The Rise of Pseudointellectuals on DCP

[Maneuvah]

There is a segment of drum corps alumni, and many of you will know (or are) that segment I'm talking about.

They make jack ##### out of themselves in college band.

They fail out of music ed because, "This is ridiculous stuff and they [professors] don't know what they are doing."

They get fired from marching band tech jobs for treating students like dirt.

They say, "well, at drum corps we did this..." incessantly.

Those people grow up and a lot of them jump into DCP. Because SO MUCH of their frail identity is based in their drum corps experiences, they think changing that activity in the slightest will make them more irrelevant. Or change the way that (they falsely perceive) people view them.

Those people freak out over the changes in the activity. They claim that because the activity is changing people are leaving. In reality, far more people are driven away from drum corps and drum corps shows by interactions with those type of people, than they are concert french horns.

Then, because people avoid those alumtards, the alumtards point and say, "SEE EVERYONE IS LEAVING THE ACTIVITY BECAUSE YOU RUINED IT!" Even though, they are largely to blame for the activity's demise, because they refuse to allow it to change, and act like jack ##### to everyone.

Straw man argument.

I guess this might be true for some, but for me, I own an open innovation engineering company (mostly nanotech and biomedical work). I post a bit on DCP during the season because it's entertaining to take a break here and there.

I guess that makes me a pseudo intellectual.

The subject should be why DCI is doing what they're doing, and whether or not the shows are better for it.

Ad hominem or straw man attacks are just as high school as a lot of the show design.

[Lincoln]

I don't know.. threads complaining about what fans think and say can go a long way, imo.... usually longer than what ( for example ) the Open Class, and DCA Corps are doing these days in scores, placements, shows contributions back into their communities, etc.

I don't see what the first statement has to do with the second statement.

[Maneuvah]

i heard a design staffer once give a lengthy monologue on the Meanings and Underlying Statements and Symbology of the show he'd been a part of it.

it was a veritable thesis.

which invites....antithesis!

'old' shows were (largely) simple in theory and concept, and were criticized in simple form. Boring! bland! unengaging!

'new' shows are complex and intricate and full of vocabulary and detail, ergo the criticism of them must be involved and full of detail and vocabulary.

since modern shows are themselves pseudointellectual, being critical of them in like form seems like the natural progression.

You win the thread.

BUT - what they actually are, especially when pandering to the score sheets, is aspiring to be pseudointellectual, since, in reality, what some designers seem compelled (by the score sheets) to do, like a random body movement ends up too often as doing something for (pseudo)demand's sake that isn't as demanding as, say, moving backwards into a visual form while actually playing. Their instrument. On a field. Which is what is most interesting about DCI.

What is least interesting: non-dancers trying to dance while not playing their instruments. Like your typical high school bando.

DCI should be the cure for bando-ism. Bandos shouldn't colonize DCI. If that happens, I'll just laugh once in a while at a Stanford marching band show, and admire clips of TBDBITL, which, by the way, would never, ever, roll on the astroturf or do hip swirls because Ohio State has too much tradition, too much respect, and too many actual fans to stoop to that bando level. TBDBITL has more fans and media coverage than all of DCI combined. And they deserve it because they do respectable things that demand respect.

DCI, though, has no shame. They'll have marching members embarrass themselves because some bando wrote some GE scoresheet in a certain way, or because some people insist that it's important to allow narration "when I play my trumpet, something AMAZING happens!" (read: a guy seven states away shakes his head and cringes) or any other innovation to pander to bandos.

Cadets '87 or SCV had some body movement, for example, but a hornline doing ballet positions in a piece written for Martha Graham, or a bottle dance in a show of Russian music, is different in kind than a random roll on the astroturf, or a super-swanky knee bend hip swirligig - and in perfect unison mind you - which that the otherwise wonderful Crown mello section pulled off and STUCK IT like Mary Lou Retton did on the vault to win Gold.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Maneuvah

[Lincoln]

I'm shocked this thread is still open.

I think that up to this point the comments have been civilized.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Lincoln

[KVG_DC]

Is all this because I linked to Plato on the Stanford encyclopedia of Philosophy? 😟

[HornTeacher]

Is all this because I linked to Plato on the Stanford encyclopedia of Philosophy?

It is not Plato of which many of us fear to find offense, KVG...it is Play-doh, and its' applications against the very entity of which it is attempting to depict.

(How is That for intellectual obfuscation????)

Edited June 29, 2015 by HornTeacher

[Lincoln]

While some may automatically assume today's word-of-the-day is "Pseudointellectual," that is actually not correct.

Today's word-of-the-day is "headache" - received after reading this thread.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Lincoln

[IllianaLancerContra]

I wonder if Plato would like waffles?

[Tim K]

As long as I've been following drum corps, which is about 40 years, the current state of the activity has been criticized and I don't think there has ever been a time when that hasn't been the case. In 1978, people went ballistic about trends in the activity and DCN and probably DCW (I always found DCW to be more positive) published reviews of shows and letters to the editor decrying shows without "songs." We can look fondly on corps such as the Bridgemen and see them as old school darlings. We marvel at how clean they were today. At the time they outraged people and were considered sloppy. I can remember the people sitting behind me at 1978's CYO Nationals complaining about modern classical music being used by Phantom Regiment. The modern music? A Stravinsky medley. Lots of people saw drum corps as going to hell in a hand basket in the 80's, an era that is generally loved by a variety of ages. There are also those who believe the kids in drum corps are not true musicians. Do they know that some of the country's major symphony orchestras have drum corps alums in their rosters? A few years back a woman sitting near me claimed that anyone in a color guard who hoped to dance professionally wasted their summer. If her students are performing with top ballet companies or can be seen on Broadway, she may know what she's talking about, but my guess is that's not the case.

So, if there has always been his current in drum corps, should it be surprising DCP has posters, pseudointellectual or other wise, criticizing the current season? They can join a club with those who have all kinds of critiques and comments about the shows who have not actually seen them, even when the post season DVD's are available.

[HornTeacher]

I wonder if Plato would like waffles?

You never fail to make me laugh, Illiana (in the very best of ways, I assure you)...or to forget my troubles of the earlier day. Thank you for that.

(P.S. -- We're both in trouble if Plato, in truth, secretly preferred pancakes instead.)

Edited June 29, 2015 by HornTeacher