The "Next Big Thing" Artistically...

[lowbrasswhole]

Congrats on getting a topic to remain mature for a bit! What's next? Good question. I think that the really drastic innovations have already been explored and done, so I don't think there will be another big bang. The innovations will come in small increments now.

Cadets are onto something with their fast drill, and hornline pushing the volume to the max (in the Bb era). This is significant because all drum corps are concerned about the ensemble score, and keeping everyone in the box is important. This keeps the volumes under control and the sound balanced and error free. Cadets are doing this, but still pushing the envelope to be louder. The louder volumes are more exciting. Cadets are also (this year) getting into the set up, impact, set up, impact mold that keeps you involved.

Cavies are at their best when they are completely committed to their concept (machine, spin cycle, frameworks, etc) and this is going to spread. Bluecoats touched on this with Capture and Escape in 2003. Design will become less sectionalized, and more flowing, I think.

I would certainly love to see more emphasis on the musical programming like Phantom. Being able to play music is the core of the activity, in my opinion. Having said this, I think the main innovations will be on the visual side. I just hope that the music stays in the mind set, and the visual works to enhance it.

I think the ballad as we know it will disappear. There have been many reviews this year about how their attention dwindles during these sections of the show. I think it has to do with design...the ballads are just not effective in some of the shows, usually because the don't flow well. What I can see is shorted ballad like sections, but no full out ballad.

BOA bands have been ahead of the DCI gang for a while in terms of creativity and innovation. They can take more risks. We see bands imitating corps, and we also see corps imitating bands. The entire activity has become so formulaic, it would be great to see some edgy stuff that is different. I like that the cavies break routine and do 007, and Chicago, and BJ, then turn around and do machine, and spin cycle. I like how cadets re-invent themselves. I wish Blue devils would do something different. When they do, thats when they will be at their best, truly.

I also see the activity growing a bit, and the use of amps and electronic instruments will increase. The Pandora's box was opened. It does give another level to create...so they will use it. I miss acoustic drum corps, but accept were we are going.

[michsta8]

The way things are changing, i would imagine that the next "big thing" will be animals on the field

[sburstall]

The way things are changing, i would imagine that the next "big thing" will be animals on the field

Now that's mean calling woodwinds "animals". :P

[Liam]

And let me expand on the "backwards" idea I floated a couple of posts ago. Basically, I envision a complete breakdown of the front facing show. Think about if DCI was so popular that the entire football stadium was full of paying customers -- 85,000 (or whatever) in Indy. I think it would be a natural progression that shows would evolve into a "theatre in the round" type concept to play to all of the crowd.

I also wonder if more crowd involvement will be preesented in designs. We already have the Vanguard yell, the Cadets pre-show stuff last year with the "lost" girl roaming the stands, the "questions" asked of the audience through narration (rhetorical or not). There are oodles of possibilities design-wise to include the audience in the production.

[bawker]

I've thought about this before - always in the abstract of course. I like the "drill within the drill possibilities"

What about running a show backwards -- I not talking about the story going backwards (a la BD '05). I mean designing a show so that it appears it is being presented backwards -- to the back stands. This would have to be EXTREMELY clever and well-designed, but I envision something that appears to be presented backwards -- pit, dm on back side; corps front faces backwards; seeminglt playing to "audience" in the back stands; etc -- but still cleverly designed to still be entertaining to the real crowd "behind" them.

Or how about 2 shows cleverly melded together. SW touched on this a couple of years ago (last year?) with the white and black uniforms and seemingly two different drills. This gave me the idea to create two completely different shows with half a corps each that could be performed individually and be presentable, but could also be done together and written to meld both musically and drill-wise. Not THAT would be cool !!!!

Hmmm...that backwards show idea would be cool to see. You have to wonder why Cadets 2005, with the backwards unis, didn't use that idea in some regards...it could have fit with the "Twilight Zone" concept, possibly even better than the Dani storyline.

...IIRC, Cadets of Bergen County 1989 kind of tried the second idea for brief while in their closer. Not to the extent that you suggest, of course. That could be something amazing. I think it would probably require an original book to pull off...I'm sure there are music folks who can tell me otherwise if there's pieces out there already that could work for this.

Another, less invasive possibility I just thought of might be the inclusion of antiphonal brass in works that call for it. Such a thing would require the sideline rule to go out the window....but placement of brass choirs in certain area of the stadium, or even to act as a Greek chorus of sorts in certain parts of the field might add some musical interest.

[Liam]

Or here's another one -- (a pricey one, but you didn't specify a budget for ideas!!!!):

How about if each member wore a different uniform -- different colors, shapes, whatever, so that the drill could form mosaics or otherwise create a literal picture (painting) on the field rather than just shapes.

[sburstall]

Hmmm...that backwards show idea would be cool to see. You have to wonder why Cadets 2005, with the backwards unis, didn't use that idea in some regards...it could have fit with the "Twilight Zone" concept, possibly even better than the Dani storyline.

...IIRC, Cadets of Bergen County 1989 kind of tried the second idea for brief while in their closer. Not to the extent that you suggest, of course. That could be something amazing. I think it would probably require an original book to pull off...I'm sure there are music folks who can tell me otherwise if there's pieces out there already that could work for this.

Another, less invasive possibility I just thought of might be the inclusion of antiphonal brass in works that call for it. Such a thing would require the sideline rule to go out the window....but placement of brass choirs in certain area of the stadium, or even to act as a Greek chorus of sorts in certain parts of the field might add some musical interest.

The last part would require a massive change to the current boundry rules.

[bawker]

BOA bands have been ahead of the DCI gang for a while in terms of creativity and innovation. They can take more risks.

Yes.

I think we need to take that back from BOA. That doesn't necessarily have to mean adding more toys...but instead of using the marching band as a litmus test, we make drum corps the creative center. I know there's bleed over of staff and the like...but instead of just trying a concept with a band, and then giving it to a corps to execute at a higher level (yawn), we see designers use drum corps as their primary canvas. Excite us, not make us remember where we saw that at Grand Nationals the year before.

If we're to be a "major league", we should act the part...and not crib from the AAA teams. :P

[bawker]

Or here's another one -- (a pricey one, but you didn't specify a budget for ideas!!!!):

How about if each member wore a different uniform -- different colors, shapes, whatever, so that the drill could form mosaics or otherwise create a literal picture (painting) on the field rather than just shapes.

That could work even this year....some people have said that the "Picasso" motif doesn't come out quite as strong as it could from BAC.

What it they had unis that represented different eras of Picassos style? "Blue" era unis, "Rose" era unis "Cubist" unis....if we've explored the idea already somewhat with black/white (thanks Sky Ryders 1987 ! ), could it be taken even further?

[Liam]

Also, I think someone mentioned "staging" before but now I can't find it, so if I'm repeating, I apologize:

With the advent of amps, pits are no longer required to be in the front. Or all together for that matter. I know in the past some corps have toyed with moving the pit on the field or off-center or what-have-you, but without amps the possibilities were limited. But I would think that with proper balancing of the amps, the staging and/or spreading out of the pit around the field opens up lots of new opportunities for innovation.

(And I know this might not work under current rules, blah, blah, blah ... just thinking outside the box (or outside the pit!!!) as bawker has allowed :) )