What are your controversial marching arts opinions?

[Hrothgar15]

24 minutes ago, Lance said:

And you truly think that 2 valve g instruments and pure drill could still be competitive in 2022, and it's simply not correct.

I’d be the first person to tell you the judges would place a show like that dead last, as has happened before with corps like Pioneer. The point is that the sheets should be changed so that something like that could be competitive, so we could actually see some diversity of instrumentation and design on the field. Or at the very least have a separate all-acoustic “Live Class” or something with different sheets and an incentive for corps to perform in that.

32 minutes ago, Lance said:

Jordan, you choose not to get it because the only thing that's important to you is instrumentation and show design that matches what made you fall in love with drum corps. 

I fell in love with drum corps from an audio recording of the Cadets in 2000, on Bb/F. I only then later started listening to older shows and decided G bugles sounded better. 🙃

[Hrothgar15]

45 minutes ago, Lance said:

It's your choice to inflate what you happen to like with that which is objectively good or bad, and it really comes off as condescending....and I am pretty much in lock step with liking the same things you like.  It's weird to treat people who like the product they see on the field today like they're "wrong" because they don't want to see more of what you happen to love.  Super cringe.

I don’t think I implied anything like this…?

I just think “drum corps had to evolve with the times” is a cop out, mostly because there’s really shaky evidence that that’s what happened. It’s an excuse used to justify and all but mandate recent design trends, for fear of the activity surviving or something. Just be honest and say “some designers have decided to consolidate the approach to sound in shows with WGI’s and some audiences applaud that.” I would never want to disallow that approach but corps shouldn’t be made to feel from the judges or otherwise that it’s the only one, or that a design that could have worked 20 or 30 years ago has no competitive potential for that reason.

[Hrothgar15]

12 minutes ago, Precious Roy said:

I propose a sub-division of "SoundSport" called "Classic Field Shows" (or just "Classic"):

• Performed on the standard 100-yard field
• No props, other than guard flags and other "spinnables"
• No amplification or other electronics
• Instrumentation would be limited to any brass (any key), and any percussion
• Scoring sheets that emphasize drill form mastery and marching precision, rather than "staging" and "simultaneous demand" (do all the bug squashing you want, but its not going to increase your visual score)

I would call this “Heaven” 🙂

[Vidal28Rdg]

6 hours ago, Hrothgar15 said:

Yep. As far as I can tell only the Crossmen have the hornline play during the first sound of the show in one of the four orders, so a grand total of .25 corps. Happy to be proven wrong.

Even if crown 2019 wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, you gotta love how it started🔥🔥🔥

[Vidal28Rdg]

3 hours ago, Hrothgar15 said:

I don’t think I implied anything like this…?

I just think “drum corps had to evolve with the times” is a cop out, mostly because there’s really shaky evidence that that’s what happened. It’s an excuse used to justify and all but mandate recent design trends, for fear of the activity surviving or something. Just be honest and say “some designers have decided to consolidate the approach to sound in shows with WGI’s and some audiences applaud that.” I would never want to disallow that approach but corps shouldn’t be made to feel from the judges or otherwise that it’s the only one, or that a design that could have worked 20 or 30 years ago has no competitive potential for that reason.

I think just more recently, the line between “experimentation” and what most would call “gimmickry” explodes in and occurs in bunches one or few  notable seasons and then just dissipates. I really do think corps are trying to give what they are allowed to do an opportunity to flourish, but for fans the implementation of those concepts can be jarring. I don’t think anyone expected from this year to be a lot of narration from so many corps in the top 12, Crown, Cadets, Bluecoats, making it so integral to their productions, other corps use it much less sparingly of course. 2016 was so trombone happy, with near everyone bursting at the seams to get a trombone feature out there, Cavies, BD, Bloo, Crown, Cadets, it was wild! Many of these new allowances are recent, and I don’t think that the activity has truly integrated these new additions to make them feel organic, they’ve been implemented, but not to the point to where it feels natural to us, the fans. Of course, corps are trying to do that, BD probably uses trombones the best and giving them a ton of musical contribution instead of them seeming like an appendage which does them a disservice as to why they were included to start with. Bluecoats and Crown(Crown, use them more for the love of god) are second behind them in that regard. and I would absolutely love to see even more trombone contributions in these corps. Singing and narration have come quite a long ways, but the relevance and the impact they truly bring to a show and vary widely, and you’re not gonna be able to get everyone to buy in in a first viewing, nor will the corps have perfected it in their first performances either. My thoughts on these recent trends sums up to me telling corps to make it feel naturally integrated, and not implemented for the sake of the gimmick itself.

[Fran Haring]

13 hours ago, karuna said:

The front sideline mics are a direct response to the one corps who did it immediately after it was legal (pretty much with no one noticing it at first).  Everyone else had no choice but to reluctantly follow suit — judges were rewarding it. 

2002: "Wow, is that horn line loud, and really good!!!"

2022: "Wow, is that audio tech really good!!!"  😂

[jwillis35]

12 hours ago, Hrothgar15 said:

I fell in love with drum corps from an audio recording of the Cadets in 2000, on Bb/F. I only then later started listening to older shows and decided G bugles sounded better. 🙃

I agree here. There was no doubt the G bugle sounded better and projected better. The Bb and F brass do tune better and are easier for the students to master because most brass players already play on such instruments in school or college bands (minus those who play woodwinds or strings and march DCI). If the right care had been put into making high quality G bugles then they can certainly tune just as well as other brass for field. The large brass lines we see today (80 members and up) make up the difference in volume for what a 64 piece G line could produce. The problem was that most manufacturers of the G simply did not want to put the time or cost into making the highest quality possible. I think some of those companies were looking to push the Bb/F brass because they were already making them for bands. Kanstul was particularly good at making those G bugles, but sadly they went out of business when Ziggy passed away. The sound of those horns were full, rich and exciting no doubt. 

I mean, listen to Star of Indiana, Blue Devils, Cadets, Madison and Phantom on G bugles back in the day, especially early 90s (and of course BD from any era). Garfield was playing on very crappy Gs in the 80s yet I can listen to their 84, 85, and 87 shows any day. 

[Poppycock]

I prefer marching demand and drill complexity over staging and simultaneous fluttering, Ring around the Rosie and striking a contortionist pose. Also, I prefer long musical phrases to short music statements and brass acrobatics, singing and/or narration. IMO props and electronics is becoming the focal points in productions instead of music, marching, and guard visual. It is easier to jazz run to a spot/set then it is to teach marching movement and technique. Two entirely different demand requirements. I am not a fan of the maximum number of members being increased to 165. Talent will move up and there will be a greater gap between corps. With the 128-member maximum, talent was spread throughout the activity. Now the pool of talent is not as wide or as deep. The system of evaluation needs to be overhauled. Separating performances within a sub caption by a single tenth is not judging, it is slotting. I would suggest the use of Ordinal numbers. Not one judge is going to be creditable in explaining let alone dignify their delta of a tenth between performances. The criteria required was essentially put in place for field judging not watching and listening from the sidelines or stands.   

[FTNK]

DCP posters are old and totally irrelevant

[Cappybara]

24 minutes ago, FTNK said:

DCP posters are old and totally irrelevant

For the time being, the oldies are still the ones helping keep the activity afloat with their pocketbook. But I do agree with the overall sentiment that the DCP demographic does not represent the general DCI demographic at all. Pretty much any comments concerning the current design directions of DCI are irrelevant and likely the opposite of how the main younger demographic views the corps and their designs