31rabbit

in the sense of not shoving the horses back in the bottle but kind of corralling them: 1. All Mics must be stationary. Mic your pit, fine. mic your soloists and singer, sure. mic a substantial group, you're going to take a visual hit if you do too much of it. 2. No more than (Number TBD) seconds of pre-recorded audio allowed in a show. that includes music and voice clips. it's a performing art, and frankly I think that there should be NO pre-recored audio but i'll cede to a small window for whatever GE gimmicks. this could be audited easily enough by looking at the sound files on their laptop...so you don't need a guy with a stopwatch, but if judges suspect an overage they could go look. or in advance the corps could be required to submit an account of pre-recorded audio they plan to use. these rules don't get it all the way to where some people want it, and they take away some toys that some people like. but from here i figure it reigns in the most egregious aspects of EA while still allowing creative freedom.

anything interesting in the subcaption scene (not that other people should do my homework, I'm sure i'll get around to investigating). basing this perspective off of the combined Allentown recap, which is both relevant and not: -if BD wins, how many corps have won without taking any music subcaptions? has anybody ever done that besides BD? - If SCV wins without raising its brass score, what's the scope on 'lowest caption placements of winning corps'? SCV could *conceivably* fall to 5th and still win, but that won't rival Crown's 6th place drums in 13. -unlikely but possible, if Coats overtake Crown via GE but Crown still wins music: has a corps ever won the overall Music Caption but not medaled? theory discussion: when putting sports into historical perspective for these types of discussion, Baseball defines itself by equipment changes, basketball uses the shotclock and 3pt shot to define the modern era. I think comparing 70's DCI scores to modern scores is faulty for several reasons. so what is the 'modern' era of drum corps for the sake of contextual historic discussion? My gut instinct is to start it at 2005.

no doubt. unfortunate that all show speculations threads now need to be prefaced with *in a perfect world, with generous rights holders...* gimme the Bluecoats playing "Ask DNA," that's all I want for Christmas.

the thing feel about GoT music, and it applies to the weak half of the Zimmer soundtrack book and say most of Johannsson's stuff, is that it's excellent atmosphere music when it's supporting something dramatic but not Bold enough to be the main course. Take 'Light of the Seven,' which was a pretty popular hit from the GoT track... very effective, ideal soundtrack music...but as the focal point, it's just a lot of build-up and tinkering around with basic music devices. just my thinking on those tracks, not to come on here and trash the idea. If anybody sketches out a 12 minutes GoT show rep, i'd listen and willingly be proven wrong. now if we're talking TV shows that you can build an entire show just from the original score (a single source show. gasp!): Cowboy Bebop is the first to mind. Stars did it when they were still Div III, and pre electronics...that is a full show in spades. the 2009 The Prisoner Reboot (surprises me too, but i'm confident it could be good). plus, think of the huge bubble props and penny-farthing cycles the Leftovers. Richer is, for me, Zimmer with a lot of anger and anxiety and frequently more meat on the track.

'One reason art is labeled pretentious is because it embraces creative risk' ..but then there are all the other reasons why. the label pretentious is directly tied to a failure of communication. It can be an excuse of the audience to not bother listening, but just as much it can correctly identify when the auteur speaks but has nothing to say. there is no risk-taking in demanding that the audience see something that isn't there. well there is a risk, but it's not an artistic risk so much. I don't care about the pretention in the narrative of the conceit. I can think back on 2012 Cadets, a show with an 'idea' that even when I got the 10 minute speech from somebody on the design staff I failed to appreciate more because I knew what it as 'about.' I dug it because it was barber, but if somebody likes the juxtaposition concept, fine. 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.

BK's show made perfect sense, if you had the right set of preexisting references.

IF theme is going to be heavily integrated into a show, there has to be a tendency to go dark because it offers greater variety. under the "all happy families are alike..." banner, I don't think I'm being unfair to point out that the Uplifting shows frequently cluster together in flavor, and that has led them to be less effective (see: Cadets 2014, 02, 07, 08), Wheras if you go sinister and cynical, there's range(see: Cavaliers 2016, 14, 10). I certainly noticed an increased eyerolling and lack of verve in the response to Cadets shows as they tread that ground while the Cavaliers have gained traction as they've gone darker. Not that Happy Shows haven't done well. Troopers have made ground with Positive Thematic shows. Blue Stars 2014 presented a heart lifting show in fresh way. Crown had an formula in 14,15,16 of 'heavy show, powerful uplifting ending,' it rocked the house in 15 but last year the it wasn't as effective with the caveat, of course, that show construction and execution will of course alter how a theme is received. so not only do dark shows offer the opportunity for a Huzzah! Fanfare ending (see Crown), but there are also just more flavors to choose from.

I like the rumors too, but I for one would advocate that this thread be discussion-free and only include Official Breaking News. there can be a 2017 Program Discussion Thread in the main body of the forum for discussing the new and rumored reps, while this one is just news. just sayin', it would save on the withered expectations.

here's what finals week needs: Open Mic solo/ensemble competition. think about how much musical talent is walking around, between alumni, fans, current performers who've been eliminated. the venue/timing could be tricky, maybe it's an after show thing maybe it's in the afternoon on Friday/Saturday. there are some detail challenges, sure. but imagine an open mic solo/ensemble competition. $X to participate each day, nothing high maybe $10 or $20 just to keep the riff-raff out. best judged performer by an 'expert' panel wins the pot. supply the basic instruments, see what happens. I've wandered into some impromptu soloists in parking lots that were showing off killer stuff, and you know watching drum corps gets all the alumni itching for the spotlight again. just saying, i'd queue up for this.

In my opinion, this statement about 'hard for hard's sake' is true regarding body movement during drum solos. spare me your 'simultaneous demand,' I get 0 interest out of snares rocking doing squats or that rocking back and forth thing. especially when, in certain corps case, they prioritize their drumline dancing when their solos aren't even clean. fast drill though, is always great. I can't think of an instance where i saw drill performed well and thought 'gee, this drill is too complex/fast, it's making the show less effective.'

body movement to the point of saturation. Just because you're not marching doesn't mean you need to do a squat or leg kick. 'Coats 2011 intro is the prime example. musically, excellent. and half of the movements fit. but they're doing these kicks and twists on every phrase, even though the music is sort of a slow ominous build that doesn't need a kickline. for what should be an excellent opener, I cringe when I watch it.

on the topic of most intense applause, don't forget the end of Madison 97. the crowd went berserk when the DM whipped out that camera.

1990 BD is a solid show, but that music could use a reboot (not to mention the staging and theatrics could be amazing). presumably they still have all those mirrors from a few years still lying around.

nobody wants to redo the overdone, at least I don't, but some great pieces have been Underdone and deserve a mulligan. that was something I was ruminating on: not redo shows I like, but retry concepts or pieces that weren't executed to their potential. example: I didn't want Madison to do 99 again, because they owned that show and it didn't need anything more. but their Carmen show, well that was source material that didn't get performed to its potential and I'd like to see it tried again. or Cavaliers 07, for instance. Pressure and a few other moments were solid, but it's a largely forgettable show. which is a shame since the Billy Joel canon has so many potential-laden pieces. the best moments of that show illustrate what it could have been, so I want somebody to try that again. also while I'm picking on the cavaliers, and this my Bold Statement: I want to see a 'The Planets' reboot. Crossmen 08 was okay, but I wasn't satisfied. Don't get me wrong, Cavies 95 is excellent. for its time. But I think the advances in theatrics and staging, and the spacing effects that can be done with speakers...I think a new The Planets could really put a lot more meat into the production that I think the source content deserves. modern Cadets, if it were one of their Good Decision Making Years, could really take The Planets to a performance ceiling worthy of the original content. Phantom of the Opera and West Side Story, those are Done shows. but maybe Miss Saigon, as much as I like SCV 91, has a ceiling that hasn't been hit yet.

nobody is generally excited about reboots. Other than rare exceptions like 08 PR, they almost never surpass the original. That Said, I can think of a few shows/numbers that deserve a mulligan. In the spirit of 'music corps should do,' I'd like to see Bluecoats take another stab at 'Haitian Fight Song' from their 09 show. It was technically solid in 09, no doubt, but it lacked a certain...lunatic verve. Judging from the attitude and character they stuck onto some of their pieces last year, I think if that Mingus number where to come up again, they could probably give it the weird life that piece deserves this time around.

as far as creating a 12-month fandom goes, DCI could do their part by putting a little more verve into their website content. looking at the last 2 months of content, I think I read maybe half a dozen, and none of them with particular zeal. between soliciting content from members/staff/fans, brief interviews with luminaries, thematic lists, and tech discussion, it shouldn't be hard to get at least 2 interesting features a week with minimum effort. but often I'll go weeks without visiting the DCI site and see I've missed nothing.

I'm not against the show. even a bad show is likely no real harm, it may just result in kids showing up to camps with misperceptions, but even then hey they're showing up at camps so that's a step. but a Good show will definitively accomplish more than a bad or mediocre show simply based on More people will watch it, more people will tell other people to watch it. Because season 1, I wouldn't tell anybody to watch that. if somebody's 13 year old niece were interested in band, I'd send her clips of shows and tell her my own tour stories (PG13!). I think it's possible to create a show that will appeal to the 13-18 bracket (assuming they have at least a base level interest in music performance), will intrigue Parents of said same children that this is an activity of worth, and will appeal to potential fans, that can be built in a better way that trying to fit the activity into the Sports Reality Mold. Stylizing a Drum Corps reality Show to look like store-brand reality TV is not, in my opinion, going to accomplish those three goals as well as the model I theorized on in a prior post (if said model were done well). and the reason I believe S1 failed was because it wasn't really about drum corps; S1 was about the Drama of People who happened to be in Drum Corps. which is a different thing than being about the activity itself. if this show wants to its job of being Good and Influential, I think it has a better chance of doing so by being the Best Interesting Show about Marching Music on TV, rather than the 2,379th best show about conventional drama arcs.

season 1 took an activity that isn't broadly known, and told it via tropes that everybody is already familiar with. there is a ceiling on that, and really it will appeal to neither the Initiated nor the Reality TV crowd. hypothetical alternative show concept: Build the show out of miniature infotainment features. scrap 'character drama.' gimme mini-docs on the fascinating aspects of the activity. the hallmark of good informative TV is that it gets you interested in something you weren't interested in before. Like 'Top Gear,' that lures people in with gag races but then has you watching a highly-technical feature on cars. say a theoretical drum episode: 12 minutes interviewing drummers, showing them practice, etc. and 12 minutes about writing battery pieces, how you introduce 'musicality' without melody, how it evolves. episodes built around the different sections, episodes built around fans, around alumni, around logistics, are show concepts, around grueling practice, around auditions, etc. maybe you spice up every episode with one fun feature, and one technical feature. a 12 minute piece on how members pass the time on a 7 hour bus ride (PG 13!), and a 12 minute piece talking about integrating on-field speakers in improved ways. if that sort of thing were done well, with nuance and personality, it could appeal to the curious and the experienced, in say the way the best Cooking or Profession or science shows do. but the way it's currently built, it may be watchable but it will never be anything Special because it doesn't have the depth. but that's my .02 on a DCI show that has a high ceiling.

I think DCI's more recent 'under-armour-like' shirts are an improvement over the original UA brand shirts DCI had a while ago. the DCI UA shirts are great for the gym, and I've been wearing them regularly to the workout in since I got them with no damage, so that's incredible value for money. But they weren't exactly interesting to look at. This year there was the Blue-Gold Championship shirt sold in long and short that was of the wicking type material (though the thinner 'cool weave' type compared to the thicker UA DCI shirt types), I believe I saw more people wearing that shirt during the season than any other DCI gear. and though I have no data to support this idea, I imagine DCI gets a better price buying from Champion (who does many of their other merch shirts) than they would from the Prestige UA brand. so though I think the attachment to a brand like UA is good, I think sticking with Champion is just fine.

I've never heard a crowd louder than the end of Madison's show in 97. I never compare anybody to Madison in the 90's, that's just a specific fan zone I stand in in which the corps being compared will always come up short based on a bias in my heart. If they set The Second Coming to music, it'll still pale in comparison to the end of that 99 Scouts show. when I really think about 'feel' and experience, I want to put BC16 next to Cavaliers 07 (Billy Joel). we're getting into amorphous areas, but I want to compare the big hits in BC's show very much of the opening hit from that cavies show, or the big moment at the end of Pressure. that Billy Joel show was not everything it could have, but it also had some really good moments. and the best of those moments are, in my mind, kin to the best moments of BC. not to say the shows are similar, but my reactions to them are.

I think Volume of Attention Paid to storytelling changed with 05 Cadets. look at 89 SCV...how much storytelling is actually in that show? compare it to Crown or Academy last year, BD 2015, PR 08, Cadets 05-08. 96 BD and 97 Scouts are definite precursors to Original Narrative steering a show. but I observe a tangible uptick in Priority of Theme/Arc post 05 compared to prior. How much of why INK won is because of the effect they were able to build through narrative? not always for the good, but it's there in more at a higher percentage than previously, and I think 05 was the lynchpin that ramped it up. but that's my thesis, and I'm always eager to argue about it. via text these arguments have the feel of more snark than is maybe intended, but i'm all for making Bold Statements about the activity in the Macro scale. there was a kind of 'chillness' to BC 16. it was often self-aware, with the MMs watching each other, applauding each other and so forth, not to mention Winking. shades of Crown 11 in that it admitted it was a show, and invited the audience to hang while they played. which is almost an early 90's thing, which is in turn a way-back thing. the activity got very Serious on a personality level in its upper tiers from the mid 90s, got VERY serious in the cavalier days of the 00s. if more corps next year and down the line are 'approachable,' THAT might be something I'd credit BC with. not a new innovation entirely, but a level of personability that distinctly increased the enjoyment fans got from the show.

well I'm not the one stake the initial claim, so the burden of proof isn't really on me in this case. I'M not trying to make a bold statement here, I used my example to briefly touch on how a Bold Statement ought to be supported with specific arguments and revealing discussion. I hardly think it's out of line to request a certain amount of support from people making bold claims. How do you evince a paradigm shift? I suppose Innovation and Effect. Since we can't discuss Effect yet (that's 2-3 years out window), I'd like to see an evidence-based argument about innovation in BC16. unless they prove to have significant lasting Effect, I'm not prepared to give the lidless pajama uniforms credit for being Innovative to the point of shifting the paradigm. but then again, uniforms tend to be something I'm usually the least concerned about, so my lack of credit there is a personal bias. I think Innovation can be reduced to: what is the Big Idea the show introduced? maybe (likely) it isn't the First Instance of the idea, but they presented the idea and elevated it to becoming a core idea that other corps will draw upon at a significantly greater rate thanks to its introduction in this show. I'd say the Cadet 05 Big Idea (see, I'll present it anyways) was showing the value of storytelling. were the Cadets the first corps to do so? no. but they bought into an original story to a with greater investment and at a higher level than had been done previously. lots of corps have dabbled into acting out scenes from musicals, but cadets 05 sought to tell an original story, from start to finish, and never have their show stray from the narrative element. yeah it cribbed heavily from Alice in Wonderland conceptually (and then there was 06). but Cadets in 05 decided to go all-in on narrative, any 3-4 years later it was popping up everywhere and at the highest level. last year BD, Cadets, Crown, and Academy were all entirely narrative-structures shows, with BK, Cavaliers, and Stars also being at least strongly tied to an arc. 2015? BD, Cavaliers, and Boston directly relied on narrative to advance their show, Crown obliquely. whereas in 04, hardly there, even in shows that would have thrived on a narrative. ergo my theory is that the significant value of narrative storytelling as the spine of the show rather than as the detail-work is an innovation which, if not originated by the Cadets in 05, was evolved by them to such a degree (they carried the storytelling from pre-salute through leaving the field, and for several years used visual and music to support the show theme, rather than the other way around) that it became a staple idea among elite corps. this idea was integrated by 08 Phantom, and i'd argue that it was the narrative strength of Spartacus is what gave that show its status as a contending 'all-timer' and certainly a staying power that is rarely seen among other modern shows. you don't have 08 PR without 05-07 Cadets) (though PR began dabbling in narrative in 06, they went all-in with 'Spartacus'), which I think owes much of its structure to 05 Cadets. and the wild reactions to 08 PR led to a string of corps increasing their theatrical presence. see, I did it anyways even though I wasn't going to. it's a pet thesis I have. so what is the Novel Innovation/technique/philosophy of 16 BC that is going to become a significant device going forward? now you're welcome to disagree with that pet thesis all you want. and it's a discussion I always enjoy. but its relevance to THIS thread is that there is no thesis statement to what is so influential about BC 2016, let alone any evidence.

i'd love I'd love to. come find me at a show, or perhaps after a show, perhaps after two drinks after a show, and I'll soapbox on the importance of Cadets 05 through at least one round. but this isn't the 05 Cadets Paradigm Shift thread. current posts have not met the standard of presenting through a preponderance of evidence that BC 16 has met the requirement to be classified 'among the small percentage of shows considered the most important within the activity.' This Request For Evidence is a preliminary step towards a Notice of Intent to Deny the Classification of BC2016 as 'paradigm shifting.' but I like the show a good deal, musically at least, so i'll watch it again and keep an eye out for any merits submitted as evidence of the show's pioneering or groundbreaking novel contributions.

or in short, 'Prove it.' two ongoing threads about the 'paradigm shift' set by the bluecoats, but nobody will tell me what it is. the most substantive post only really contained one paragraph of explanation: "Having said that, what the Bluecoats have done in the last 3 years has had an effect. We've already seen it with numerous corps. You just have to look closely. They have certainly pioneered electronics and soundscapes. But don't overlook what they did with costume, props, and staging (for which this past year's show goes even further than what I have seen from Crown or BD). Also considere music arranging. They have taken minimalist music and exploited it's natural constructive style to help feature sections and show elements in ways I have not yet seen in the activity. If the nature of innovation is to bring many elements into a whole in a completely new way in order to create a final product that is unusual and perhaps never before seen, then the Bluecoats show was innovative. It's the most modern thing I have seen in this activity. " emphasis added. my counter is SCV post mid90s hung their hat on this, specifically 01. as well as Crown 13 winning with this flavor. i'm just saying, somebody give me the substantive, evidence-based proposal that BC has 'shifted' or 'will get credit for potentially shifting' a thematic or performance element. we've all got the discs, somebody tell me what I should watch and look for that is paradigm-shifting.

I always figure 05 Cadets was the show that solidified an aspect of 'theatrics' as essential. 07 BD may be the last show to ever win or even contend to win with such sparse adornment. consider: 16 SCV could have been a winning show a decade ago, but I think in the current environment it lacked the frills to fight for the top spot.