I want a clear, honest, and well thought answer to this

[Fran Haring]

"I want a clear, honest and well-thought answer to this."

"You want answers?"

"I want the truth!!!"

"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!!!!!"

:lolhit:

Fran

[DrumCorpsFan27]

I was watching Cadets 2005 and Boston 2004 with some friends a couple weeks ago, and they thought both shows were pretty awesome. They thought the narration/spoken word was great and added a lot to the show.

So what does this prove? People have different opinions. People like different things. It's silly to say, "Well these 2 people didn't like narration, LET'S FORGET THE WHOLE THING", I mean, this isn't a baby we're talking about here, things are at stake!

Let's see, some people like shows with narration. Everyone likes shows that don't have narration.

Seems like an easy choice to me. B)

Edited April 23, 2007 by DrumCorpsFan27

[mistofflies]

Let's see, some people like shows with narration. Everyone likes shows that don't have narration.

Seems like an easy choice to me. B)

I can think of some shows without narration that I don't like....

[skewerz]

I can think of some shows without narration that I don't like....

and would narration have made you like them? :P

[mistofflies]

and would narration have made you like them? :P

Would lack of narration make me like BD 06? B)

[nothingbetter]

I usually have a hard time understanding the narration, so that's why I'm against that.

As far as electronics go, I think it takes away from the activity. Sure it could add so much more dept to the music and whatnot, but it's the whole outdoors thing that catches me. This goes for woodwinds too. Drum corps has a certain "hardcore" feel too it. Practicing in hot humid weather, rain, wind, ect would make electronics difficult, if it is even possible. Same with woodwinds. So much rehearsal time would be lost if they were introduced due to the elements, that honestly I just don't see the value of even risking it.

[louderisbetter]

I'm way too lazy to read everyone else's responses, so I hope you're not sick of hearing if it if it's repeated. Or if not, I hope I can clearly communicate my ideas.

For me, a lot of the things that make BOA or WGI effective are things that distract me from what I want to see: virtuosity of playing and marching. In addition, one of the things that drew me to drum corps was the fact that it was only brass and percussion, which are the instrument groups that interest me most. (If anything, my next pick would be strings. Imagine!)

If the goal of the designer--or of the audience--is to see a "show", I'd be more entertained by a movie. But I go to the stadium to see people running their assess off and making great music. If that means that they have to run a little less occasionally, I'll take that. And if they occasionally lose a bit of music for the marching, I'll still occasionally forgive them.

A real drum corps fan, to me (and I'll openly admit that it's possible that my estimation of this is bent by my own experience), is someone who would enjoy it as much to watch a rehearsal. No uniforms, no big crowds, etc.--just straight up, march and play. These are the people who enjoy watching basics for the marching... but enjoy the drill a little more, since they get a little more variety. These are the people who love hearing fifty reps of the same eight bars... but who still love hearing it come together on that one shot they get in front of the audience. To put it together into a show is an opportunity unlike any other.

I get distracted when I can't hear the hornline over someone yakking into a microphone. I get a little ###### off when I miss something cool because I'm distracted by a prop, or by a choreographer who has to have a dozen things going on to distract me from deficiencies in the feet or in the music (or, worse, because he honestly thinks that adding more is genuinely contributing to the quality of the show.)

Thus, I guess I think like a performer, or a judge, rather than an "audience". I'm surrounded every day by "entertainment experiences", and plenty of them could be loud enough to damage my hearing, and plenty of them could be full of fast-paced action... but they're not drum corps. I want to see marching, I want to hear brass and percussion. The "art" of drum corps is nothing if we allow our focus to shift, just the same as the concept of a "symphony" is lost if we try to write one for a guitar quartet instead of an orchestra. Because the attractive thing for me isn't about the label, it's about what I'm looking for, and whether or not the product has it.

And, of course, whether you can hear it over the vocalist.

At some point, think about what you consider "artistic". Artistic can go both ways, as there have been some people who would call every musician in history more "artistic" than his predecessors or contemporaries. Brahms was more artistic (read: good ol' fashioned acceptable music) than Wagner, but Wagner was more artistic (read: more innovative use of media and the expanded size and sound of an orchestra) than classicist Brahms. Schoenberg was very artistic in terms of putting his ideologies over the importance of critical acclaim. I don't think that adding a "story" or vocalists or props or electronic instruments makes drum corps any more "artistic" than it already was, unless you simply define artistic by the number of those things you can cram in.

For myself, if artistic drum corps is like BOA/WGI, I'd much rather be a beer-drinking-NASCAR-watching down home hillbilly.

Over the past couple days of actually watching some BOA/WGI groups, I couldn't help but feel that drum corps is seriously so stubborn and limited in what it's doing. BOA is lightyears ahead of DCI in terms of the quality of amplification, narration and electronics. I don't understand why fans refuse to allow drum corps to go this route. Imagine what drum corps would be capable of artistically with the amount of talent they have at their disposal in relation to BOA. What I want to know is, what is wrong with this and feeling this way? What is wrong with narration? What is wrong with electronics/amplification. I'm just trying to look at the amps/electronics/WWs debate from this angle, because people on this board have seriously beaten other aspects of the situation to a bloody pulp. Who knows...maybe DCI/BOA/WGI could usher in a new artistic movement? Doubtful, but a man can dream can't he?

Please don't turn this into, "WELL I THINK AMPS AND NARRATION SUCK U STUPID BANDO LOL". I want to actually know what people think about drum corps going further into a more artistic direction, not that they haven't been pushing that already for the past....15 years?

[shawn craig]

Would lack of narration make me like BD 06? B)

Possibly. The narration was VERY frequent and kept interupting the music (over a dozen times, I lost count). If they had even cut in in half I might have enjoyed the show a bit more.

[MikeD]

That's been my point even with your example of an anything goes division within DCI...not enough to support two major circuits.

If a new division is in DCI, nothing changes in the tour beyond how the corps are grouped for scores.

It's not a new 'circuit' to add a division. You'd still see the same corps at the same shows, only some would be grouped differently when the scores are announced.

[MikeD]

Mallet percussion was in drum corps decades earlier, Mike. Why do you persistently ignore that fact?

I'm not. What possible relevance does that have to the 60's and 70's when first BAC attempted to use them and then they were later admitted back to drum corps?