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Self indulgent shows


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On 6/22/2019 at 1:39 PM, adman said:

Creating anything fresh, unique, and exciting is a process of trial and error and risk. Without experimentation creativity would be stagnant. In 2018, creativity crafted some of the most brilliant shows in the history of the activity.

I'm an old-school guy. I was in this when G Bugles, Marching mallets, and worse were the rage. Within that long history I still believe SCV of last year rightfully earned its place as ine of the best shows in DCI history. As had BD for years just ahead of that, and work by Bloo and on and on.

This year the big corps shows seem to cross a line from creative exploration to design team self-indulgence. It seems like staffs are trying so hard to become "famous for their new ideas" instead of trying to get famous for creating a great integrated show.

Yes it is early, but nothing is giving me a "wow" factor of the past few years. Corps have zero identity (and I am all good with changing uniforms if it makes sense). The result is a drum corps show today is a mass of abstraction separated by theme, rather than brilliant ideas creatively communicated.

I'm pretty open-minded and sophisticated about this stuff. But if I can't understand the intent, how is a first-timer going to?

So many recent examples of brilliance. But this year? Just one giant abstract mess.

I appreciate your comments and they are fair, but I honestly believe we will see some incredible entertainment this year from the a large number of corps. 

As for the designers intent, it's difficult to know if they are being self indulgent because we don't know all of them personally. What's in their heart.  We have no idea why they do what they do. On the surface we have to assume they are designing to help their corps have the best product and the best chance at competitive success.  I'm sure each is trying to bring something new to the activity as well. 

As you stated, and I agree, the creativity to craft one of these monster shows is not an easy thing, and it is a risk because the level of coordination is difficult to manage. Aside from 4 or 5 shows that typically begin the season super strong, and a bit more fully realized, the current style of designing shows does not lend itself to fully completed shows at the onset of the season. Other elements, like the weather, can also hurt how much of the show is on the field early season.

Most of what we see early season are sketches or skeletons of completed shows. In a nutshell I just think it's difficult to gauge most early-season shows. For me I try to zone in on the music more than anything else. Many of the visual programs are a hot mess and likely will not be readable or fully realized until mid season. It is what it is, so they say. With more complexity woven into today's shows, it stands to reason more time is needed to fully design the product.

But there is no doubt that some of these shows will NOT benefit from the extra time, because adding layers onto a faulty product (the base of the show) does not make it better. And so your concerns are valid in that respect. But I do think a number of good shows are in the works. It should be an excellent season overall. I hope so!

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1 hour ago, jeffmolnar said:

I still love 2008 and 2009.

The others though...

'08 was kinda cool, I agree... just got swallowed up in the "Spartacus" tidal wave. :laughing:

Never quite figured out '09.

My parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles lived through the Depression years.... and from their many stories, they didn't do a whole lot of dancing on and around chairs, or having "Happy Days Are Here Again"  at the top of their hit list. LOL.  They were just trying to survive. 

BD's show was fine, I guess, from a music standpoint... but the theme? It evoked nothing about the Depression, at least to me, after hearing what my family had gone through.

 

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2 minutes ago, Fran Haring said:

'Never quite figured out '09.

My parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles lived through the Depression years.... and from their many stories, they didn't do a whole lot of dancing on and around chairs, or having "Happy Days Are Here Again"  at the top of their hit list. LOL.  They were just trying to survive. 

BD's show was fine, I guess, from a music standpoint... but the theme? It evoked nothing about the Depression, at least to me, after hearing what my family had gone through.

Yeah, while I said that I've grown to appreciate that era of BD shows, 2009 is the only one that I just haven't gotten into at all. Don't get me wrong, it's incredibly well-performed, but I have no idea what made that show so special in terms of GE.

Crown should have beaten them that year, in my opinion.

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16 hours ago, N.E. Brigand said:

It would be very interesting if someone who wrote about drum corps could interview designers and program coordinators retrospectively about what they feel their biggest mistakes were, and how they made them.

That's actually a brilliant idea.  It would be interesting to see which mistakes they would be willing to own up to,  and which ones they would not.

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Self Indulgent?  I can answer that with only one word.........  SOUSAPHONE!

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1 hour ago, Fran Haring said:

'08 was kinda cool, I agree... just got swallowed up in the "Spartacus" tidal wave. :laughing:

Never quite figured out '09.

My parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles lived through the Depression years.... and from their many stories, they didn't do a whole lot of dancing on and around chairs, or having "Happy Days Are Here Again"  at the top of their hit list. LOL.  They were just trying to survive. 

BD's show was fine, I guess, from a music standpoint... but the theme? It evoked nothing about the Depression, at least to me, after hearing what my family had gone through.

 

2009 is my least favorite Blue Devils show pretty much ever. Even more so then the Yowza Yowza year lol. The chairs drove me crazy and the 1930 spelled out across the field drove me bonkers.

Edited by GREENBLUE
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Each corps has its own creative process.  I've known some of these designers over the years and all their intentions to put on an entertaining yet cutting edge show are genuine.  They love the activity just as much as we do but sometimes see the design process in a different lens then we do.  I can tell you for certain that the Blue Devils staff are some of the least self indulgent designers in the activity.  They have a philosophy though to always push themselves in terms of design (like all groups).  They fall into stages like 2007-2013 and now 2014-present.  It's an evolution of style.  

 

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1 hour ago, Fran Haring said:

'
My parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles lived through the Depression years.... and from their many stories, they didn't do a whole lot of dancing on and around chairs, or having "Happy Days Are Here Again"  at the top of their hit list. LOL.  They were just trying to survive. 

 

Spinning off topic for just a second- Mine too. Thank God for the Greatest Generation. 

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