You don’t know cringe until you meet 6th grade percussion

8:23 the backing track had woodwind in it, that tells me everything I need to know about this show

The timing of this show's release killed the whole vibe, considering that it was released after the season ended and they both didn't even win

I was a member of 2016 Cadets and was one of the interviewees. I can say, from my perspective, I was disappointed with the way the TV show turned out. My interviews weren’t ever “dramatic” enough and I barely ended up on air. Never finished the show in fact. Interestingly though, it never felt like the crew was around all that often. There were long stretches where we thought “hey, when’s the camera crew coming back?”

The pizza pad in the background😂

I think they could've done this better by releasing the show over the course of the summer, once every two weeks or so following each camp at pre-season and then occasional moments during the season, following one or two different corps each season. Ending it, "Do you think the corp will win? Find out at DCI Finals at date and time". Right? Get people interested in the personal struggles and then let it pay off. After finals, you can release the entire finals show as the final episode of the season. Making it more available and more interesting.

Trying to portray the two blue devils poking fun at each other for “slacking” as beef or tension is just hilarious to me. It’s so obviously not anything serious and if you’ve ever been in a drumline you’d know that’s just how we act

Scouts Honor: Inside a Marching Brotherhood (2014). One corps; one season; one film.

On the topic of filming distractions… it’s before your time, but around ‘82 (give or take a year) there was a movie being produced using the Blue Devils. It was called the Lorne Solo (or Lorne’s Solo?). Something about a kid who was dying and trying to make it through the end of the season (or something… my memory is really foggy on the premise). I was at a show in San Jose and people were walking around with those satin Hollywood jackets with the name of the movie on the back. I didn’t see any actual filming that night. Sadly, the movie was never completed.

By “clash” they must’ve meant that the royalty free music clashed with what was actually being played

They almost certainly just picked the two corps with the most championships and assumed or hoped they’d both be fighting for first and that there would be some sort of rivalry. Granted there’s no way to know who will be championship contenders in advance, but they would have been better off just looking at recent placements. Crown and Bluecoats both looked more likely to win than the Cadets going into 2016. I get that they had to overhype any and all drama and had to pick “characters” to follow. I was honestly ok with this even though it was tacky and completely unrealistic. My biggest problem with the show was the completely forced rivalry between the two corps. It was painfully obvious that the corps hardly could have cared less about each other that season. They were nowhere near being in the same league competitively. There were actual competitive and rivalry storylines that season, but the show decided to keep forcing its contrived rivalry. BD was concerned with the Bluecoats and it was pretty hilarious to see the members being told to say they viewed the Cadets as legitimate competition. Meanwhile, there was actual competition between the Cadets and Cavaliers, yet it was maybe mentioned once. Drum corps would be far better represented by a slice of life type show instead of reality tv but I suspect the reality tv angle likely gave it a far bigger draw that it would have if it wasn’t. Overall, I thought the show was ok. Even though the forced storylines were dumb, I still found it entertaining, especially with the power of hindsight and having marched that season.

There is another DCI documentary from the Bluecoats 2006 season called Throw It Down. It's amazing. My band director is the drum major that year (Joe Beitman)

Honestly, it would be a whole lot better if they followed the last chance u style of documentary, where you have a corps that is on the fringe of dropping out and it's struggle to stay relevant and stay in the top 12... Or one that's trying to break back in, I would think Madison scouts would be an excellent option to do a documentary on this year because they keep trying to get back into that top 12

Be the change you want to see, create your own DCI reality show

Is that an RCP Pizza pad in the background?

As a 2016 ageout I agree with Kyles comment. loved the mention of 'stoned', thought it was a meme!

If someone were to do this but in the style of Grid Book's "A Day With" Series that would be amazing. Just add in more of the day-to-day stuff like breaks, on the bus rides, etc. No need to ham it up and make fake stuff just to dramatize it. Let people see what it's actually like and learn about the activity. That's probably harder to "sell" but that's what anyone actually interested in watching something like this would want to see.

COTC did some filming when the Blue Devils rehearsed at my high school. Two pretty wacky moments I remember. They made a dude run around and act a fool in a banana suit during a water break. I mean it was a time to chill but that was pretty distracting. Then a very crazy but widely forgotten video. As a promo they made BD kids list “10 reasons why drum corps marchers work harder than olympians.” Extremely awkward attempt to tie it in with the upcoming Rio Games. The video was quickly deleted and there is no trace of it. That show was doomed from the jump.

They still show these episodes on Fuse, so they must have some value. It's so bad. Following one corps would honestly provide enough drama without manufacturing it. At least it would have when I marched in the 80s-90s.

Maaaaaan I’m super late. I’m at work lmao

Your analysis of Reality TV's shortcomings in telling a Drum Corps story is dead on. Back in 2007, when we were working on the Blue Devils tour DVD, producers from LA approached us. The first thing they wanted from us was any footage of a staff member yelling at a corps member-even better if they were crying. This is the sad truth about reality TV; they want low-hanging conflict (mostly made-up) for their programming. Why? Because it's cheap.

God, why did you have to say Downside-Up was 8 years ago? I remember seeing the show live at my high school

Trade off cadence, on the tenor solo teaching, please

Bro my jig solo always stuck at Tom 3 and 4 there is so much space😢

There's a lot of pre-planning with these shows, and in 2015 the Cadets played That Power of 10 show, where they were playing the difficult Symphony No 10 by Shostakovich, and in the middle of the season unveiled the black uniforms. All this was supposed to be a big play to win the championship, something the Hopkins led corps had not done since 2011. Instead the show placed 4th. I could believe that in the planning stages of getting it worked out how the reality show would work, there could have been hype at the time about the Cadets winning in 2015, which did not translate, leaving them with the default coin flip to always win in BD, and a corps on the downswing in the Cadets. I just wonder if the decisions on which corps to follow were made in 2015 not 2016. I do remember seeing a smaller production documentary about the Madison Scouts, along with many who were in the corps, not involving the Rock or any famous person and not a reality show, in 2000. Madison had been a middle of the pack corps not placing lower than 6th for 8 years, and the beginning of the movie was exciting, but I remember as things dragged along this became more about the struggles to achieve a higher score, and at they end they were in 10th place, beat by Boston, Glassmen and others who they never had to worry about in the past. The mood was kind of depressed as people filed out. I don't necessarily agree that the timing of the show affected ticket sales greatly, as likely about half the people watching stumbled onto the show out of mild curiosity, perhaps to laugh at band dorks, and the other half would be drum corps people. Also the show- kind of like DCI promo ads- did not use drum corps music, so you couldn't really hear them anyway. It's hard to imagine a significant number of people watching The Rock's show and seeking out DCI to buy tickets to some show with Cadets or BD for that reason.

I marched 4 years, Contra, when we used G bugles, rather than Bb trumpets and tubas. The main thought I had watching this show years ago was, TROMBONES? WHAT THE HELL!?

I’d love to see you do a video like this about the tv show Tommy Lee (Motley Crue) did where he went back to college and performed in the schools marching band. Your insights would be very interesting.

Ok- might be a dumb question Why is it called "drum corps" but its pronounced "drum core"

Video 328 of asking for a Video of you playing exactly 69420 Notes 92 to go

If you remember, 2016 was the beginning of the end for Hopkins in DCI because the allegations he eventually plead no contest to in a criminal court started coming out around that time. That distraction in itself could have been a contributing factor to why the Cadets was that far off their game in 2016.

I remember watching this back when it came out. It was certainly an interesting show (and by that, I mean it was really bad and made the activity look over dramatic.)

There is a documentary style TV show that could be done about drum corps if they embedded a film crew with about six or so corps at all different levels of the activity and if they didn't try to have a dramatic arc and just let the drama that exists unfold.

This is video #151 of requesting Eric to do another "Behind the Gock Block" Episode. -=-=-=-=-=-= #151 -=-=-=-=-=-=-= The last episode was 10-20-2020! It's time for Eric to bring back all of his characters!

I need some Stoned merch stat

Hey, emc, I don’t know if you will see this, but I am in a drumline. I was wondering if you could make a little video of our show. It is called Rise and grind. By Townsend junior high school. We lead directly into chino hills. We are also very competitive and good.

Good morning! This is video 210 of me asking for a drumline gym made out of various marching percussion instruments, such as the tenor barbell, and bass drumbbells.

When do the pugil stick come out?

Don't be too sure - someone would maybe make a documentary . Maybe not like a reality show with unnecessary drama... or maybe some drama.. but those suggestions are pretty good and inspiring.

do you have tips for sextuplet paradiddlediddles?

Eric, I was wondering your opinion on the quality and content of my marching band documentaries with Greendale HS in Wisconsin who went to Macy’s twice and the Rose Parade once? I obviously don’t expect any videos about this from you, you are plenty busy I am sure. I filmed them for 8 years and have now made a total of 10 full-length videos. My 10th was from Macy’s Parade which will come out in fall on KZfaq. I really enjoy your content. Keep it up! kzfaq.info/sun/PLRaiARUIIs1hSOwRkwfLlWKeDKvI6tbD3

Video #2 of asking EMC to transcribe the Drumline: A New Beat Cadences

Sounds like the producers of the show should have pivoted and made the series about the pitfalls and red tape of obtaining the rights to the actual music corps perform to use for television, and DVD/Blu Ray sales, etc. 😂

I marched BD during 2016 and the cameras were around but not super distracting. However, I wasn't one of the main people featured so I couldn't speak as to if it was a distraction for them since they were more involved. There were a lot of times where we noticed them but they didn't get in the way of what we were doing day to day. If any of us did get spoken to, it was during a break or when we had free time and we were getting interviewed for BD360 anyways which wasn't invasive either. The moments they really got the closest to being invasive was during move ins, when we were left to our own devices since BD members were responsible for our own housing. They would try to be around our hangs and we weren't too hot on that. I think it's cringe, but it's in a goofy way and at least it's another way to remember that summer which is cool

2016 was a great year, I remember watching finals week in the movie theaters, lots of fun

CJ MENTION POGGERS

Hey can you react to our drummer festival in the Philippines

DAY 3 of asking for your recommendations for tenors or snares that are good on a lower budget

I believe The Rock actually did sit down with a few members from the Blue Devils including Brandon Olander. Think it was only uploaded to the Rock’s KZfaq channel

DCI has ruined Drum Corps… yeah I said it😂😂😂

The commercials were so bad I didn’t watch. 🤦‍♂️🙄

Hey emc productions or eric you should see pel-1 drum and lyre band in an elementary band is like the blue devils but Filipino but they had no drum set you should see their performances today they have pearl equipment like snares,tenors,bass at ect

It is painfully obvious that Drive to Survive didn't exist when this was made.

Day 2 of asking you to play in a hbcu style drumline

Where's the video for more Cowbell

This’ll be wild

I’m honestly happy they decided to make the show, despite being very bloated with unnecessary content and drama. It brings attention to the activity, and could definitely bring in new members and new viewers if done well. I think that season was just such a train wreck that it was not worthwhile to continue the series.

Never heard of that show

I got Tenors for the first time!!

Let’s not forget the crazy Cadet drumline video series that was even funnier to watch than this

Video number 73 of asking you to learn how to play ever long by the foo fighters on drumset. No where near as hard as your bleed and master of puppets videos but still a great song that for the average person is really hard to play. If it’s too easy for you being an experienced drummer try playing the hi-hat 16th notes with one hand like normal

HELP IM LAUGHING SO HARD WHY DONT THEY SHOW THE ACTUAL BEST PART

Someone does the season as it goes on. hmmmmm who would that be?

Hertas go rah, like crayon 🖍️

First again love your videos (Edit) I love your videos I am a drummer

Prolly should have just followed BD tbh…. Nothing at all against the Cadets. Just having too much to focus on watered it down. They could have also ended with “they got second but next year they will win!” Which rolls into a sequal…

Emc I don’t even know if your going to see this but it’s the first comment guy again and I have a crazy question, if I’m first comment again maybe a drum lesson? (Edit) I really don’t think your going to say yes but please respond

There's enough drama in drum corps. They don't need to add any scripted drama.

Oh, and automatic cringe any time George Hopkins is on the screen.

They’re exposing the wrong side of the Corps

You missed a potential pun! On the video thumbnail, you should’ve added an “e” at the end, making the title “Clash of the Corpse!”

Can you do my high school my high school name is liberty eylau marching band

I wasn't part of this but was a Cadet in 96 when they did the Olympic closing ceremony. Imagine touring and learning two shows at once....one you only rehears once a week and it's on national television. It was distracting and time consuming. Our finals run suffered. We were tired.

Yo emc can u send me some vic firth sticks

0:14 they love band so much they're making the next generation

rip cadets ❤😢

Rip cadets

I have a stoned shirt

See SPIRIT "One Nigh In August"...........79

Why did The Rock make this?

play choclate cherry bomb day 1

Just put finals on live mainstream sports tv

So exactly like Drive to Survive? 🤷🏻‍♂️ but badly executed.

All truth

Tommy Lee Goes To College was better than this ever had the chance to be! 🤷🏻‍♂️😕

Nice

Ratamacue!

Noooo 😂

lol

As the 288th viewer I can confirm, it was bad…

It was kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Y71-jNCo3MjPo40.html that got me into drum corps. I can imagine what Gail thought when he found me on his doorstep, decades before cell phones.

Day 1 of being early

First

A black playing the victim, color me shocked!!!

Trade off cadence, on the tenor solo teaching, please

Trade off cadence, on the tenor solo teaching, please

Trade off cadence, on the tenor solo teaching, please