a regular basis now, why does this distinction matter anymore?

I.....I can't tell if you're trying to agree with me or if you're actually not reading what I said about docking scores. My entire point is that scores aren't docked.

Wow, that was a purely hypothetical example of numbers for the sake of the discussion. I assumed that was obvious, especially when I added the "keeping the math simple" part. Re: not every judge valuing the same thing the same way, isn't that exactly what they're supposed to do? I mean, within a reasonable margin of error, but yes, I do think every judge should value every thing roughly the same, otherwise why do we even have scores? Again, the numbers I used were purely hypothetical for the sake of discussion. That literally was not my argument in even the slightest bit, as in 100% not even in the same ballpark. I'm trying to answer the very second post in this thread, which asked what should we do if electronics make their way onto the sheets (probably under GE) and the power goes out at a stadium and a corps can't use power. Let's put my answer to that a different way. Tubas are 1/4 of the brass instruments. If any corps just decided one night not to have tubas on the field, the judges wouldn't dock the score by a quarter, they'd still evaluate the total score based on what the corps hands them. Same thing with electronics.

Agreed. But let's just say the day they added the tarp, their score went up 1 point, and they'd been going up 0.5 per show (just keeping the math simple, this isn't what happened). You could make a case that the tarp, then was valued at 0.5 as well. By that logic, the first show without the tarp their score should have had a 0.5 deficit, but that isn't what happened. It's not about what you have/don't have, it's about what you bring to the field that night and how you use it that night.

Not sure who does these, but the successful income methods I've seen that I believe every corps should be doing: Music camps (summer and winter): leadership, drum major, drum corps experience, etc. Director clinics: educational seminars for band directors, can also offer pay-to-play certifications Marching band and winter shows; literally every corps should host at least one of these in their area, or co-host if there's multiple corps in the area For-hire music ensembles available for corporate/private events. Doesn't need current members, can be made up of alumni or just local musicians off the street For-hire marching band/winter clinics for local programs; bring in staff members for one-day clinics Local sports involvement; if a pro or even minor league team exists, the corps should have a performing ensemble in exchange for either money or a concession stand (the logistics will change for these from sport/venue to sport/venue) Bottom line, corps should brand themselves as the premier local area youth music education program, and leverage their brand name and available resources to provide their own versions of the things that are already happening within the youth music education space.