Carolina Crown 2024

[Grandpa Joe]

8 hours ago, Orwellian Wiress said:

Hell to the yes. There's something that just personally rubs me the wrong way about patriotic shows and shows about the modern-day military. Let's just say they...weird me out. Yes I know that's where drum corps' origins came from but it's definitely jarring compared to the creativity of other show themes. A dark, disturbing war show would be a breath of fresh air to an activity so closely related to the military in a way that it could maliciously be spun into straight up propaganda. Something like this could be the next show that completely changes the course of the activity like Tilt did. The only question is which corps is going to be brave enough to do it.

Cavaliers 2010 says hello.

[Grandpa Joe]

15 hours ago, MadisonBandMan1 said:

See I was going to to the other way around. I want them to double down on the dark shows. Not like beast…or like inferno. I know that war shows are done quite a lot in this activity, but I’d really like to see this design team flesh out a really dark, heavy, and emotional show about war and the human condition. The music they could do coupled with their ensemble sound and amazing knack for *really* pulling the emotion out of music like that could turn into a really, REALLY powerful production. Yes I love campy crown but I really want them to nail a gut wrenching show that pulls at all of the heart strings. 

 

And I don’t want them to put on a gimmicky show about war, I want them to really dig deep into the depth of the human condition and the woes of war. The vast majority of war shows are very gimmicky and don’t take that deep of a dive into the sorrow, fear, and anger felt in such precarious times. 

 

To get an idea of what I mean by really conveying those emotions and understand the kind of direction I mean, check out this song released a little over a year ago by one of the best singers and storytellers on this planet: Dimash Qudaibergen. The song is entitled “The Story of One Sky” and is linked below. 
 

 

No thanks. In the times when everyone is going dark and dreary, we need a Velvet Knight in the mix. Crown can be that as they've shown that they do camp very well. 

[musicteacher]

Not everyone is going dark and dreary, but I get your point.

[karuna]

On 9/2/2023 at 2:04 PM, Grandpa Joe said:

I want to see a return to campy fun Crown, circa 2007 to 2011, but refined. We need more lighthearted and whimsical shows. Dark and drab is so 2010s. Lol.

That stuff was all from the Crown North designers.    Don't expect it back;  I embrace the direction this past season brought.  It's a very nice balance of accessibility and sophistication topped with a good helping of Crown excellence sprinkled throughout.  More please. 

Edited September 5, 2023 by karuna

[Grandpa Joe]

39 minutes ago, karuna said:

That stuff was all from the Crown North designers.    Don't expect it back;  I embrace the direction this past season brought.  It's a very nice balance of accessibility and sophistication topped with a good helping of Crown excellence sprinkled throughout.  More please. 

Then maybe I need to follow them up north then, but at the same time, those shows don't have the camp that I grew to love from Crown. If I want dark and dreary all the time I'll just watch the news. Not everything in this activity has to be sophisticated, and I think we have a very different definition of what accessibility means. 2007 was accessible. 2008 was accessible. 2011 was accessible. 2023 was accessible for a small niche of fans.

I liked the show, but I don't want to become THAT corps; a one trick pony if you will. 

Starting to second guess why I follow the activity year after year.

[Orwellian Wiress]

2 hours ago, Grandpa Joe said:

2023 was accessible for a small niche of fans.

I'm not a Crown superfan and I don't know that much about Arthurian mythology but I still understood the show and thought it was awesome. 

[karuna]

2 hours ago, Grandpa Joe said:

Then maybe I need to follow them up north then, but at the same time, those shows don't have the camp that I grew to love from Crown. If I want dark and dreary all the time I'll just watch the news. Not everything in this activity has to be sophisticated, and I think we have a very different definition of what accessibility means. 2007 was accessible. 2008 was accessible. 2011 was accessible. 2023 was accessible for a small niche of fans.

I liked the show, but I don't want to become THAT corps; a one trick pony if you will. 

Starting to second guess why I follow the activity year after year.

If you love what Potter-May-Townsend put on the field, it certainly makes sense to follow Boston.  Based on what Crown has produced since then I'd hardly call them a "one-trick pony".  Nor has their design been too terribly "dark".  In fact even last year's program was not truly dark from start to finish.  

2007 was actually a retread of the previous WGI season's love-fest with the Wild Horses cover by Charlotte Martin.  2008 was a cute "best of" show; 2011 might best be characterized as "fun".

What stood out to me this season was Crown backed off run-and-gun + note-fest as core show design features.  Instead they explored a much broader palette of choices musically and visually.  Based on the audience reactions I heard,  I think it was a very accessible show.  It most certainly wasn't "cute".   IMHO that's a positive change.

Edited September 5, 2023 by karuna

[OldSnareDrummer]

14 hours ago, Grandpa Joe said:

Then maybe I need to follow them up north then, but at the same time, those shows don't have the camp that I grew to love from Crown. If I want dark and dreary all the time I'll just watch the news. Not everything in this activity has to be sophisticated, and I think we have a very different definition of what accessibility means. 2007 was accessible. 2008 was accessible. 2011 was accessible. 2023 was accessible for a small niche of fans.

I liked the show, but I don't want to become THAT corps; a one trick pony if you will. 

Starting to second guess why I follow the activity year after year.

@Grandpa Joe

[Grandpa Joe]

12 hours ago, karuna said:

If you love what Potter-May-Townsend put on the field, it certainly makes sense to follow Boston.  Based on what Crown has produced since then I'd hardly call them a "one-trick pony".  Nor has their design been too terribly "dark".  In fact even last year's program was not truly dark from start to finish.  

2007 was actually a retread of the previous WGI season's love-fest with the Wild Horses cover by Charlotte Martin.  2008 was a cute "best of" show; 2011 might best be characterized as "fun".

What stood out to me this season was Crown backed off run-and-gun + note-fest as core show design features.  Instead they explored a much broader palette of choices musically and visually.  Based on the audience reactions I heard,  I think it was a very accessible show.  It most certainly wasn't "cute".   IMHO that's a positive change.

Like I said, the Potter/May/Townsend shows since they've been at Boston hasn't had the same camp as they did at Crown. 

The one trick pony comment was about continuing down the dark route that everyone is wanting them to do. Or the opera route. Or the "new Phantom" going down the classical route. One trick pony routes/shows.

The shows I mentioned were accessible to the everyday person, not just the DCI community, which is why I mentioned them as accessible. If one were to introduce someone new to the activity, those are the shows that you could easily show them to help them understand the activity and enjoy the video that you're showing them because there is something they will recognize in it. Horse racing. Classical music that they'll associate with their childhood watching Looney Tunes. Music they grew up listening to either from their time growing up in the 70s/80s or their parents. If DCI wants to continue to expand their audience/fandom then the corps need to stop limiting themselves to a niche audience like they have been for almost a decade now, which is why we need a Velvet Knight.

Go back and compare the audience reaction videos from 2023 and 2019. Just because it's accessible doesn't mean that it's the crowd favorite. The 2019 reaction was much bigger, and half the community despised that show because it didn't make any sense.

And exactly, it's you're opinion. Nobody is saying you're wrong. I'm allowed to have my opinion as well, right? My opinion is continuing down the dark show path (even if they end lightly) is becoming a one trick pony. We can't complain about other corps doing it and then be okay with our corps doing it. 

[keystone3ply]

17 hours ago, Grandpa Joe said:

Then maybe I need to follow them up north then, but at the same time, those shows don't have the camp that I grew to love from Crown. If I want dark and dreary all the time I'll just watch the news. Not everything in this activity has to be sophisticated, and I think we have a very different definition of what accessibility means. 2007 was accessible. 2008 was accessible. 2011 was accessible. 2023 was accessible for a small niche of fans.

I liked the show, but I don't want to become THAT corps; a one trick pony if you will. 

Starting to second guess why I follow the activity year after year.

I've loved every Crown show since I was first introduced to them in 2007 (Triple Crown) when our school hosted a show.  (After I started teaching HS in the mid 90s I took a little break from the corps scene.)

So many different styles have been given to the audience by these incredible students. But dare I say it?  I loved "Right Here, Right Now" 'cause it made me want to dance. 😂 But I also adored "Camelot".  Guess I'm just weird.