BRASSO Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 From the mouths of babes lol! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 I guess drum corps staffers feel more pressure to put on a show with a solid storyline, or something close to it. I think the days off putting on a show with just music as the storyline are way gone. There has to be a meaning now, or they risk losing points for it. Think about it...Frameworks was a show about....? The basic planning in putting together a drill? XtraordinrY is a show about a young boy's imagination, or walking through Where The Wild Things Are. At least that is my take. Cadets' storyline is concrete, Spirit's, Blue Stars, Phantom, etc. They are all doing Drama on a football field, rather than drum corps for the sake of traditional drum corps. It is almost like putting on a complete musical/drama that you might find on Broadway, or a High School auditorium, except that instead of singing or dialogue (for the MOST part, anyway), there is brass, percussion, flags and marching. And the stage is a football field instead of in an auditorium. I guess maybe this is how drum corps is changing. Of course, there are exceptions to this, in the present and the past...namely SCV doing Phantom/Opera in 1988 and 89. I think drum corps felt pressure in the late 90's / early 2000's to be more competitive, especially the ones at the top, so visual drill became a priority, and the Cavaliers led the way in this regard. And then 8 years later, the fans griped that music was starting to be forgotten, so they started writing shows that were more fan friendly in a musical way, while still trying to be competitive visually. And I think that since the 2008 season we have seen the culmination of this pressure to 1)put on a fan-friendly musical show, 2)have tough, eyeball exploding visuals, and 3)be more competitive. And with the newly-formed TOC shows, where being in the top 8 will line a corps' bank account, the pressure to do all this has become even more intense - thus, you are seeing corps that are trying to put on these complete performance package deals that are both fan friendly and tough, to better compete. I think it is a given that a drama/musical show with a solid storyline comes with more GE points possible. And that is where the points are. You can clean a show both visually and musically as much as you want, but if the show is not written with enough GE possible, you aren't going to compete. And I think we have seen that this effect has improved drum corps (for most, anyway) - that the corps are more competitive, you are seeing a little better quality (despite scores, trust me - even if Crossmen, for example, end up 16th this year, their show is loads better than last year's show that took 17th or whatever.) So that is why I think drum corps has gone the way it has gone since 2008. And it will be interesting to see how this trend continues and evolves over the next few years. In any case, I think most people here can agree that this 2011 season has been the most exciting in a long time. I wouldn't worry too much about what's going on, just try to enjoy the shows if you can, and admire the work the kids are doing on the field. I'd like to see who here might agree with this, or disagree, I'd really like to get some other viewpoints on this, if possible. This is a very interesting Original Post, coming from a former marcher. You pretty much nailed it, imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 (edited) Hey kid, welcome aboard the Old Pharts bus. It will be a number of years before you can sit in the back with the really cool people. HONK HONK He qualifies though. The busses arn't big enough any more now for all the Passengers of Time. As long as he still gets on the bus though, we'll find him a seat. But you're right... it'll take a few more years yet till he can sit with the really cool people ( haha) Edited August 5, 2011 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Drum corps has been weird ever since it stopped being actual drum corps back in the Cretaceous period. You got that right, bro'. When the dinosaurs kicked ### and took names. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Hey kid, welcome aboard the Old Pharts bus. It will be a number of years before you can sit in the back with the really cool people. HONK HONK C'mon Mike, we sit in the back to be close to the bathroom...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piper Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 I can never understand a corps' story line anyway. Maybe I'm just dumb, dont pay attention to it, or simply don't care, but if they want to throw a theme on their show I can live with it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 (edited) I would only take issue with one point and that is with regard to the "pendulum" comment. Why? Because the tick system didn't reward creativity or artistic design. It was much more execution over demand. When the judging system changed to the build-up system, we saw an inverse of that. So this "artistic era" is truly the first of it's kind. Sure there was anchoring of the pit, asymmetrical drill, and all that stuff...but those things didn't fundamentally transform drum corps the way the effect and visual captions have. For me, the stark difference that's most noticeable in that time frame I mentioned previously is the arranging. That's the most glaring shift. Well, most glaring immediate shift, at least. There are two very different Blue Devils corps, for instance. There's the PRE-'94 BD and the POST-'94 BD. they are two radically different beasts. Watch '93 and '95 back to back and tell me that's the same corps. The arranging is radically different between the two in just 2 YEARS. They went that direction and everyone else (for the most part) followed in their foot steps. Wayne Downey and the BD arrangers single-handedly changed drum corps. My thoughts are getting a bit scattered on this right now, but (to me, at least) it's very difficult to consider drum corps before "94 and after '94 to be the same animal. It changed probably more radically than at any other juncture, even though it wasn't immediately noticeable. I agree with this. There was a seismic shift from 93- to 95 and the few years after '95. Star of Indiana had an influence on this seismic shift, imo... for good or bad, depending upon one's personal perspective. Pre 1993, Shows were more musical, where music arrangers had the opportunity to more fully develop songs. The Visuals took a back seat ... as a complement... to the music. After 1993, the shows became more visually oriented. The music began to complement the new visual shows now, not the other way around. The visuals became more rewarded in scores, Cavaliers benefitted in this, imo.... and the brass charts became increasingly more choppy, and we came into the era where brass playing was seemingly becoming staccato note playing as filler for the emerging guard and visual influences in the activity. Here we are in 2011, and I am beginning to see glimpses... ever so slight... that there is an attempt affront, on the part of some of the show designers to return melody and harmony a bit more to the shows. You mention BD. BD is a good example where last night in Lawrence I noticed they have portions of the show that looked intentionally designed to incorporate melody and harmony more into their show ( more than last year anyway ) in park and bark segments. These segments are short to be sure, as BD understands that what gets rewarded on the current scoring sheets are the visual and guard still over the brass and percussion. I look at the dilemna the Madison Scouts face right now. Their closer, ESOM is very entertaining, and the song is an extended one and has very good audience appeal. But they are hurt on the current sheets ( my opinion anyway ) in the closer as their drill for the closer is too much park and bark at the end. Don't get me wrong, as I prefer park and bark as a former brass player. Its just that the scoring sheets right now reward the visual moves a bit more than the brass playing. And a few other Corps curently ahead of them have this down pat a bit better, imo. Maybe the new judging sheets will change this, but reading between the lines I heard the phrase " show design " mentioned more than once. My concern, (hope its not realized), is that the show designers will be rewarded on the new score sheets coming out next season, over the performers. That would be most unfortunate should that occur, as Corps with the big bucks will always have the ability to simply buy the best show designers for the Corps, and then we'd REALLY have little movement in placements. But I'm willing to see what comes down the pike next year re. the new scoring sheets. Wouldn't it be great if " entertainment " value re. connecting with audiences became more integrated into the new scoring sheets ? If DCI did that, then the show designers would naturally follow and begin designing more " popular " shows again ( you'd think that " popular " was a BAD phrase to be used in some Corps shows today, imo ). Edited August 5, 2011 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 As weird as some might think drum corps is now, it's still not as weird as these examples. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emc2 Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 I haven't really watched any shows since I aged out in 2007, and now that I'm watching current shows on the DCI Fan Network I'm pretty shocked by how much things have changed. It's the amps, it's not the electronics and synths, I actually like all that stuff. But the uniforms, the show designs, everything, wtf is going? It seems like every corps now does a "brooding and mysterious" preshow, and everyone is doing A LOT of dance movement as opposed to actual marching. Am I just the old fart that I despised back when I marched? Why can't we go back to the days of Summertrain Blues Mix and Frameworks :-(? I know when I was marching we were already on the path to Bando-dom, but man is the top 12 in bando territory now. Change is good I see nothing wrong with the way drum corp is going. Times have changed get with it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephanieT Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 The only constant is change. Which applies to EVERYTHING. While I never marched I can remember watching the finals on PBS when I was in middle school and high school (I'm 50!) and thinking how amazing it was. Now that my kids have been involved since about 2004 and I've been to countless shows, spent many hours at rehearsals of the 4 differnet corps our family has been memebers of, I STILL think it's amazing. No, from my perspective which is obviously differnt from someone who has, in fact, marched, there are any number of things which are occuring both on and off the field within drum corps. But overall, I look at the activity and see the musicianship, the creativity and the talent these young people exhibit and I continue to be amazed. Everyone will look back at their time in Drum Corps as the best and will long for the "good old days." I love this post. Thank you!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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