The Kids work hard, but I still don't like it.

[ducttapedgerbil]

I enjoy videos from the 90s and I wasn't there.

I enjoy videos of shows I never saw in the 00s.

I enjoy videos of a very select group from the 80s.

I don't enjoy videos of most shows from the 80s or earlier. While the live experience might have helped somewhat, I doubt it would bring it up to the level of enjoyment I get out of a typical drum corps show today.

That's because you weren't there.... Drum Corps used to be so loud you could feel it on your face and it gave you goose bumps. You don't have that frame of reference and no amount of 2nd hand stories will replace actually being there. Just because you enjoy it does not mean you have the full appreciation of it that you can only get by being there.

[Legolaus]

This has to be the most pointless thread ever............yawn.

[Matt_S]

BTW, I just had to go look at your profile and what it tells me is, you never really marched with anyone, right? And you are too young to remember the 70's, 80's or really the 90's. So you really don't have a reference point, but more importantly, you don't know what WE are talking about.

And your experience in the 60's and 70's is relevant... how, exactly? You realize that the people you marched with now have grandkids who have aged out of the junior activity, right? Please tell me just how many forms of musical entertainment out there you think connect equally well across generations. My grandma thinks Sousa marches are the height of entertainment. I don't.

You don't have to read my profile; I'll tell you. I never marched in a drum corps either. I marched four years in a top BOA band. But I have no doubt that the activity I marched in is far more relevant to today's drum corps than any activity you marched in during the 60's. Maybe you think that's a bad thing, that drum corps and band are so similar, but frankly your opinion is irrelevant to me. I like what drum corps has become. In fact, if it had stayed what it was when you marched then I wouldn't be a fan; the drum corps that existed before I was born bores me to death. If that' what you prefer, then good for you. But you've had your decades to enjoy that style without me around, telling you how worthless it is. I think it's time for you to get out of the way; it's time to allow me and those like me to enjoy drum corps today, without you and those like you trying to tell me how worthless today's shows are.

I promise, those thrills that you got from drum corps in your time, I get exactly the same thrills from drum corps today. Nothing less. You can still get them too, if you simply open yourself to the possibility instead of closing yourself off to anything different.

[perc2100]

I know I'm going to get blasted... and I have read over and over the discussions pertaining to this topic.

Last night I went to my first DCI show in a long time and I was so excited to finally see one and I just hated it. I know the kids are working extremely hard and are putting their heart and soul into these shows... that is obvious. And to that extent, every single one of them are great! But these shows are the most boring things I've witnessed in a long time. Who ever is writing the music and the shows should be ashamed of themselves. How can you do that to those hard working kids? I was so disappointed.

I couldn't tell when they were starting half of the time, and if it wasn't for a grand chord at the end and a horn pop, I wouldn't know when it was ending. One show actually put a "blip" of pit at the end so I thought, oh... maybe there is another song...nope. Once the pit was miked up so much they drowned out the drums! In all the years I've been marching and watching drum corps... that has to be a first! When has anything ever drowned out a drum line?! Props... what are they thinking? A guard was doing beautiful work, had beautiful flags and you could barely see them because they had placed them BEHIND these god-awful ugly black props! What is the point of that? I watched the kids race all over the field... AND NOT PLAY! What? All this hype over Bb horns and they aren't playing? Ok, cool visuals, but where's the music? And when they did play, it was "park and bark". I thought, probably because after running, that's all they could do.... and all it sounded like when they did what whole notes in big, esoteric sounding chords. I was extremely greatful for the very few soloists. (And I also noticed not one high note from a soprano/ trumpet. It was so "blended". As a matter of fact, I noticed the shift to featuring low brass most of the time. One corps featured the trumpet line technically at one point and it was a total of 8 counts! That's it? That's all?) Don't tell me I don't understand classical, I'm of the age where you HAD to study that in school. Stuff like that was not an option. I could recognize a piece for a couple of measures and I wasn't sure what the heck they were trying to do after that. I do NOT like the electronic talking on the field. The announcer said the corps would "troop the stands". They didn't, it was chaos on and chaos off. To me it was just a big mess. How can you applaud for the kids hard work during that? I didn't like those big black screens they hide behind. I thought it was extremely distracting.

I really tried to figure out the new format for the shows. I know we went from "off the line" to "the exit", and I've watched DCA do "opener, the ballad and the closer". Honestly, after about the 4th corps, I still didn't get what the format was... assuming there is one. I know I HATE the show format. Please, pull the names out of a hat and let them go on in whatever order happens. I'm sick of them showing the corps in the order they are going to score them. Why even wait for the scores? You know by the line up who is going to win and who will not and everyone inbetween. DCA is just as guilty on that one.

I left the show early. I won't go to another. I left feeling so sad for each and every kid on that field. Everyone of them is giving everything they have, and those are the worst "drum and bugle corps" shows I've ever seen. I thought, leave the orchestra music in the orchestra, get something exciting on those fields.

I know, here it comes, blast me... but all this hype about how wonderful all these new changes are, I wasn't expecting shows that just about put me to sleep.

I find this post infinitely more boring, unimaginative, and uninspiring as ANYTHING I've ever seen on a football field from a World Class drum and bugle corps, Open Class drum and bugle corps, DCA corps, alumni corps, marching band, or even football team. The only difference is, all of those groups I named actually work hard to be productive in their area, while you spew the same naive cantankerous rhetoric as a billion other trolls.

At least you have your beta tapes and eight tracks from drum corps eras past to enjoy, where you can refuse to acknowledge that drum corps as evolved past military male-only bugle playing.

Enjoy your time away from drum corps, and on behalf of drum corps fans everywhere I bid you adieu

[dbc03]

That's because you weren't there.... Drum Corps used to be so loud you could feel it on your face and it gave you goose bumps. You don't have that frame of reference and no amount of 2nd hand stories will replace actually being there. Just because you enjoy it does not mean you have the full appreciation of it that you can only get by being there.

Loud is great, but it takes a lot more than loud to make me enjoy something.

Old shows do not have what it takes visually for me to be entertained.

[BRASSO]

I marched I just don't have it listed in my profile or signature for various reasons.

I never saw a drum corps show live until 2000, but I've seen enough videos of the 70s and 80s and 90s to know that I find the majority of the old stuff (lets say pre-1990) terribly boring and not very entertaining with very few exceptions. I enjoy shows today much more than old shows.

Also, you need to cut back on the condescension towards people who haven't marched. Marching has nothing to do with whether or not you find shows entertaining which is what people are talking about in this thread.

In fairness, I think we can ALL agree that seeing a live 2010 Drum Corps show performance is 100 times better than watching a tape of it on a computer screen. Nobody disagrees wth this right ? I mean " LIVE ", we catch the nuances, the volume, the excitement, etc.. the sound quality of a taped version can not possibly duplicate the awesomeness of what we witness live. Thus, any tape of a Corps performance you watch is a very poor imitation as well. More so in fact from pre 1990, as the audio and video reproduction technology in the 70's and 80's was horrible compared with the abilty to reproduce sound and vision of a live performance from today.

Trust me, you can't possibly understand what it felt like to watch and listen to the 1995 Madison Scouts live and have the earth seemingly shake... or even the 1980 Spirit of Atlanta do their closer of " Let It Be Me " that would peel your face off at the end. Listening to it on tape does no justice whatsoever to what it sounded like when you were less than 50 yards away from it and taking it all in live..... or even the soft ballads played with exquisite grace and beauty.... You had to be there. The tapes suck by comparison. All you have to do is watch the crowds reaction at the end of these show performances. Even the crowds reception was louder and better when encountered live, than what you see and hear on those crappy and inferior tape reproductions of shows from decades ago.

Edited August 9, 2010 by BRASSO

[perc2100]

I'm shocked, SHOCKED I say, to see that yet another thread crops up on DCP's DCI World Class Discussions forum that has degenerated into yet another asinine discussion on why current DCI World Class drum corps sucks, and older stuff rules, and blah blah blah.

Really DCP: we are DAYS away from 2010 Championship week beginning, and this is the best you can do?

Sigh...

[dbc03]

In fairness, I think we can ALL agree that seeing a live 2010 Drum Corps show performance is 100 times better than watching a tape of it on a computer screen.

Yes, and watching a 2010 drum corps video is 100 times better than watching a 1970 drum corps video (for me), not so much because of the quality of the recording but because of the show that is on the field.

[Bob J]

No idea....never heard it from the front. Saw a lot of the other corps from the front that year but never my own....

Well I heard it from the front (well, at least the push in the closer) a LOT. And we were LOUD!

[perc2100]

Trust me, you can't possibly understand what it felt like to listen to the 1995 Madison Scouts and have the earth seemingly shake...

FWIW, I saw Scouts live probably a dozen times in 1995, and while that show was entertaining and the corps played loud, just like many people's memories that show/year has become so over-sensationalized and over-hyped that it's almost humorous. Yes, that was a good drum corps that performed well and entertained a vast amount of fans (including me, and up until about five years ago I still had their 'tour' shirt from that season: the black one with the bull on it). But that show (nor many other crowd-favorites) is not the end-all/be-all of drum corps. And how dare anyone try to self-righteously proclaim that just because they didn't see a show from a certain past era invalidates their opinions of what makes an entertaining drum corps show design. I can understand debating personal opinions, but once the conversation sinks to the above type rhetoric, it all begins to further turn to garbage. I know it's not surprising, and I surely don't expect my sickened opinion to change ANYTHING. Just further 'food for though,' and yet another display of the degeneration of DCP, further pushing DCP away from meaningful, intelligent, relevant conversation.

* also, just for the record, I marched drum corps in the late 90's, and if I personally had to pick a favorite drum corps era, I'd probably go with shows from the mid-80's to early/mid-90's though I do love a lot of shows from the 70's and 2000's+