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The Progression of Performance Art in DCI


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The performance art 'trend' is not specifically the vomit. The ‘trend’ is the extreme behavior shown by many of the current modern performance artists to outdo each other on being disgraceful, shocking, outrageous, reprehensible, appalling, dreadful, ... all in the name of narcissistic voracity as opposed to creating performances to enhance the inner magnificence of musical art. Somehow the tide of performance art has turned from being a craft intended to raise people and their spirit to a higher plateau over to diving into the gutter and pulling people and their spirit down with them. Stefani Germanotta attended the NYU Tisch School of Music and was/is an extraordinary pianist. She could have chosen the artistic path to enhance the creative beauty within the historical line of Bach, to Van Cliburn, to Liz Story, but she decided instead to create the alter ego of Lady Gaga. Of course she is free to make that choice; and she is free to continue down the path she is on as Gaga; and she is free to cash in on her own narcissistic voracity. But what this shows is that she is not only able to receive that narcissistic gratification via media exposure, but also receive that gratification through the millions and millions of fans she can appeal to with her Gaga behavior.

One may attempt to point out that Gaga has also created the Born This Way Foundation in the name of charity. But all one needs to do is look at the title and deep meaning of the foundation to realize Gaga, not Germanotta, but Gaga is telling youth via her performance art, via her foundation bus tour, via her vocal and behavior messages, that if you were 'born to be vomited on' that is not only ok but something to be celebrated. And my point of viewing this in the light of an activity such as DCI is that many who are involved with the creative framework of corps within DCI not only agree with but partake of the type of performance exhibited not only by Gaga but also many others in our culture who dive into that world of performance gutter behavior. And because of that innate taste for the guttural aspects of performance art by many within the marching arts it will most certainly have an underlying effect on the future artistic direction of DCI and WGI; maybe not specifically using actual ‘vomit’ any time soon in DCI show concept designs, but they will move the artistic concepts slowly down the path of the sewer instead of the clouds. Why? Because you are what you consume.

Edited by Stu
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The performance art 'trend' is not specifically the vomit. The ‘trend’ is the extreme behavior shown by many of the current modern performance artists to outdo each other on being disgraceful, shocking, outrageous, reprehensible, appalling, dreadful, ... all in the name of narcissistic voracity as opposed to creating performances to enhance the inner magnificence of musical art. Somehow the tide of performance art has turned from being a craft intended to raise people and their spirit to a higher plateau over to diving into the gutter and pulling people and their spirit down with them. Stefani Germanotta attended the NYU Tisch School of Music and was/is an extraordinary pianist. She could have chosen the artistic path to enhance the creative beauty within the historical line of Bach, to Van Cliburn, to Liz Story, but she decided instead to create the alter ego of Lady Gaga. Of course she is free to make that choice; and she is free to continue down the path she is on as Gaga; and she is free to cash in on her own narcissistic voracity. But what this shows is that she is not only able to receive that narcissistic gratification via media exposure, but also receive that gratification through the millions and millions of fans she can appeal to with her Gaga behavior.

One may attempt to point out that Gaga has also created the Born This Way Foundation in the name of charity. But all one needs to do is look at the title and deep meaning of the foundation to realize Gaga, not Germanotta, but Gaga is telling youth via her performance art, via her foundation bus tour, via her vocal and behavior messages, that if you were 'born to be vomited on' that is not only ok but something to be celebrated. And my point of viewing this in the light of an activity such as DCI is that many who are involved with the creative framework of corps within DCI not only agree with but partake of the type of performance exhibited not only by Gaga but also many others in our culture who dive into that world of performance gutter behavior. And because of that innate taste for the guttural aspects of performance art by many of the marching arts designers it will most certainly have an underlying effect on the future artistic direction of DCI and WGI; maybe not specifically using actual ‘vomit’ any time soon in DCI show concept designs, but they will move the design concepts slowly down the path of the sewer instead of the clouds. Why? Because you are what you consume.

I remember the discussion here last year after Gaga made headlines for some other guttural portrayal of "performance art". As I recall, several or many Gaga-apologists here lauded her "art", her talent, her money-making sold-out concerts, her throngs of fans. I recall comments such as "...drum corps should be so lucky to have such a following...". I did, and do, strongly disagree for I believe exactly as Stu says - "You are what you consume" and, for the same reasons that I don't consume fast, junk food, I don't consume what Gaga presents as tasty either. It's puke, she's puke, she likes puke, and she doesn't mind having her best friends puke on her.

I don't believe that there is even the slightest hint of commonality between Gaga's garbage and our version of performance art, but everywhere it creeps into the discussion - let alone the programming - it needs to be squashed, condemned, and rebuked. That's my personal opinion, and I'll leave others to value the merit of what Gaga's sad waste of talent means for drum corps even as I keep a watchful eye out for hints of her nonsense encroaching on drum corps. If I'm in sufficient minority that drum corps becomes anything close to Gaga-esque, well, another nail in the coffin.

That said, the recent REVIEW of her "Foundation" shows that she's just as irresponsible with her money as she is with her "art". In 2012, of a reported $2.1million is assets, her "Foundation" spent exactly $5,000 on her supposed foundation's mission. The rest was spent on lawyers, marketing, travel, salaries, and other non-mission expenses. In the world of charitable book-keeping, she spent just .2%, yes, point-2-percent on her charitable mission. She's a far cry from meeting the IRS's minimum threshold of 1/3 of expenses on the mission.

That kind of non-program-expense spending is an embarrassment and, if DCI were so wasteful with it's assets there would be cries from the countryside (least of all the beneficiary corps themselves) that the executives running the non-profit be tarred, feathered, and run out of town. Ironically and sadly the tar & feathering portion is something that Gaga would likely latch on to as another marketing opportunity even as she thumbs her nose at the IRS. That's no taxes that were paid on her $2.1million in assets, no public good done, with only professionals benefiting from her largesse.

I have found nothing redeeming at all about Gaga's "art", as her's is an example of a waste of talent and training, IMO. God help DCI should they find anything to mimic from Gaga's persona, performance, or professional attention to financial detail.

Edited by garfield
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And what does this have to do with DCI? Are we supposed to make the shows more accessible to common fans, or are we supposed to be some elitist "art" activity just for the cultured few? Doesn't seem like anyone can decide.

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I remember the discussion here last year after Gaga made headlines for some other guttural portrayal of "performance art". As I recall, several or many Gaga-apologists here lauded her "art", her talent, her money-making sold-out concerts, her throngs of fans. I recall comments such as "...drum corps should be so lucky to have such a following...".

I also remember those discussions. And at that time I posted some tongue-in-cheek sarcastic comments about the, um, non-Lady and the impact on our general culture and what it could do for DCI. But no more humor from me. Not only has the Gaga dealt with promoting perversions and debaucheries of all kind via her performance think about the context of this particular case: She is on the Doritos stage at Stubbs BBQ and she purposely showered herself in Vomit!! Where is her respect for not only herself and those in the audience but respect for those food industries which provided the venue?

What I am also interested in, and yet to see happen, is to read multiple responses in this thread from all of the ‘reality perception’ and ‘relative truth’ folks defending Gaga’s performance and continue defending their performance art push within the drum corps activity. When the, uh, reality of their perception and relativity of their truth hit hard here with a manifestation such as this, they are silent in their defense. Come on y’all, defend what you consume!!!

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I also remember those discussions. And at that time I posted some tongue-in-cheek sarcastic comments about the, um, non-Lady and the impact on our general culture and what it could do for DCI. But no more humor from me. Not only has the Gaga dealt with promoting perversions and debaucheries of all kind via her performance think about the context of this particular case: She is on the Doritos stage at Stubbs BBQ and she purposely showered herself in Vomit!! Where is her respect for not only herself and those in the audience but respect for those food industries which provided the venue?

What I am also interested in, and yet to see happen, is to read multiple responses in this thread from all of the ‘reality perception’ and ‘relative truth’ folks defending Gaga’s performance and continue defending their performance art push within the drum corps activity. When the, uh, reality of their perception and relativity of their truth hit hard here with a manifestation such as this, they are silent in their defense. Come on y’all, defend what you consume!!!

1.) Stop trying to bait people.

2.) Is the weather nice up on your high horse? Perversions and debauchery? Are you working for the Pope now or something?

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And what does this have to do with DCI? Are we supposed to make the shows more accessible to common fans, or are we supposed to be some elitist "art" activity just for the cultured few? Doesn't seem like anyone can decide.

This has a lot to do with DCI because many within the activity consume performance art such as Gaga; they relish in that atmosphere; they are specific in their use of the terminology 'performance art' when referring to the direction they would like to see DCI progress toward because millions of fans are engaging in this art with them. However, you do not have to use ‘performance art’ as a model to make the DCI activity accessible to the masses. There are plenty of commercially successful genres apart from ‘performance art’ which do not bathe themselves in the world of narcissistic shock value of debauchery to garner fans.

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1.) Stop trying to bait people.

2.) Is the weather nice up on your high horse? Perversions and debauchery? Are you working for the Pope now or something?

This is not baiting because many on DCP have uplifted ‘performance art’ as the direction they see fit for DCI; and they have uplifted the Gaga as being a great leader of ‘performance art’. And while I may not hang with the Pope, I do have the desire to stay out of the gutter unless there is a busted sewer pipe that needs fixed. So, since you question my use of the words perversion and debauchery, instead of attacking my position in drive-by manner please describe all the positive aspects of the behaviors in which I am referring.

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The performance art 'trend' is not specifically the vomit. The ‘trend’ is the extreme behavior shown by many of the current modern performance artists to outdo each other on being disgraceful, shocking, outrageous, reprehensible, appalling, dreadful, ... all in the name of narcissistic voracity as opposed to creating performances to enhance the inner magnificence of musical art. Somehow the tide of performance art has turned from being a craft intended to raise people and their spirit to a higher plateau over to diving into the gutter and pulling people and their spirit down with them.

How you describe performance art made me think of a South Park episode with Paris Hilton ( I think) has a contest with a character from the show known as Mr. Slave. I cannot remotely go into this contest here, but the contest simply screamed how you described performance art above. ...and we should remember that performance art doesn't have to be about music. It's happening in all mediums.

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