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DCI Central Florida - Lakeland, FL July 9th


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Ah gotcha. No, I started following DCI 4-5 years ago. I've mentioned this before but it wasn't until 2014 where I actually started to like BD and their style. Before that, I hated it and thought Crown and Phantom Regiment were the best things since sliced bread. Not sure what made me change, but I appreciate BD's style a lot more now. I've admittedly not listened to much by them from the 80's, but plenty from the 90's and 2000's

Cool. Glad you're a fan. I really am not sure though that BD can make this year's show work well enough to win. But who the heck knows. So much of judging is based on preference. I just am not sold on that drum solo...it really lays there with no forward motion and some predictable body movement. So I think they will have to develop that. Anyway...just my opinion.

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Cool. Glad you're a fan. I really am not sure though that BD can make this year's show work well enough to win. But who the heck knows. So much of judging is based on preference. I just am not sold on that drum solo...it really lays there with no forward motion and some predictable body movement. So I think they will have to develop that. Anyway...just my opinion.

I can see that (referring to your comment about the drum solo), we'll just have to see what judges say. It's their subjective opinions that end up mattering in the end.

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I guess I look at some of these videos from the 80s, of renowned World Class shows, and it makes me chuckle. Put today's 12th place corps on the same field as these guys and the 12th place corps would bring the house down. Times change. The idea of having windmills, ramps, or for heavens sake a horse drawn carriage on the field would be more than absurd 20 years ago. The activity has evolved, and is much better for it.

Not sure why looking at drum corps from the 1980s would make you chuckle. I get what you're trying to say. The look and feel of today's more modern approach would definitely make some 1980s shows look dated, but as you look at those 80s corps you need to have good judgement about how good some of those brass lines and percussion sections are. For example:

  • The Blue Devils 1984 - even with a concert number formation on the field for La Fiesta - would embarrass this year's Boston Crusaders musically and visually when considering execution. Even with the wind mills on the field and a more modern visual program, that would not help them against 1984 BD who would flat out crush them, whether using old judging sheets or today's sheets.
  • The 1987 Garfield Cadets would flat out put a whooping on today's Phantom Regiment, even the Cavaliers or BK. The show construction of Garfield in 1987 would still fair well on today's sheets. And their performance levels would easily compete with present-day Phantom, Cavaliers, BK, Madison. Now could they go higher than that? Not sure.
  • Santa Clara Vanguard's 1988 or 1989 Phantom of the Opera show, with fabulous props and visual design, would really fair well today. I think they would whoop the bottom half of the top 12 for sure.

I only say this because you infer that some good world-class corps from the 1980s would lose to bottom top 12 corps of today. I think the bottom of the top 12 today would certainly fair well again mid-level corps from the 80s, but there were some amazing champions in the 1980s and 1990s.

Of course, when comparing corps from different decades it's very difficult to draw conclusions. One thing I have noted, at least for my taste, is that the 1980s' top drum corps tended to have better overall design of their music books (brass and percussion, but not so much pit). The arranging seemed more streamlined and phrases tended to evolve better and feel more musical. Many shows today, not all, but many have poor music design because of too much focus on drill, body movement, and story line over music development.

The best shows of today are visually more appealing compared to those of the 80s. More demand is placed on the performer with marching, body movement, and avg. speed throughout the show. The best groups today can still muster-up a wonderful music book, but these days I don't hear as many well-written music books as I did in the past. Perhaps that's the trade-off with visual demand.

Edited by jwillis35
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