What makes DCI of today musically inaccesible?

[Fred Windish]

Well stated, Steve!

I have no musical training to speak of, but I have seen what "sells" across this activity. It's a basic formula, usually NOT someone's personal experiment. Experiment if you must, but do it sparingly and accept the consequence. If necessary, yield and adjust.

[mgarside83]

I don't think DCI today is any less accessible than ever. There are shows I love this year, and shows I hate this year. What I will say though, is that it seems more of the successful corps are doing more inaccessible things. BD this year was very technically good, but I do think it was one of the most abstract championship shows ever. Usually in the past, a championship show would have more audience connect than that did. But, 2 years ago, Phantom won with pure audience connect. So I don't think DCI is in a bad way, its just that when you go to a show today, you don't know what you're going to see exactly. You could see BD 2010 or Madison 2010. I think that's kind of cool. But I would like to see GE be more defined as how effective a show is on the audience. If the audience can't connect to the show, I would like to see it hurt GE scores a little. Doesn't mean that a show has to be "entertaining" all the time, but it should Effect the audience on some emotional level. Confusion isn't an emotion........

[Barifonium]

Hello! Are you awake? Two towers are irradicated, a Nation goes to War looking for WMDs that apparently never existed, Celebrities raise millions for earthquake victims in Haiti & Chile while people in America are jobless, homeless and starving, our Government put us in debt to Foreign Powers, and some American citizens are symbolically chanting "This is my Rifle!". So you don't see this as a "Mad World"? When The Cavaliers revealed that theme, some of us said that's a concept that's going to go WAY over their heads. Cadets Jeffrey's far fetched dreams? Blue Devils illusions & mirrors? These are concepts are that are too representative of living in the USA for people of limited mental abilities to absorb. I hope you're not living proof of that.

This is NOT the America I used to know, and Corps are reflecting the reality of what is NOT what we wish it to be. Are you not aware of this? Look, I used to raise the American Flag during the Cavaliers Color Presentation of "Battle Hymn Of The Republic". Did that accurately depict our National perception? I think so, although at the time I couldn't have put it into words. Any more than I can today about Corps shows. BUT I do believe some shows actually define & depict the way we are...and hey! This IS a very, very, Mad World.

Lets not forget an increased awareness of spirituality/God in America with PR's Into The Light.. then there's BAC with "Thy Kingdom Come" although that seemed to be more of a general, earthly european kingdom.. just my take.

Cadets 2002's "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" didn't work because it was searching for some sort of meaning, or depth . . .it worked because of the primal, loud connection between performer and audience, with the arrangement staying out of the way as much as possible.

I've always liked drum corps for the fact that, when I was first exposed to it, it was able to convey the most important, most emotional, most powerful parts of music well . . .and left the subtlety for other musical genres. The further you move away from that, and the more "subtext" you seek to create as an arranger, the more you lose me as a fan of your book (although it still seems to work on the sheets, but that's a story for another day).

Interesting contrast between Bawker and AmFlag61: Primal connection vs. show message/a larger picture.

Of course, being the spoiled Drum Corps brat that I am... I think there should be both.

It's like when you get one or the other, (primal connection or show message/larger picture) the show can be really good or really bad. Really cheesy, or really inaccessible.

However, the nature of Drum Corps demands a corresponding demand of technical excellence with respect to each subcatagory. We can all agree on that. It's relative importance with each show is naturally debatable, but most often there is generally a minimum level of excellence required which, the consensus seems to be that it at LEAST needs to be above the best marching band optimally. One needs to make up for the other to achieve balance.

The true magic happens when all the(se) pieces fall into place.

[BozzlyB]

I see many fans on here say that the music of today is inaccessible and unentertaining. I don't agree with that, but that's not the point of this thread. I want to hear people's opinion as to what is causing this. Is it musical selection? Is it arranging style? Is it generational gap? I would love to see no "the people want this or that" talk because that's not what I'm interested in here. I want individual's opinion on what offends them musically in DCI 2010.

I agree with you in the sense that I DON"T agree it is inaccesible. That's become a catch all argument to throw a corps into the box of "music I don't like". I go into each season fully expecting to dislike roughly half the shows I see. The groups are different each year that make that list but half seems to be about right in general. There is just a lot of drumcorps every year that doesn't do it for me, and it's just because for whatever reason what they're playing doesn't resonate in my happy place that makes me feel good more of that please "place". The music is accessible, I just don't care for it.

[scottgordon]

I see many fans on here say that the music of today is inaccessible and unentertaining. I don't agree with that, but that's not the point of this thread. I want to hear people's opinion as to what is causing this. Is it musical selection? Is it arranging style?

Thanks for asking. It is the arranging style. In my opinion, there are two things that have caused drumcorps music to have gone awry, and they both have nothing to do with musical selection and everything to do with arranging:

1. Chopped up form. A melody loses its effectiveness if it isn't played to completion or allowed to exist in its full form. Harmony loses its effectiveness if it loses a segment of its progression. Putting in a climax just because there hasn't been one in 20 seconds, or because something visually demands it, is less musically intense than one that is built around the musical structure. And it is musical structure that allows the brain to connect with and enjoy the music - chop it up and you lose the listener.

2. Lack of groove. A HUGE factor in the fundamental power of nearly every great piece of music is the effective use of groove - sustained and building repetition. It is the source of rhythmic power, and the source of dance. Drumming is not effective because of quantities of notes, but by the ability to create a groove, to create something that compels the listener to dance. Professional drummers are hired for the grooves they create, not for their technique. Corps used to whip a crowd into a frenzy by generating powerful sustained grooves... listen to BD "Legend of the One-Eyed Sailor", "Pegasus" (compare 1980 to 2007 in this respect!), or "La Fiesta" for examples. Groove demands effective use of repetition, and that is something that has been largely lost, possibly exacerbated by judging trends, which equate repetition with boredom. But when is the last time a corps sustained a groove long enough to make an audience want to get up and dance (other than the cadence used to march onto the field)? There is a ton of groove in the parking lot - it needs to make its way back onto the field!

- proud whineosaur

[Blackstar]

Take a look at Vanguard of the late 70's and 80s. Suncoast Sound, and others. These corps had great music and great drill. The Drill fit the music.

Now DCI (not drum corps because that incldues seniors) has become lets run around as fast as we can playing whole, halfs and quarters in a random order. Lets dance and jump around instead of doing guard work and the drum line sit back except the 1:24 minutes we have alotted you for a feature.

Its not what they play its how they play it. Play the #### song.....

[Todd Tanji]

I find the music of DCI today to be MORE accessible since it is performed much better and

actually sounds somewhat like real music, as opposed to the honking sound of G bugles and

plinky sound of un-amplified pits.

[comeonfhqwhgads]

The music is inaccessible because:

music that involves anything beyond a single mostly naked female singer and several dozen electronic pitch correctors is no longer popular music.

[Lance]

Too much music is chosen and/or arranged to suit a visual design or concept instead of choosing great music and adding a pleasing visual design.

Also a great deal of forcing music into a "theme" that it wasn't written to express in the first place.

And then there's all the "snippet" arranging - cutting up and "re-composing" of the music, and then adding things the original composer didn't even write. Do you really think you're a better composer than Shostakovich or William Bolcome? When should the title be changed to "Music inspired by..." instead of the original title?

the 70s and 80s were just as bad if not worse. some top placing WSS and App Spring shows barely sounded like the original thanks to "enhancing" efforts of HOF arrangers.

[Lance]

Jay Bocook is not Stravinsky; Scott Boerma is not de Falla. They (along with others) realize that, and don't presume to stand in the way of the music to add some sort of implied "depth" to it with their own rococo twaddle.

except yeah, they often do.