Has Audience Culture Changed?

[HockeyDad]

5 hours ago, ThirdValvesAreForWimps said:

DCI, BOA, and WGI have blended into a seamless garment of boring sameness.  

You have a way with words. 

[HockeyDad]

A couple thoughts:  

Blaming lack of audience response on the audience is par for the course for DCI. DCI has been biting the hand that feeds them for decades. It's also wrong. The person who purchases a ticket and makes the effort to attend the show has earned the right to respond however they like, within the normally accepted bounds of decorum. This includes sitting on their hands. If, in general, an entire crowd is not moved to wild reaction, the cause is not the crowd. Look elsewhere. Such as, the product on the field. That is the real cause. 

However ...If the crowd is really that lame at the Alamodome, then the only reasonable solution is to move the contest to Camp Randall Stadium. Outdoor drum corps, as God intended. 

[Bluzes]

22 hours ago, ThirdValvesAreForWimps said:

You’re talking 1980?

Yes 1979 & 1980 was fun back then going to different cities every 2 years or so. Learning about geography and music all in one. Now that we're older and seen everything going to Indy every year suits us fine.

[Bluzes]

22 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

CYO Nationals in 1984,

Old Boston College Stadium most bare bones place ever, finding a place to smoke your favorite herb and not get caught was a real challenge.

[ThirdValvesAreForWimps]

1 minute ago, Bluzes said:

Yes 1979 & 1980 was fun back then going to different cities every 2 years or so. Learning about geography and music all in one. Now that we're older and seen everything going to Indy every year suits us fine.

1980 was my rookie year with The Cavaliers and performing at Legion Field in Birmingham was mind blowing.  The stands were flat, not curved, so for the player the natural reverb was minimal and the audience had a good experience as well.  Standing ovations and raucous applause during the show was normal and expected but in Birmingham I never experienced what a wall of sound coming back at me from the audience was like.  At the end of our opener the fans jumped up and yelled and clapped.  I was on the front sideline and I felt it.  

You may believe such an audience to be unsophisticated but I posit the opposite is true.  We poured our hearts out that night and we felt the love right back.

[Terri Schehr]

Just now, Bluzes said:

Old Boston College Stadium most bare bones place ever, finding a place to smoke your favorite herb and not get caught was a real challenge.

It was easy at Whitewater by 1978.  Those trees had grown up and kids in Guardsmen had those big hats for extra storage space. 

[PricklyPear]

On 7/22/2018 at 10:32 AM, Jim Schehr said:

Many of these productions don't translate or communicate well to the audience. It is unfortunate that the activity has become monkey see monkey do. Very few come up with a creative, original idea. My heart goes out to marching members - they're only a reflection of what was put in front of and/or on them. Truth be told, if I never see some of these productions again this season, I won't feel like I missed anything.

For me it's about the music and marching and the quality of performance. I miss the high velocity intricate marching drills which are now replaced with jumping, hopping, skipping, running, posing, twirling, laying down, ballet, dancing, and now gymnastic tumbling, not to mention the pushing, pulling, dragging, lifting, climbing, standing and riding of props. Only a few corps have the prop thingie down - most props are horribly made and grossly underutilzed.

My polite applause at the end of a performance is not always for the production but instead for the marching members trying to do the best with what they were given, and a reason to stretch my legs. 

I am 100% in agreement with you on this. 

I posted in another thread that it used to be Music that ruled the day, and the visual elements were in support of the music. But now it seems that visual is king, supported by random blasts of noise. 

There was no emotional engagement for me in San Antonio. After a while, it looked like everyone was doing the same show - just with different costumes.  

[Bluzes]

7 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:

It was easy at Whitewater by 1978.  Those trees had grown up and kids in Guardsmen had those big hats for extra storage space. 

Back then each stadium had a "ease of herb rating" a mental journal. Hope this is OK I am bouncing my IP through Colorado, Alaska, Oregon, California, Las Vegas & DC so not to offend.

[cfirwin3]

6 hours ago, ThirdValvesAreForWimps said:

DCI, BOA, and WGI have blended into a seamless garment of boring sameness.  There’s nothing unique about drum corps anymore, nothing, and that’s what made it special.  Audiences in the summer still come to shows expecting something unique and spectacular but they leave feeling empty because they’ve already heard it in the fall and seen it in the winter.

Of course, this is an observable occurrence. In fact, just by your saying it must make the phenomenon of boredom true.  HOWEVER!... Part of what you are saying faults drumcorps as following suit when the truth is that scholastic and winter competitive programs owe everything to DCI design.

If there is oversaturation for those who follow it all (I sure as heck don't)... then it is due to an overgrowth of competitive junior drumcorps itself.

[PricklyPear]

6 hours ago, ThirdValvesAreForWimps said:

DCI, BOA, and WGI have blended into a seamless garment of boring sameness.  There’s nothing unique about drum corps anymore, nothing, and that’s what made it special.  Audiences in the summer still come to shows expecting something unique and spectacular but they leave feeling empty because they’ve already heard it in the fall and seen it in the winter.

I think there is a lot of truth to this.