"Uniforms/Costumes"

[MikeN]

2 hours ago, Grandpa Joe said:

At least 2016 was a breath of fresh air and not "How can we do another western show?" At this point, they have to be digging at the bottom of the barrel. I get the feeling retention might be better as well if they ditched the Western themed shows and explored other avenues. While it's nice to see that at least one corps hasn't forgotten their identity, it's just kind of stale at this point. Then again, I know people who sit and watch reruns of Gunsmoke all day, every day too.

Not trying to be snarky, but they have the largest corps in their history this year after leaning hard into a gritter aesthetic the last two years.  The Western is doing ok, I think.

Mike

[Grandpa Joe]

3 minutes ago, MikeN said:

Not trying to be snarky, but they have the largest corps in their history this year after leaning hard into a gritter aesthetic the last two years.  The Western is doing ok, I think.

Mike

They also made finals for the first time in quite a while last year too. I'm sure that has something more to do with it than leaning harder into the aesthetic.

[MikeN]

True and fair, but I think they kind of go hand in hand.  The current programming seems to resonate with potential members, and there's a lot of ground they can still explore and remain in a pretty broad "western" wheelhouse.  I actually am one of those that felt their Patriotic Western wrapper was a... well... tired product, and I'm glad they are reaching further afield.  

Mike

[kdaddy]

1 hour ago, saxfreq1128 said:

to XXXX's point about them changing up from westerns, there’s a case to be made for them exploring space westerns …. because this uniform is giving Star Trek for real…

[2muchcoffeeman]

On 7/6/2023 at 11:43 AM, Grandpa Joe said:

 retention might be better as well if they ditched the Western themed shows and explored other avenues. While it's nice to see that at least one corps hasn't forgotten their identity, it's just kind of stale at this point.

Troopers were founded during the cultural heyday of the Western; it was astute and forward thinking at the time to capitalize on that — and the uniform, being patterned after that of the 11th Ohio Cavalry, which, under the command of an officer named Caspar, had literally held down the fort along the North Platte River less than a century earlier, could boast of some actual historical pedigree. The local kids, most of them living right there in central Wyoming, could embrace the schtick because it also connected to their lived experience as genuine native Westerners. They took their act -- their own act -- on the road.

By the time Westerns had faded, culturally, into nostalgia 20 or so years later, the Troopers uniform had assumed a trademark's ingrained familiarity, associated as it was with one of the elite corps of the day, and so was difficult to dislodge and, given the VFW demographic that still dominated the activity in the '70s, was a look that no one was particularly eager for Troop to discard anyway.

IIRC, it wasn't until the late '80s that the corps began to tinker with the uni in any meaningful way (the same was probably true with every corps, tbh). 2016 was the first major clean break. (EDIT: perhaps, if memory serves, they may have busted out white jackets in the 90s or thereabouts ... or maybe that was just the guard only). 2019 was a conscious attempt to rip off the cowboy Band-Aid and assert a less restrictive identity.

Who knows what kind of look Troop would have put on the field in 2020. If not for Covid, the corps might be performing in zebra pajamas today, who knows.

But the rapid snap back to a more traditional Troopers look in 2021 undercuts your hypothesis. The young people who join Troopers aren't chafing under the Western motif; they embrace it. Did you see the numbers of kids auditioning for this season? Nor is this new. Following This Was the Future in 2012, the admin asked eligible vets what they wanted for 2013. The unanimous answer: Give us a Troopers show. And in 2013 you got:

Ask any 2019 vet, and while they may have had a great summer, you won't find much love for the look or the image the corps was trying to project (though I loooved those baby-blue drums, man).

With 2019 being the prime example, the corps has always kind of lurched around with its identity. In the national imagination of the 19th Century, the West was the open frontier where new things happened. And in their formative years, the Casper Troopers put music/visual programs on the field that were as avant-garde as any corps in competition -- even while wearing cavalry uniforms. The Westerns of the mid-20th Century captured this spirit, but soon enough were mummified in the gauze of nostalgia, a beloved if irrelevant relic. It has always been a trick for the corps' design teams to balance the look/feel of the Old West, locked in the amber of cultural memory, with the vibrant new-frontier ethic that is the truer hallmark of the Old West.

By which I mean, being Western does not need to mean being a replica of "the Westerns." Yes, "western" can done in ways that are shopworn and uninteresting to young people. And, yes, "western" can be done in ways that are more true to the spirit of the West: explorative, daring, gritty, nervy, harsh, unconventional, yet somehow optimistic (even hubristic; see 2022). The same can be said, I think, for any genre; you can beat any identity to death, or you can constantly reinvent it (how Western!). Piano Concerto No. 2 is more than twice as old as Once Upon a Time in the West. It's not what you perform; it's how you perform it.

By any measure -- crowd appeal, audition numbers, competitive placement -- the rapid reversion, in 2021, to a look more connected to Troopers history yet with programming that taps into a exciting, sometimes raw western spirit unburdened by the cultural baggage of nostalgia, has been a boon to the organization. For the moment, anyway, Team Troop seems to have its hands on a formula that works. And don't look now, but the kids love it.

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by 2muchcoffeeman

[scheherazadesghost]

30 minutes ago, Grandpa Joe said:

They also made finals for the first time in quite a while last year too. I'm sure that has something more to do with it than leaning harder into the aesthetic.

Might be my favorite uniforms ever. They looked like they had just walked off a movie set. Even I had a strong reaction waking past them in person! That's not common for me.

[Grandpa Joe]

Sorry, didn't realize I wasn't allowed to have an opinion on a discussion board. Apologies.

[KVG_DC]

6 minutes ago, Grandpa Joe said:

Sorry, didn't realize I wasn't allowed to have an opinion on a discussion board. Apologies.

I’m sorry people weren’t allowed to disagree with your opinion without you thinking they were trying to shut you down. 

[Grandpa Joe]

6 minutes ago, KVG_DC said:

I’m sorry people weren’t allowed to disagree with your opinion without you thinking they were trying to shut you down. 

Agree to disagree.

[KVG_DC]

Sure. I just don’t see silencing it even dogpiling here. You have a minority opinion and that elicited dissent. That doesn’t mean you don’t have a right to dissent.