Then vs Now

[MikeD]

4 hours ago, Weaklefthand4ever said:

All very true Brasso. 

It does kinda make me wanna see PR do a souped up version of their New World Symphony show with all of the modern goodness. I know they did a piece of it 2018....but a full blown remake could be either staggeringly good or go horribly wrong and put them in the lower half of the top 12...oh wait a second.

BTW...nothing but MAD love for Phantom. My second favorite corps ever. 

I've always hoped to see/hear PR do the New World with amplified strings.

Caveat....rewrite the Largo's "Neal Hefti" light rock battery part. 

[skevinp]

53 minutes ago, MikeD said:

I've always hoped to see/hear PR do the New World with amplified strings.

Caveat....rewrite the Largo's "Neal Hefti" light rock battery part. 

Presenting their 2019 program, "New and Improved World Symphony"...

[IllianaLancerContra]

19 hours ago, Stu said:

Using the adjudicating criteria of today, the '89 corps would score low. Using the adjudicating criteria of '89 the corps of today would score low. So, other than that what else would you like to know.

Exactly.

And if 2018 SCV staff wrote a show using the 1978 rules, the result would look a lot like 1978 SCV

[Jeff Ream]

23 hours ago, Weaklefthand4ever said:

All very true Brasso. 

It does kinda make me wanna see PR do a souped up version of their New World Symphony show with all of the modern goodness. I know they did a piece of it 2018....but a full blown remake could be either staggeringly good or go horribly wrong and put them in the lower half of the top 12...oh wait a second.

BTW...nothing but MAD love for Phantom. My second favorite corps ever. 

at this stage Phantom should leave old tunes and themes and death alone for a while

[Fran Haring]

6 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

at this stage Phantom should leave old tunes and themes and death alone for a while

They were great at killing folks, though. 

[YoungMusician]

1 hour ago, Jeff Ream said:

at this stage Phantom should leave old tunes and themes and death alone for a while

Maybe you’re right, in some form. However, I think they might do well to return to what they did best before, and to me, they did drama the best. I also think that romantic or 20th century era music would still do great. It’s not what they kept on doing after 2012, it’s how they did it.

 

[Super Don-O]

Assuming you could come up with a judging system that allowed them to be compared to one another without penalties, I think hands down today's corps would come out on top.

That's no slight to corps of the 80's, I came up in that era too and still love them, but the quality of music writing and performance levels are much higher today, as is the visual writing and performance. As far as entertainment value I enjoy both eras.

Yes, designers are unshackled from many of the old restrictions that corps used to have to take into account, but it goes way beyond that to deep layering, coordination of elements, and sheer difficulty that corps put on the field today compared to back then. 

[BRASSO]

3 hours ago, Super Don-O said:

Assuming you could come up with a judging system that allowed them to be compared to one another without penalties, I think hands down today's corps would come out on top.

. 

 I don't know. Its possible. But if you change one dynamic, it creates a completely new environment that makes such things tough to gauge. For example, some eras had far more competitive Corps, so staying in one's region's was more common. As such, there was both more talented marchers marching in DCI Drum Corps BITD than perhaps today, as well as far less talented marchers perhaps marching as well BITD compared to today. Its a numbers game. More participants on the whole, typically means a wide spread of talent across the spectrum of far more Corps in sheer numbers slone. .MM talent today however is pushed and compressed up to the top Corps. No Corps back in earlier era's, for example, had several hundred campers trying out at nationwide audition camps of WC Division top echelon Corps.... yet simultaneously ( like today ) had many sectional open spots available right into May for most of the lower World Class Division Corps.

 I just think it really is impossible to gauge " scores " from one era to the next, when the competing units are so remarkably quite different, and with judging systems, and methodologies utilized that are so vastly different that it makes " score and placement assessments " a wholly impossible and fruitless exercise, imo.  When we state that todays Corps would " hands down come out on top " with previous era's Corps in competition with them, the implication is that we leave only THOSE units frozen in time, and not allow them changes to perhaps allow them to favorably compete in this fantasy DCI show competition, .. yet allow today's  DCI top Corps to freely take a time travel machine instead of Corps busses to attend such a fantasy competition in bygone eras with these bygone Corps. Well, no can do, imo... lol.

Edited February 4, 2019 by BRASSO

[Stu]

3 hours ago, Super Don-O said:

Assuming you could come up with a judging system that allowed them to be compared to one another without penalties, I think hands down today's corps would come out on top.

That's no slight to corps of the 80's, I came up in that era too and still love them, but the quality of music writing and performance levels are much higher today, as is the visual writing and performance. As far as entertainment value I enjoy both eras.

Yes, designers are unshackled from many of the old restrictions that corps used to have to take into account, but it goes way beyond that to deep layering, coordination of elements, and sheer difficulty that corps put on the field today compared to back then. 

You are so right! Just like Bruno Mars programmed quantized autotuned Uptown Funk of today is way, way, way, way better than anything by George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. Yep.

[2muchcoffeeman]

Play along and add your own:

 

THEN: Carmex

NOW:

 

THEN: Donuts & Cereal

NOW:

 

THEN: Stacks of Drum Corps World newspapers

NOW:

 

THEN: Snares that went "dawk dawk dawk"

NOW:

 

THEN: Dot books

NOW:

 

THEN: Brandt Crocker

NOW: nm

 

THEN: Jean cutoffs

NOW:

 

THEN: Pay phones

NOW:

 

THEN: Shopping-mall cafeterias

NOW:

 

THEN: Retreat

NOW:

 

THEN:

NOW: Snapchat

 

THEN:

NOW: Personal water jugs

 

THEN:

NOW: Athletic trainers

 

THEN:

NOW: Tuition

 

THEN:

NOW: Whistleblower lines

 

THEN:

NOW: GoPro runs

 

THEN:

NOW: DrumScorps app

 

THEN:

NOW: Those necklace things with momentoes from each of the MM's seasons/corps. They have a name; I don't know what it is

 

THEN:

NOW: Lot videos

Edited February 4, 2019 by 2muchcoffeeman