Let's Talk About the Blue Devils...

[Big Bird]

I just hope all of the corps have fun 

[ThePlanets]

Here's the thing about BD in LOS

09 Crown wins music and brass

10 4th in percussion and a show notorious for being hated on

12  Crown wins brass and music analysis

14 can't argue here

15 3rd in brass

17 3rd in music- doesn't win a music caption

19 4th in brass AND music analysis

22 3rd in brass and percussion 

23 didn't win any music captions at southwest championship even though they have a healthy lead.

 

The core of DCI fans and perspective members are musicians first. And BD just isn't dominant in music. It's easy to hate when your favorite corps sounds better than BD and can't beat them 

 

 

[Cappybara]

2 minutes ago, ThePlanets said:

Here's the thing about BD in LOS

09 Crown wins music and brass

10 4th in percussion and a show notorious for being hated on

12  Crown wins brass and music analysis

14 can't argue here

15 3rd in brass

17 3rd in music- doesn't win a music caption

19 4th in brass AND music analysis

22 3rd in brass and percussion 

23 didn't win any music captions at southwest championship even though they have a healthy lead.

 

The core of DCI fans and perspective members are musicians first. And BD just isn't dominant in music. It's easy to hate when your favorite corps sounds better than BD and can't beat them 

 

 

That's a pretty great perspective actually. Never thought of it that way. 

All of the top hornlines are fantastic and as evidenced by how often the top corps have traded around the brass caption this season already, it is also very highly contested. 

I would like to think, however, that the brass scores are less relevant in the audience's minds during a performance than the tonality of the corps as well as the compositions that are being played. 

BD, Bloo, and Crown are three corps that stand out to me as having very distinct ensemble sounds. Boston is now approaching that as well with Gino. The latter three tend to have more traditional sound structures to their chords and overall compositions, which I believe is a sound that has a lot more mass appeal. Crown in particular sounds like a well tuned organ year after year. BD, on the other hand, is unapologetically top heavy in their sound every year. They don't ignore the low end, but I don't think there's a single corps out there that emphasizes the high brass as much as BD. For some, that's a different but still great sound. For others, it isn't nearly as appealing to listen to as corps with a more traditional sound balance. 

When I first started following drum corps, I was a HUGE fan of Phantom Regiment's and Carolina Crown's sound. Turandot and For the Common Good in 2012 were the shows that technically sold me on drum corps (though my first exposures to DCI were technically SCV 1989, Cadets 1984, and Boston 2000 over video).

At the time (a foolish high schooler about to start college), I really disliked BD and their sound. I felt like they sounded UN-balanced and unnatural, it just wasn't a sound I was used to. It wasn't until I finally started seeing them live where I was sold. They have a "sizzle" and liveliness to their sound that not many corps have.  

This is my long winded way of saying that I think you are in the right direction regarding there being a disconnect in the audience's minds between BD and the rest of the corps musically. But I don't really think it has to do with the scores. I don't think the average audience member is discerning enough to be able to tell obvious differences between the top 4-5 hornlines beyond differences in volume, tonality, and of course the degree of accessibility of the compositions. I think that BD's stylistic choices both in tonality and composition are the reason why they have sometimes have less mass appeal than the other top corps. Since 2014, BD has changed the accessibility of their compositions in a positive direction, but they have remained unapologetically BD in their tonality through these years. And while I personally love them for that, I acknowledge that many do not or will not. 

[resipsaloquitur]

3 hours ago, MarimbaManiac said:

False. This is flat out false. The BD front ensemble is a lot of flash with very little substance, they haven't had the best pit book in decades, and usually they aren't even in the top two.

I would take Adam Tan's opinion over yours. 

 

[resipsaloquitur]

1 hour ago, ContraFart said:

I am not comparing the level of BDs staff to a corps like SOA. Again the level of instruction, talent and execution of the top 4 are relatively equal. 

Strong disagree

[ContraFart]

6 minutes ago, resipsaloquitur said:

Strong disagree

Then we seem to be at an impasse. Even tough BD has won 60% of the championships in the past 15 years, the music caption awards have been more varied. I do not find BDs staff to be that superior, you do. So I guess that is that. 

[MikeRapp]

10 hours ago, DWW11 said:

Love em or hate em, when you ask someone to go to a corps show, invariably they will ask “will BD be there?”.

Not what I believe. It seems obvious at shows that the crowd favorites are Crown and Bluecoats, and Boston on the east coast. West coast is now all BD due to the loss of SCV.

[resipsaloquitur]

1 minute ago, ContraFart said:

Then we seem to be at an impasse. Even tough BD has won 60% of the championships in the past 15 years, the music caption awards have been more varied. I do not find BDs staff to be that superior, you do. So I guess that is that. 

And all is well. And to all a good night of Flo.

[MikeRapp]

Eh it’s all good. Seems these discussions have gotten less accusatory over the last couple of years, which is probably good. BD has dominated the activity for the past decade or so, it’s natural for people to want to talk about it.

[jwillis35]

1 hour ago, Tony L. said:

I do think think my impression of BD this year changed last night.  I had thought they were going to run through it this year, but they had some performance issues and a general lack of impact that was a little shocking.  But, everyone gets the right to have an "off" night.  

This is fair. Personally I thought they had a great run in visual and guard. Even brass though there are things to clean. It's a tough book. We must also remember that as a corps cleans the mistakes stand out more. I think they are doing so many things well that the little mistakes are clear to us and we get the sense they had a bad night.