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Is there a double standard in acceptable show design past to present?


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Bringing up the Bridgemen or Velvet Knights in this forum usually drives out the Snowflakes reminding me how inappropriate and distasteful their shows were.
Jump to 2017 where hanging, burning & chopping off women's heads is not distasteful by todays standards it seems and unlike VK's Sexy Cymbals is not the exploitation of women although I think the cymbals worn more treads. Look how far we have advanced as long as you're not a woman or Chris Issacs who redacted his love song from the Wicket Show's dvd/Blu-ray, go figure. 

Some are quick to point out having fun with the Civil War was very distasteful and VK exploited women with their Sexy Cymbals. Keep in mind the song of the decade for the 1980s was Ebony & Ivory things seemed to be coming together before all the outrage, offensive thought police and viral events surfaced that we deal with today.

I love this activity we don't have any Elvis Presley's or Beatles anymore but still have Drum Corps. They never went on strike and have been the best and most accessible entertainment available, to some. Also last year heard complaints about Phantom's Guard and Bluecoats Guard exploiting women but not Boston. I am usually slow to catch on so I missed the context was it the covered faces (how inappropriate) total exploitation but dismembering, hanging and burning women on the field is acceptable and not exploitation?

This year we get a medical description of the heart when heart disease is a number one cause of death. How many fans in the stands just had a loved one die of heart disease, have stints, pace makers, murmurs, transplants or their heart does not function like described on the field? That show & uniforms/costumes/attire (we can't seem to decide which) makes me very uncomfortable and being called Heart & Soul I am waiting for the Soul portion to kick in.

Of course there is a double standard the whole world has one. Don't buy into it, there was nothing wrong or diifferent with what the Corps did in the past than there is with Boston's show last year, Madison this year and others, it's art does not need to be appropiate or tasteful and is not meant for everyone but all shows contribute to the diversity of the activity as they did in the past, I get it. However to insinuate dci has evolved and is now on some moral high ground or fans are more sophisticated because there is no VK or Bridgemen type entertainment is laughable, delusional and total fake news.

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I do not care what they do as a show as much as i do when they pick sucky music. Drum and Bugle Corps was always about playing the near impossible and throwing in the kitchen sink not who can play the most insipid catchy tune.

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9 minutes ago, Bluzes said:

Look how far we have advanced as long as you're not a woman or Chris Issacs who redacted his love song from the Wicket Show's dvd/Blu-ray, go figure. 

Has a UK drum corps ever done a show about cricket? I saw a band do a golf show last year.

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The VK plate line was known as the Sex Cymbals, not Sexy Cymbals.

I think your commentary reflects our society in general. You can’t make a movie like Airplane! now, and you certainly couldn’t put a shapely CA girl in a white bikini with matching FM pumps on the field. 

The difference between then and now is that we’ve lost our sense of humor. Instead of ourselves finding something intrinsically funny, we are now *told* by talking heads what is or isn’t supposed to be funny or offensive. If we disagree, they get angry. This leads to the rise of the TrigglyPuffs, the Pearl Clutchers, the dramatic Screaming Sitting Lady from the presidential inauguration, and the like.

Let’s take recent protests, for example. One side gets a permit, and another side shows up. The scene rapidly descalates into a “TASTES GREAT!!”  •  “LESS FILLING!!!” type of “spirited dialogue” where resolution is nigh impossible. The difference? The Miller Lite people were working with better material, and understood that both sides were idiots.

I know that right this second, someone, somewhere in DCP-Land finds that preceding remark offensive. I find it funny. 

DEVO was right along, 40 years ahead of their time. 

Edited by TRacer
Typos
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This thread does not sound like a commentary on the state of drum corps today as much as trying to bring the tensions that divide our nation into drum corps.

First, the Bridgemen did not attempt to have “fun” with the Civil War. Yes Bridgemen performed enjoyable shows, but they were tough, fierce competitors. They aimed for shows that had impact as GE was becoming more important. The Civil War medley showed off their horn line more than anything else and employed a great deal of passion to show off the power of their brass. Given that the show ended with everyone coming together under an American flag with the peace symbol, I’d be willing to bet the show designers did not think the Civil War was a laughing matter. Sure it was funny at the time to have the South win at a finals held in Birmingham, but the tensions today are different. 

Regarding Velvet Knights, did I object in the 80’s? Probably not. Other corps were more on my radar screen. I remember them, and I know I saw them live on occasion, but they were not a corps I was devoted to following. At 55, I could still be the age of some parents of kids marching today, but edging closer to the grandfather category. I know when I watch the Velvet Knight cymbals, I think “I’d never let my daughter wear that.” Double standard, maybe, seeing things differently over time, definitely. However, given how many people were uncomfortable with Phantom’s show last year, and the revelations that a former director was preying on young women the age of those cymbal players at the appropriate time they were marching, a certain creep factor does set in, at least for me.

 

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People were just as much as snowflakes back then as people are now. It’s just in a different way. It’s imbued in American culture. People from the previous generation just don’t like to admit it. 

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1 minute ago, Tim K said:

This thread does not sound like a commentary on the state of drum corps today as much as trying to bring the tensions that divide our nation into drum corps.

First, the Bridgemen did not attempt to have “fun” with the Civil War. Yes Bridgemen performed enjoyable shows, but they were tough, fierce competitors. They aimed for shows that had impact as GE was becoming more important. The Civil War medley showed off their horn line more than anything else and employed a great deal of passion to show off the power of their brass. Given thatei the show ended with everyone coming together under an American flag with the peace symbol, I’d be willing to bet the show designers did not think the Civil War was a laughing matter. Sure it was funny at the time to have the South win at a finals held in Birmingham, but the tensions today are different. 

Regarding Velvet Knights, did I object in the 80’s? Probably not. Other corps were more on my radar screen. I remember them, and I know I saw them live on occasion, but they were not a corps I was devoted to following. At 55, I could still be the age of some parents of kids marching today, but edging closer to the grandfather category. I know when I watch the Velvet Knight cymbals, I think “I’d never let my daughter wear that.” Double standard, maybe, seeing things differently over time, definitely. However, given how many people were uncomfortable with Phantom’s show last year, and the revelations that a former director was preying on young women the age of those cymbal players at the appropriate time they were marching, a certain creep factor does set in, at least for me.

 

You're not old TimK. 

Old is being reminded by one's age-out sponsoree that the mm was born 3 years after I stopped my 17 years of day to day touring with the corps. Quite humbled I felt. You're at midlife there, fella.

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8 minutes ago, Cappybara said:

People were just as much as snowflakes back then as people are now. It’s just in a different way. It’s imbued in American culture. People from the previous generation just don’t like to admit it. 

Think the availabiltu of getting ones opinions out in social media, 800 cable “news” stations, etc is letting us hear differing voices better.

on the other hand... watching uncensored Blazing Saddles (in HS when it came out) makes me cring more than laugh at use of a certain word. So maybe some of it is being able to hear those other voices to get their side

ps Bridgemens civil war was not played for laughs

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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1 minute ago, Cappybara said:

People were just as much as snowflakes back then as people are now. It’s just in a different way. It’s imbued in American culture. People from the previous generation just don’t like to admit it. 

Aren't you supposed to be in C-town today with BD seeing close-up that Bird in the Diner drawing?

Besides, each snowflake is unique according to W.A. Bentley. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8HYqUjbKeM

Your description goes back at least to 1996 and Fight Club (no, not the Cavaliers.) But that was borrowed from Missouri slang of the 1800's referring to white nationalists fighting the abolition of slavery. Not a term appropriate to DCP ya think?

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