dbc03 Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 I understand your point. However, Corps that win Championships RARELY are the national audience favorite for that year. Your mentioned Star of Indiana here earlier. This Corps had a meteoric rise up the DCI ladder, and did so early on with highly pleasing, audience friendly shows. They then evaluated the landscape and concluded that the way to actually win a Championship under DCI judging guidleines adopted would require them to incorporate more demand, complexity, nuance into their shows.... in essence they would need to go( for lack of another word)...." esoteric." It was successful in that quest. It won them a title, before they quit DCI ( and then went back and recreated more audience appealing shows for people in theatres which in turn won them a Grammy for entertaining thousands of people around the world ). It is not unusual at all for Corps to rise up the DCI ladder with crowd pleasing shows. It is one way for them to attract more members to their Corps. But untl Crown, Blue Stars, Boston, Troopers, etc can actually WIN a Championship ewith crowd pleasing shows, it is hard to envision this occuring unless they become more esoteric and " out there "with their approach to show design. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying a Corps can't win it all AND be the crowd's favorite for that year. I'm just saying that in the last 20 years, we can count on one hand the number of years where this was the case, that's all. How many times in the same time period has the crowd's favorite been outside of the top 3 or 4? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 (edited) How many times in the same time period has the crowd's favorite been outside of the top 3 or 4? My guess, about as many times ( or more ) as the winner being the #1 fan favorite for that year. And the point you're trying to make with this question is......... ? Edited January 23, 2010 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbc03 Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 My guess, about as many times ( or less ) as the winner being the #1 fan favorite for that year.And the point you're trying to make with this question is......... ? That doing "fan friendly" shows isn't some albatross around a corps neck. The reason those fan favorite shows didn't win was because they were not performed as well as the show that did win. It isn't some judging conspiracy against fan friendly shows Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedihunter80 Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 (edited) It sounds like the problem is corps are trying to be safe rather than fun. Isn't this the problem Madison had back in the day? Their shows were completely designed for the audience, and as a result the judges marked them lower. That's a great generalization, of course,, but the concept is the same.The show in Las Vegas this past season was judged by the audience texting in their. Maybe that's a route we should look into, at least for one caption? I'll admit I agree with this completely. With momentary exceptions, the fun factor just isn't where it used to be. The corps are still good, but there hasn't been a start to finish show that I loved for a long time. General Effect perhaps? And I do agree with most of what the guy in the article had to say. Drum Corps needs to start looking to the audience again and focusing less on visual. Even if they choose to ignore option A (the audience) I think more emphasis on the music would help the activity by leaps and bounds, even help bring the fan base back up. Edited January 23, 2010 by jedihunter80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 (edited) That doing "fan friendly" shows isn't some albatross around a corps neck.The reason those fan favorite shows didn't win was because they were not performed as well as the show that did win. It isn't some judging conspiracy against fan friendly shows The word " conspire " means in essence that judges get together and make a pact together that no fan friendly show will win a Championship. I don't for a minute believe that judges act in ths fashion. So I hope we can agree that so far on this thread no one has suggested any conspiracy is at work here on the part of judges. The judges are properly ulilizing the DCI adopted tools they have before them to judge Corps.... and unlike theatre......audiences are irrelevent in this DCI enterprise called " DCI judging ". That said, it is unusual that Corps that have the " love " from the 6-12 judges, rarely have the same degree of "love" of thousands across the country that go to these DCI shows. It's insightful that even with the expected home town love, Corps shows that are loved in New Mexico, are loved in Austin, Bloomington, Bristol, or Atlanta. The audiences are a diverse group across a wide spectrum. But the appeal ( or non appeal ) to audiences seems to be universal with a Corps show. And Mr. Hopkins doesn't seem to know why audiences don't seem to be acting with the same degree of " love " for these shows as they used to. And he's trying to figure out why this is. And some posters on DCP have opined on some of the possible reasons for this. And I think that so far, some very plausable reasons for this has been cited on this thread for the reasons why. I personally think DCI went from the " Music Age" of DCI ( early years ) to the " Visual Age "..... and that a proper balance might come back soon, and we'll see more of the Music side return. ( guitar useage might help usher this in as it's hard to run into visual formation with plugged in guitars for example) Edited January 23, 2010 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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