Show themes

[silvertrombone]

You know, I like theme shows in general. But the really, really absurd ones (and no, that doesn't mean BD's current offering!) are kind of a drain. Few examples of each from several eras...

Theme shows

91 PR remains my all-time favorite show due to being the first I ever saw...and the baritone moment...and the ending...ruined me for several years! All that good upbringing...right out the window. 'Phantom Voices'...nothing more pure than opera and drum corps, right?

89 SCV...needs no discussion.

97 Scouts...I think I've got the right year...Pirates, right? How cool was that!?

05 Cavies...007...surprised they didn't use this in 2007, but oh well. Just ripe with material from, what?--30 movies???

06 PR...'Faust' with no Faust...great concept! Loved it, too.

Absurd shows

03 Star...OK, I liked it right from the first time I saw it...how could one not like greatness??? But I know many of you blame global warming, George Bush and the Tribulation period on this show. To each his own.

VK...just about any year. Oh, wait...they're the exception!

Cadets 05-08. Now, I liked 06 the best of all of these, ironically. Well, haven't seen this year's yet. Last years was one of the two finest corps ever, period. But 05 was just weird. Well-done, but weird. 06, see 03 Star comments. 07/08 don't merit discussion.

07 Boston. OK, I liked the concept, they just didn't quite pull it off. I mean, use Picasso artwork! Kind of like playing the Ring without playing Ride of the Valkries, you know? WTF! Brown guard unis? Geez, not like the old coot used brilliant blues, reds, yellows, etc in weird fashion his whole adult life. They could have had each guard member in a different themed costume...and they did brown?

07 (?) Glassmen--Beethoven wasn't insane. Period.

Some of these corps just try too hard. The upper echelon of the activity is driving the direction the rest are striving to remain relevant in. Corps like PR and Crown basically say, "F you guys--we'll do it OUR way!" And fans love them for it. In general, I love the shows these two put out there, along with a few others.

Now, would I give up 'theme' shows if it meant returning to a higher level of entertainment? In...a...second!! Done!! Next dumb question.

Say we changed scoring to 30/30/30/10 Brass/Perc/Visual/GE. That takes us back to a more DRUM and BUGLE (and COLORGUARD) type approach to drum corps. It would put more emphasis on designing entertaining shows instead of making every colorguard tech the next Puccini, Picasso or Stravinsky. Innovation isn't all that great if it takes shoving it down people's throats! That's what is happening more than not.

Make music the impetus, and all of a sudden these 20 phenomenally talented groups take on a completely different look, feel, purpose and goal. Make blasting our faces off worth 30 points and see what happens! Besides, do we really remember GREAT shows for their THEMES? Or for the music, marching, visual, etc. Make GE something that determines if you place 3rd or 13th, not 1st and everyone else.

[bawker]

What elitists?

-elitist in that those that seek to define a certain bit of the artistic realm as deep and thought provoking, while taking a down-the-nose look at something they deem simplistic; if you don't "get it", then you are a boor. Some shows are presented in this manner nowadays.

-elitist in the fact that there's already an extremely small subset of music education and performance folks that the activity now caters to, and that those charged with "design" have the same groupthink to only cannibalize each other and their fellow pageantry arts circuits. It speaks to the absolute lack of creativity on the part of a designer.

-elitist in the fact that shows are designed with such psuedo-depth nowadays that they can't even be bothered to use real words in their descriptions, or must have a two page dissertation on the Peruvian Wild Tree Frogs "song of love" and what it means to the 1884 San Mateo HornBlasters concept. ( . . .or, as Peter Griffin might say, "It insists upon itself." )

Blue Devils and Cadets are to drum corps what Mandarins and Pioneer are; that is to say that no one in our activity (as much as they'd like to think so) has a grasp on the "art" of drum corps anymore than anyone else.

Everyone still plays, marches, drums and spins. No one changes the paradigm in DCI. No one.

Some execute better, but who can say whether "Vienna Nights" has more artistic merit than "Constantly Risking Absurdity"? Is it because a show mentions "real life", because it intrudes on our personal being . . .is that automatically a free ticket to artistic "depth"?

Certainly not.

. . . as far as taking chances "artistically" goes, I'm sure a lot of people might welcome something that was unlike anything they had ever seen on a football field before, themed or not. . . but it's too bad that everyone is so busy copying everyone else in the style of the homgoenous "Wind Ensemble Inspired 11 Minute Concerto for Brass and Percussion" arranging dreck we have now that no one bothers, though.

That's not art, and, really, neither is drum corps.

Drum corps is just a pastiche that for the most part gloms onto certain kinds of popular, classical and other forms of music and sets it in motion. It adds some visuals and color to music. That's all it does. It borrows from everywhere, whether out of necessity or the failure of the designer to generate a new idea.

Still, it excites . . .it entertains . . .it presents emotion. We all want to be hit with that primal wall of sound, even though it's nothing new under the sun.

Who cares? It still kicks ### anyway.

[DrumCorpsFan27]

-elitist in that those that seek to define a certain bit of the artistic realm as deep and thought provoking, while taking a down-the-nose look at something they deem simplistic; if you don't "get it", then you are a boor. Some shows are presented in this manner nowadays.

-elitist in the fact that there's already an extremely small subset of music education and performance folks that the activity now caters to, and that those charged with "design" have the same groupthink to only cannibalize each other and their fellow pageantry arts circuits. It speaks to the absolute lack of creativity on the part of a designer.

-elitist in the fact that shows are designed with such psuedo-depth nowadays that they can't even be bothered to use real words in their descriptions, or must have a two page dissertation on the Peruvian Wild Tree Frogs "song of love" and what it means to the 1884 San Mateo HornBlasters concept. ( . . .or, as Peter Griffin might say, "It insists upon itself." )

Blue Devils and Cadets are to drum corps what Mandarins and Pioneer are; that is to say that no one in our activity (as much as they'd like to think so) has a grasp on the "art" of drum corps anymore than anyone else.

Everyone still plays, marches, drums and spins. No one changes the paradigm in DCI. No one.

Some execute better, but who can say whether "Vienna Nights" has more artistic merit than "Constantly Risking Absurdity"? Is it because a show mentions "real life", because it intrudes on our personal being . . .is that automatically a free ticket to artistic "depth"?

Certainly not.

. . . as far as taking chances "artistically" goes, I'm sure a lot of people might welcome something that was unlike anything they had ever seen on a football field before, themed or not. . . but it's too bad that everyone is so busy copying everyone else in the style of the homgoenous "Wind Ensemble Inspired 11 Minute Concerto for Brass and Percussion" arranging dreck we have now that no one bothers, though.

That's not art, and, really, neither is drum corps.

Drum corps is just a pastiche that for the most part gloms onto certain kinds of popular, classical and other forms of music and sets it in motion. It adds some visuals and color to music. That's all it does. It borrows from everywhere, whether out of necessity or the failure of the designer to generate a new idea.

Still, it excites . . .it entertains . . .it presents emotion. We all want to be hit with that primal wall of sound, even though it's nothing new under the sun.

Who cares? It still kicks ### anyway.

I was going to say this, but you beat me to it. That's OK, because you said it a lot more eloquently than I would have.

Edited July 24, 2008 by DrumCorpsFan27

[jeterbeater]

To be honest, I have more music education than any of my drum corps friends (ones marching and ones that frequently attend shows) and they love all the shows. So I don't seen how drum corps is catering to any sort of academic elite. In fact, I'm gonna have to call that a flat out lie. Not that I'm talking down to you or anything, I know you're a smart man, Bawk bawk.

[DrumCorpsFan27]

To be honest, I have more music education than any of my drum corps friends (ones marching and ones that frequently attend shows) and they love all the shows. So I don't seen how drum corps is catering to any sort of academic elite. In fact, I'm gonna have to call that a flat out lie. Not that I'm talking down to you or anything, I know you're a smart man, Bawk bawk.

What about the ordinary Joe off the street who has little or no music education? Used to be that corps shows would appeal to them. Now, not so much. DCI will be the first to tell you that their target audience is those in music education...band students.

Edited July 24, 2008 by DrumCorpsFan27

[jeterbeater]

What about the ordinary Joe off the street who has little or no music education? Used to be that corps shows would appeal to them. Now, not so much. DCI will be the first to tell you that their target audience is those in music education...band students.

Yeah but who's to say that band students know that much anyway? You talk as if high school band kids have this overflowing knowledge of music, they don't, they're still bandos. I hope you aren't implying that a high school bando is smarter than you, sir, I highly doubt that!!

And I'm sorry, but Joe Schmo doesn't want to see a marching band show, period. He doesn't want to see a musical, he doesn't want to do any of that stuff, he just wants to pop open a cold one and watch the Packers game. I really don't think we need to worry about "Joe Schmo".

You know how the old saying goes, "If you build it, they will come". Drum corps will be fine.

Edited July 24, 2008 by jeterbeater

[bawker]

So I don't seen how drum corps is catering to any sort of academic elite. In fact, I'm gonna have to call that a flat out lie. Not that I'm talking down to you or anything, I know you're a smart man, Bawk bawk.

Who marches the shows for the most part?

-White kids from moderate to well-to-do backgrounds, who mostly come from a background that has either pushed them towards music education/performance in college or is doing so in high school. DCI's own numbers support that.

Who designs the shows?

-The self-same designers of WGI and BOA for the most part, all controlling their little subset of pageantry arts and stealing from one another if it suits their needs. Insular, and in many cases, elitist, in its "who's hot, who's not" mentality. What was the last new design face you saw at a Top 12 level?

Who is in the stands?

-It's music educators who take their bands along (at a discounted rate from DCI) to larger regionals shows. Kids who are along for the ride and get exposed to the very same things they see in most of their band competitions each fall, albeit executed at a higher level.

Where does DCI center its advertising?

-Pay attention to the between show announcements at regionals. Note the Music Educators tents that are set up, and the people that DCI is looking to reach.

DCI, for better or worse, puts all of its eggs into the basket of riding the coat-tails of members who skew primarily towards music education and performance. . .using instructors and designers that the band (BOA) and guard (WGI) world are comfortable with and easy to move across the idioms, that design shows to please judges in the stands that are themselves music educators and performers.

If that isn't elitist in at least some regards, I don't know what is.

[jeterbeater]

Who marches the shows for the most part?

-White kids from moderate to well-to-do backgrounds, who mostly come from a background that has either pushed them towards music education/performance in college or is doing so in high school. DCI's own numbers support that.

Who designs the shows?

-The self-same designers of WGI and BOA for the most part, all controlling their little subset of pageantry arts and stealing from one another if it suits their needs. Insular, and in many cases, elitist, in its "who's hot, who's not" mentality. What was the last new design face you saw at a Top 12 level?

Who is in the stands?

-It's music educators who take their bands along (at a discounted rate from DCI) to larger regionals shows. Kids who are along for the ride and get exposed to the very same things they see in most of their band competitions each fall, albeit executed at a higher level.

Where does DCI center its advertising?

-Pay attention to the between show announcements at regionals. Note the Music Educators tents that are set up, and the people that DCI is looking to reach.

DCI, for better or worse, puts all of its eggs into the basket of riding the coat-tails of members who skew primarily towards music education and performance. . .using instructors and designers that the band (BOA) and guard (WGI) world are comfortable with and easy to move across the idioms, that design shows to please judges in the stands that are themselves music educators and performers.

If that isn't elitist in at least some regards, I don't know what is.

Hmm, thank you, your post is slightly eye opening.

For the record, outside of the shows that I've marched, I've never attended a DCI show. Pour gasoline on me if you must, but I'm just not terribly interested, you all are the true patrons, not me. I'm far too busy now. Anyway, being within the whole thing, and once and a while on tour sitting in the stands at regionals/finals week, I guess I didn't see what you see. You DO make a very strong point though, but I still wouldn't exactly call band people the musical elite. When you have musicologists and Joe Ph.D posturing about the Blue Devils while dining on wine and cheese, then maybe you'll have some first class elitism on your hands ;-)

[Minimaster]

What about the ordinary Joe off the street who has little or no music education? Used to be that corps shows would appeal to them. Now, not so much. DCI will be the first to tell you that their target audience is those in music education...band students.

Do you know for a fact that shows now don't appeal to the regular guy on the street?

[jeterbeater]

Do you know for a fact that shows now don't appeal to the regular guy on the street?

That too, however, I think you're giving the average American too much credit