DCI and the triumph of the Simulacrum

[Pete Freedman]

We could talk about the triumph of porn as Simulacrum too, but I'm not suggesting that as a show design for next year. 2016 maybe.

Stu can consult on that one. (I doubt it though.)

Edited August 14, 2014 by Pete Freedman

[Pete Freedman]

The False Hood? Fictia? Misrepresentown?

[Pete Freedman]

False City!

[BRASSO]

Remember when Dylan went electric at Newport? Yeah, it was the death of music.

Musically however, it was the beginnings of the musical career slide of Bob Dylan, as hew never again reached the pinnacle of success he had before he abandoned his unplugged folk guitar and plugged in his Gibson Electric at the Newport( R.I. ) Folk Festival. Jimmy Buffett, whether we like him or not, never wavered his his style of music, nor instumentation. He suffered career slide for over a decade ( 70's to the 80's ) before the next generation of musical fans came along and " found " him relevent once more. Dylan by contrast moved from one musical style to the next ( even dabbled into the Country realm), but got totally lost career wise ( and relevency wise ) in all his permutations with his decision to change with the times.

Edited August 14, 2014 by BRASSO

[mingusmonk]

A lot of the electronics mania generated by a simulated pitch bend this year reminds me of the idea that "live" DJs are "performing", when at best, they're manipulating the Simulacrum.

Much in our culture no longer discriminates between true performers and manipulators of sounds, or the Real and Simulated, though, so I'm sure my opinion is invalid and that I'm a cultural invalid.

Have Grammy-award winning rappers like Eminem or Weird Al (who deserves a whole topic on his own here, the guy who satirizes the triumph and fakery of the Simulacrum in pop culture, like Stewart or Colbert in their areas (remember "truthiness"?), and the endless possibilities that satire could bring to DCI, which we've sadly lost with the death of VK and Bridgemen, and DCI by glorifying the Simulacrum has become so much HEAVIER and sickeningly EARNEST, even self-righteous, in the last unsatirical decade as they desperately try to manipulate the Simulacrum to add simulated profundity to show GE just as they try to add profundity to baselines, scrambling to balance out the Simulacrum with Seriousness and Meaning, and thus jumping the shark with tasteless desperation in design all too often), achieved the same level of mastery as musicians and performers as a pianist or violinist? Many in the young generation would say yes. And they'd say that piano and violin music are boring and irrelevant.

We're doing the same thing in DCI, enhancing world-class horn lines with amplification, or using voice samples instead of live narration, and talking about the "performance" if narration itself as if that's impressive or important (because, after all, narration is performance right, and it's just as hard to talk as it is to play difficult runs that would make for a great Arban exercise while marching backwards at 220bpm, and it's just as impressive for Drake to perform a rap as it is for Hilary Hahn to play a Bach Partita).

Same thing substituting and equating body movement with drill in terms of demand and GE. Simulated drill, simulated difficulty, simulated GE. We see body movement as so often ridiculous because it's filler, simulated demand, like lip-synched 'singing'.

We can't even say on these boards anymore that such and such a corps has lower demand, that body movement isn't as difficult as run-and-gun drill, that it's lower level for one corps to play much or most of the time when standing still, versus another corps playing and marching simultaneously for virtually the entire show. To the judges, and increasingly, to the audience, it's the same. Viva la Simulacrum!

The Simulacrum now dominates DCI. As expected, as WGI is recorded-music based, and relies on staging instead of drill, and especially because our culture is dominated by the Simulacrum - photoshopped social media pics, plastic surgery, marketing, corporate everything, national myths, etc.

Recognizing this, I'm waiting for the next step in DCI/WGI "evolution": live DJs. They are our culture's grandmasters of the Simulacrum - sampling other people's compositions, mashups, simulating live performance by pressing buttons on their MacBooks, and earning six and seven figures for simulated "concerts" in huge clubs worldwide.

The Cadets were the first corps to introduce minimalism into DCI, a music that was initially - and still - mocked by the classical music establishment as simplistic, repetitive, and not nearly as rigorous as, say, serialism. The Cadets will retake the title of "the thinking man's drum corps" that they held for at least two decades if they introduce Dub Step into DCI.

To quote Vanguard at the millennium, it's a "New Era".

I'm waiting for the Cadets, or a hip, innovative corps to stage Skrillex. (And I mean stage, because these days, you don't need drill. Corps members could do choreographed and blocked dancing, stop to play when needed, or pretend to play when the amplification takes over, because it is in the nature of amplification to take over.)

So many possibilities to grow the activity and reach out to new audiences.

I'm waiting to see something like this on the field in June 2015:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCawU6BE8P8

No more throwing babies. We'll have heads exploding.

Next year, whichever corps embraces the Simulacrum 100% will be the first corps to top 100.

Let's all learn to love the Simulacrum.

You know, you could have used the world Simulacrum half as many times (which would leave a still-shocking six Simulacrums on the board) and safely have beaten the DCP record for the most uses of Simulacrum in one post. I feel dirty having just used the word three times in the one post. You're a stronger man than I am.

Edited August 14, 2014 by mingusmonk

[BRASSO]

I keep telling the people in my household not to get the simulacrumbs on the floor, and for me or the Mrs to have to pick up after.

Its never easy.

[Pete Freedman]

Menda City.

Yes.

[bawker]

So, to cut this down to something to chat about: there's more of a WGI influence in DCI.

Yep. It's been said many times here that WGI is where most of the innovation is now that DCI cribs from . . .so it's not really a surprise. Marry that up with how the stage/set piece/re-stage is rewarded more than the whiplash drill of old and there's the rub.

Something else to consider:

our culture is dominated by the Simulacrum - photoshopped social media pics, plastic surgery, marketing, corporate everything, national myths, etc.

Well, DCI has always been a hatchet-job on Broadway/jazz/dead white guys/wind ensemble stuff; a pastiche (with some exceptions, yes) of someone else's work.

And, yup, in this day and age where a meme is born every minute . . .folks are probably going to respond to an "oh, I get that" wink and nod rather than a more long-form engagement. Those types of knowing nods make the designer feel smart in his pastiche . . . and the audience member feel like they're brilliant in catching onto it: a perfect circle of smug.

Anyhoo, it's all good: we'll cycle through to something else in another five or seven years.

We always do.

[Pete Freedman]

Charlatown? Humburg?

[quietcity]

The False Hood? Fictia? Misrepresentown?

MendaCity