Kamarag Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Ok, let's take the 1979 and 1980 Blue Devils, and the 2009 and 2010 Blue Devils. Corps winning back-to-back titles in eras 30 years apart. Both considered dominant corps outstanding in every area (I also chose them because I'm an alumni of the corps, so can't really be accused of corps-bias). Let's exchange visual programs. The 2009/2010 Blue Devils members could learn and perform the 1979/1980 shows in no more than a day or two at most, and could probably learn the drill in an afternoon. Give them a week, and it would be spotless. Now, use a time machine and send 1979/1980 members the 2009/2010 shows. Do you honestly believe that they'd be able to do it? Not. A. Chance. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bad Bari Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Perhaps the tint is pretty dark for some out there... I personally could never have marched the way they move now... Certainly not and played! I mean have you seen that VID on the nameless site where Phantom Jazz Runs playing Ode to Joy? Oh My God! 2010 is cleaner and more complex then anything you could have dreamed of marching in 1980. I see band that can only rehearse 8 hour a week march cleaner, more complicated drill then MANY 1980's corps. Guess at 20 years the rose tint is getting pretty dark, eh? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 (edited) Ok, let's take the 1979 and 1980 Blue Devils, and the 2009 and 2010 Blue Devils. Corps winning back-to-back titles in eras 30 years apart. Both considered dominant corps outstanding in every area (I also chose them because I'm an alumni of the corps, so can't really be accused of corps-bias). Let's exchange visual programs. The 2009/2010 Blue Devils members could learn and perform the 1979/1980 shows in no more than a day or two at most, and could probably learn the drill in an afternoon. Give them a week, and it would be spotless. Now, use a time machine and send 1979/1980 members the 2009/2010 shows. Do you honestly believe that they'd be able to do it? Not. A. Chance. ...And of course, while PERHAPS true, this has absolutely nothing at all to do wth the thread topic. We can't compare, because the talent today is primarily drawn to 20 some odd World Class Corps, whereas in 1979- 1980, the nation's Drum Corps talent was distributed among a few hundred Corps. Suffice to say that in 1980 there were clearly MORE talented musicians marching in Drum Corps ( as well as lESS talented musicians ) than there are today, because these several thousand more marchers than in 2010 were distributed across a few hundred more Corps in the 1979- 1980 period. Ergo, overall both less talented AND more talented marchers marched Drum Corps in 1979 -80 than in 2010. If we took the best 135 marchers in the entire activity in 1980, they most certainly could have performed the 2010 Blue Devils show in a snap. The pool to draw those 135 marchers was 10 times larger in 1979-80 than what marched Drum Corps in 2010. But again... this all has nothing to do with the thread topic, as we were discussing which era's Corps tended to be " cleaner ". Edited January 14, 2011 by BRASSO 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 (edited) Drumcorps marched cleaner in 1980. Watch the videos, it is not even close. The mentality that what worked in 1980 does not work anymore is ignorant. Ask anyone: I've long been regarded as being ignorant when it comes to anything regarding the history and evolution of DCI-era drum corps. PS: I'm not taking umbrage at your opinion, but I think it's inappropriate to state that anyone who holds a certain mentality is "ignorant." Edited January 14, 2011 by Michael Boo 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCIHasBeen Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 The answer is yes, corps marched cleaner in 1980. Today's movement isn't marching in the traditional sense...It's a different animal. Not saying better or worse, it's just evolved into something different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsubone Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Perhaps the tint is pretty dark for some out there... I personally could never have marched the way they move now... Certainly not and played! I mean have you seen that VID on the nameless site where Phantom Jazz Runs playing Ode to Joy? Oh My God! Thank you Tony. I'm not going to say what you guys did was easy, I mean, doing 101s as an exercise is enough to kill someone, and doing that for 11 minutes...... But really guys? It was cleaner back then? Probably because they weren't running around the field for 11 minutes at 180+ while doing body movements, and doing drill people could barely dream of back then. But let's take a quick comparison.- Spirit 1980. Everyone loves that show, right? let's look at the intro and opener. Start out, marching in a circle for 32 counts, facing the direction of travel at an 8 to 5. Then long extended park and blow. and finish. Now let's take the 2010 Cavaliers, another show people seem to be enjoying. They start out pretty well running at around 164? or so? Yeah...... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Brace Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Oh, I remember the RAMD days...for you youngsters out there...this is going to be a treat. Watch the participation in DCP dwindle so quickly after a few months of this. Is <the name which should not be uttered ever again> out of jail yet? I am sure she could add to this DCI trend. Now onto the topic at hand. 1980 was not my favorite year in drum corps to be sure. I liked 1979 better. I also liked 1993 a whole lot. Then, 1995 was even better than 1993. Then, I liked 2002 and 2006 and 2008. I also liked 2010 because I got to see finals for the first time in Indianapolis. How does this relate to marching? Well, corps marching styles have changed significantly since 1980. 1980s style was far more like what HS Marching Bands in Wisconsin do now. Yes, I go to Whitewater for the Wisconsin State Championships almost every year when I am back there in October. Not much has changed on the band marching front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jambando Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Watching videos of corps from the 80s shows me that the members had the same poor tendencies as marchers today (DCI and high schoolers alike). Curves tend to have points when they form, issues in speed of rotation on pinwheels, members getting to dots early/late, issues in dress, issues in interval (sometimes), etc. The difference is that corps today have a higher frequency of sets and higher velocity in getting to those sets. Leaving out the obvious physical and mental demands this implies, these factors alone give a higher propensity for error. Lower counts per set + Faster tempos = More sets per show. More sets = More possibility for error. My point is that if we are going to compare these different styles (which I would argue is unnecessary), we have to take into account the inherent differences - even if we are leaving out the underlying demand portion. We can't just throw around a word like "cleaner" taking this into account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howdy Posted January 14, 2011 Author Share Posted January 14, 2011 No doubt that todays drumcorps shows are more demanding, we get that. And in 2020 shows will be more demanding than in 2010. The issue being discussed is, which shows were marched cleaner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarimbasaurusRex Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 A more interesting comparison might be 1974 when there were no yard lines. Each era has it's own challenges. Try a high mark time at 180 for a while... or jazz run sideways... it's all hard. And to say everything was 8/5 in 1980 isn't quite accurate. Cavies and a few others were using 7/5 and 6/5 quite a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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