Does Drum Corps Need 23 Shows With Cliche Themes?

[BRASSO]

Topic edited because I don't feel like explaining myself.

This thread rocks !

[Roark1]

Can't wait for this one:

12 Tone High Jinks – A tribute to Schoenberg

[jwillis35]

I agree with those who say it's not about whether the theme is cliche, it's about the HOW it's presented to the fans. Often times we know to ask WHY when researching or learning about the inner workings of something. In drum corps, I am not as concerned about that. WHY you choose to do something is your business, your idea, your corps, your theme. It's HOW you construct the show, teach it, develop its content and themes, and how you want it to sell to the fans.

Someone said that drum corps shows are not intellectual. I disagree to some extent. They are certainly highly intelligent in their design, and the performance of them requires talent and hard work, and the effect they have on the audience is not always easy. I often believe that many of today's designers try to be too intelligent with the design of the show, and in so many ways this causes the divide between the show itself and the audience.

Oh, and by the way the show I am waiting for someone to design is a paraody on drum corps. The show would be titled "Drum & Bugle Corps" and it would be a Velvet Knights-like production where they parody many of the famous moments in drum corps history (by other corps) in a comic fashion similar to "Scary Movie."

[Hup234]

... many of today's designers try to be too intelligent with the design of the show, and in so many ways this causes the divide between the show itself and the audience.

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."

[troon8]

I agree with those who say it's not about whether the theme is cliche, it's about the HOW it's presented to the fans. Often times we know to ask WHY when researching or learning about the inner workings of something. In drum corps, I am not as concerned about that. WHY you choose to do something is your business, your idea, your corps, your theme. It's HOW you construct the show, teach it, develop its content and themes, and how you want it to sell to the fans.

...I often believe that many of today's designers try to be too intelligent with the design of the show, and in so many ways this causes the divide between the show itself and the audience....

I would certainly agree with your statement about many of today's designers. I just can't for the life of me figure out why at least one designer every few years (if not every year) will think it's "intelligent" to start with a concept that's been seen so many times.

For example, there have been plenty of shows built around the word "color(s)." Many have been performed extremely well by the members. But if I were a designer, one way that I'd be eager to engage the audience is by giving them something that maybe they've never seen before. To me there's a big difference between restructuring a piece of music that's been heard many times before in an attempt to give it a new twist, and creating another entire frakking program around frakking colors.

(Or the frakking number one for that matter. There's a few more on my overused marching cliche shows list, but you get the idea.)

I'm not looking for 23 wildly experimental shows about the quadratic equation or the energy emission spectrum of nebulae or titled "Abstraction." But for frak's sake, I just don't get how designers can look at themselves in the mirror and pretend that they're coming up with something remotely original and interesting when they create a show concept that we've seen time and time and time again.

(Again, my beef is with designers of these types of shows, not the performers. I'm continually impressed by how hard members from every corps will push themselves to max out the product they're given, even if that product is sometimes crap on a stick...)

[Michael Boo]

...

I'm not looking for 23 wildly experimental shows about the quadratic equation or the energy emission spectrum of nebulae or titled "Abstraction."

...

Somewhere, an emergency meeting of corps designers is occurring via conference call.

[year1buick]

No. It needs 13.8, to be precise. (But 23 was a pretty good guess.)

[RockyGranite]

Aren't there more than 23 Corps? If so, which Corps did not have a cliche theme?

I don't know that much about past shows, but would BK's Avian be considered a cliche theme? Has it been done before?

[Michael Boo]

Aren't there more than 23 Corps? If so, which Corps did not have a cliche theme?

I don't know that much about past shows, but would BK's Avian be considered a cliche theme? Has it been done before?

Well, birds have been done before, (such as Phantom Regiment's "On Air" in 2007), and space-related shows have been done, (such as Blue Knights' "The Next Generation—Musical Selections from Star Trek" in 1993, but birds in space was a new one to me. The only thing it was missing was this.

[RockyGranite]

Well, birds have been done before, (such as Phantom Regiment's "On Air" in 2007), and space-related shows have been done, (such as Blue Knights' "The Next Generation—Musical Selections from Star Trek" in 1993, but birds in space was a new one to me. The only thing it was missing was this.

What IS that?

Anyway, I was thinking BK's theme was more along the lines of adversity, escape and transformation. The vehicle was the sci-fi thing.