Bands of America: for the Drum Corps Fan

[DAvery]

Here's my take on this-

I think drum corps is still the design innovator. The shows have been getting more entertaining and accessible. I also think that the Cadets 05 show was kinda of a "throwback" design. The intellectual perspective of the show was similar to drum corps design from the late 80's and 90's. My guess is that in the next few years bands will become more entertaining, choosing more accessible themes and music.

[Matt_S]

-Every show seems to have a voice over, and a decidely intellectual bent to it.

I didn't see Nationals this year, first time I've missed since 1997, but this strikes me as exaggeration. I think each year you might see maybe three or so bands that have narration in a 12-member finals field, certainly less than half. Now, I will agree with you on one thing. While I don't think there's anything bad with narration itself, quite often when bands speak pretentious garbage comes out.

-Most shows seem to be (at least on the webcast) amping the pit percussion.

-A lot of the "impact" moments seemed to be muddled on first viewing, if not for some homers in the audience for each school. Some of this is due to the dome, perhaps.

I think this could be a problem with the recording of the event. It wasn't too bad in 2000 and 2001, but since then the CDs that are issued have been increasingly poor. 2003 was worse than the 1995 DCI recordings, when it came to crowd interference. If you were to see those bands perform at a practice, without the screaming parents, I think the impact moments would resonate that much more.

[jonnyboy]

-Every show seems to have a voice over, and a decidely intellectual bent to it.

also, (im assuming) that marcing bands would be naturally bigger than drum corps (in numbers) since it seems everyone knows what a marching band is, but very few people actually know what drum corps is, which would lead to marching bands having more money at their disposal so they would be able to put a commentary on their dvd, etc

but i say let the marching bands make whatever kind of crazy dvd or final event type thing, i really dont see how it would affect drum corps that much, i personally wouldnt go join a marching band because they have a bigger event...

I think the original poster meant "voice over" to mean someone narrates the show, not someone narrating the DVD version after the recording is made.

IMO the intensity, power and uniqueness of drum corps can not be matched by the marching band experience. I've read most of the posts about the state of BOA and looked at some impressive video links of the memeber bands (I have to disclose I've never seen these magic BOA bands live). A few posters have told me my TOB viewing experience doesn't even come close to the top bands.

That said, I think the BOA experience serves the staffs more than the membership, and DCI is just the opposite. The show of a top band is a self serving device for the director and their staff. Some of these bands have giant budgets and top notch staffs, but the kids are just the lucky few that get to go to a particualar school. Most of these schools are in wealthy school districts and have a lot going for them to be at the top of the national level.

Drumcorps is a little different in that motivated kids seek out their home. Of course most shows are made up by ego driven staffs (who all want to win....or be great), but the core difference in the two is that DCI is a relatively small community compared to high school bands. Any given year there are 20 or so DIV 1 corps and a handfull that compete to win. In band, the world is a little bigger. Most great bands spend the fall crushing opponets and the cross town rivals who don't have a similarly motivated director.

The trend of the top BOA bands might be to "out intellectualize" the other top programs, but I don't think DCI will head down that road. In DCI it is still fun to bring the crowd to their feet. This is a "paying" crowd I might add, not a crowd filled PRIMARILY with cowbell ringing parents that are supporting their kids no matter what hits the field that season. Yes, some DCI corps might try and challange my brain (and make it hurt), but too much of that nonsense will make Jonny go get a hot dog. And when the next corps comes out and blows the front ten rows faces off and puts the rest of the crowd on their feet, hopefully the design staff of the previous group will have a giant light bulb light up over their heads so they say "we want some traditional drumcorps glory, we want some respect from our peers for kicking azz, and we want to have lines in front of our souvie booth and 500 kids at audtions next year".

Okay, I started this post with one thing in mind and now im off track and ranting. Maybe this is why I barely passed writing in college!

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[Matt_S]

Most great bands spend the fall crushing opponets and the cross town rivals who don't have a similarly motivated director.

The trend of the top BOA bands might be to "out intellectualize" the other top programs, but I don't think DCI will head down that road.

There's a lot you said in your post that I disagree with, but much of it is simply your opinion, and I can respect that. The lines I quoted, though, stood out to.

First, I think you have a misconceived notion of the competitive marching band world. Now, Indiana is different than much of the country, i acknowledge that, but the bands here are going up against the best in the country each weekend. Groups like Avon, Carmel, Lawrence Central, Center Grove, Castle, have all made GN finals within the last two years (well, Castle was 14th and 13th, missing by half a point) and these bands see each other at ISSMA competitions, Invitationals, and of course BOA Regionals each week. When I marched, the only times we were at a competition without either Lawrence Central or Center Grove was when we went to Lake Park for an Invitational to compete against the defending national champions, or we were going to the ISSMA north regional, while those two bands went south. The bands in Indiana spend all fall competing against the very best in the activity, and any band who attends BOA is competing against groups from many different states. Certainly they aren't "crushing... cross town rivals".

Additionally, I don't know that I agree with the comment that bands try to out intellectualize the competition. Some bands certainly do that, like Tarpon Springs in most years, or The Woodlands when they obscure an otherwise tremendous music book by talking about numbers. But most of the shows I see are written by many of the same guys that arrange for corps, and they arrange with the same goals in mind. Generally, they're trying to make a neat production out of some pieces of music, and to infuse a little creativity. Examples would be when Center Grove combined Medea and Adagio for Strings to make a brilliant program, or when Plymouth Canton created a stunning program with the theme of color, set to Adams' Harmonium. Themes can sometimes drive the show and end up burdening it, such as when Marian Catholic gets dark on us as they did a few years back. But is this really that different than Cadets and Blue Devils last year? How about Carolina Crown, in '01 or '02? Boston in '02 or '04? By and large, I think the goals of putting out a creative product are the same as any drum corps. Perhaps the biggest difference lies in the fact that bands can include more elements in their production than can corps. When people talk about bands trying to "out intellectualize", I can't help but think that that person is allowing the exception to become the rule.

[Michael Boo]

i didnt realize evolution was borrowing from something already there.

i thought evolution was being creative in your own right

Evolution can borrow and tweak, evolving the concept to a slightly different plane.

Coming up with something entirely new on one's own is revolution(ary).

[Michael Boo]

... Most of these schools are in wealthy school districts and have a lot going for them to be at the top of the national level...

But it still comes down to the person at the top. Marian Catholic, for example (a program I'm intimately familiar with due to a 25-year friendship with the director and the fact I used to live just three miles away) has a spectacularly small budget that wouldn't get most top bands out of the school's parking lot. But they've shown what can be done when a program is home-grown with a staff that numbers less than the least wealthy of Division III corps. Continuity breeds success, something we've seen with corps that have the same effective creative and instructional staff with them year after year after year.

[Michael Boo]

...(Side note: There's an awful lot of similarity between the "BOA Grand Nationals Premium Membership" and DCI Season Pass. Dan Potter has a webcast on there as well, just like with DCI. Matter of fact, the streaming technology that BOA uses is the same that DCI has, it seems...even down to the fact that Tom Blair is producing this years Grand Nationals DVD.)...

Hey, you missed one! I wrote the official review for the BOA website, one that will also appear in the BOA newsletter.

[MikeN]

There's a difference between design and execution. I agree with Bawker - it seems that the Cadets '05 show is solidly in the design mold of the perennial BOA contenders. I also feel that it's those schools, not so much DCI anymore, that's driving the "push the envelope" side of marching show design. DCI shows are still the most copied, to be sure, but they're not the most creative anymore.

(Don't get me started on execution - there's a *world* of difference there. And that's also not to say that DCI shows aren't creative. They're just not as experimental as the top BOA shows.)

Mike

[Phantom&Phitch]

i didnt realize evolution was borrowing from something already there.

i thought evolution was being creative in your own right

evolution in its truest sense is having something, and then maxing it out. removing the flaws, you build upon something thats already there. being creative is just that, something new, evo is modifying something old.

[ColtsMello]

drum corps has one thing that BOA lacks: regulations.

BOA has an infinate number of elements to make an "intellectual" show. IMO if a corps can make an equally "intellectual" concept while being barred by holds such as numbers on the field and instrumentation, doesnt that make the Drum corps world more "intellectual"?