Two and a half words: Downside Up. That show was so dang popular that all of the corps thought it would be a good idea to do custom horn uniforms each and every year.

times change, your views are built off nostalgia.

@@Camilla6558 My first exposure to drum corps was the 2014 DCI Semifinals in theaters. So you would think my favorite era of drum corps is the mid-2010s? NOPE! It's the early 2000s because A. The only show that used props (as far as I'm aware) was 2003 Impulse. I an generally okay with props as long as they enhance the drill design rather than get in the way of it, and they must not remain idle. Most props from the mid-2010s aren't too offensive, but the background scenery props in 2014 SCV and 2014 Crossmen are absolutely useless and a huge waste of gasoline and man-hours. B. There was no amplication whatsoever. In fairness, spme front ensembles had poor tone quality as a result of using the wrong type of "louder mallets," but other front ensembles--particularly the Cavaliers--were able to play loudly while still sounding good. Meanwhile, I struggle to hear the vibraphones of many corps in the mid-2010s, and some front ensembles, particularly the Blue Devils, seem to be xylophone-heavy. Is it just me? C. There's no synthesizers, samplers, mod trackers, etc. Some shows from the mid-2010s absolutely benefit from synthesizers, especially Tilt and (with one minor exception in it, keep reading) but other times, synthesizers dramatically worsen the enjoyability of a show. The bass region of the synthesizer often becomes way too loud, and some sounds that would better be mapped to an acoustic or semiacoustic instrument are instead lazily sampled. Prerecorded singing sounds terrible and requires no effort from the player; prerecorded narration somehow manages to sound worse than the hilariously cheesy live amplified narration of the mid-2000s (though 2014 Cadets and 2017 Cavaliers use both flavors, which is.....interesting); 2016 Crown should have fired an actual starter pistol (or perhaps done a rimshot on a snare) but didn't; 2017 Blue Stars used a sample of a typewriter, unlike 2006 Capital Regiment, who placed a microphone on an typewriter; 2012 Spirit of Atlanta had a bunch of generic casino-ey samples, while 2007 Pacific Crest had the genius idea to have a front ensemble member shuffle a deck of cars in front of a microphone; Madison Scouts used a timpani sample in the closer instead of real timpani; and even Tilt used samples of steel drums and an electric guitar, even though they themselves had used a steel drum in 2006, and 2014 Blue Stars used a real electric guitar in the same year as Tilt itself! So, while I may be nostalgic for some aspects of mid-2010s drum corps compared to their 2024 counterparts, I can't help but notice its flaws. Therefore, my favorite era of drum corps remains the early 2000s, even though I was 0-3 years old at the time.

@@Camilla6558 More thoughts: 1. Even though the early 2000s is my favorite era of drum corps overall, I think the 70s and early-to-mid 80s had better sounding bass drums due to their larger diameter, better sounding snare drums due to mylar heads, more interesting rifle work due in part to rifles being heavier, and (overall) more hummable and more memorable repertoire because....well, I don't know! I also like the 70s show format of the ballad being the closer a little more, and there are some drill moves from the 70s that I wish modern drill designers would bring back. 2. Buying new uniforms every gosh darn year these days is a huge waste of money, and 89% of the time, modern drum corps uniforms look terrible! I can understand the logic of using shorter-sleeved uniforms to reduce the possibility of having a heat stroke, especially since global warming is a thing. However, that doesn't excuse the financial burden of buying new uniforms each year, and it doesn't excuse the undignified design of most of them. Now, to be fair, the colorguard has been doing the same buy-new-uniforms-each-year scphiel ever since 1983ish, but frankly, I have no coherent opinion about colorguard uniforms no matter what era, so you'll have to come back to me on that point another time. 3. Another thing is that although the front ensemble and SOME horn soloists of mid-2010s (and early 2010s) corps were amplified, at least the only horn soloists that were amplified were those truly needed amplification, and amplification didn't extend to all of the horns and drums and/or a specific section of the horns (usually contras). Modern drum corps does just that. Having every single horn soloist get amplified is monotonous, and it's especially irritating when the particular horn soloist doesn't need it! For example, both 2018 Cadets and 1994 Cavaliers had a contra solo, but the Cadets' arrangement decided to amplify the contra for no good reason! Heck, the Cadets' contra soloist was closer to the front sideline than the Cavaliers' contra soloist was, thus completely mitigating the necessity for amplifaction, but no, they HAD to amplify it just one more time! Amplifying all the drums and horns is completely unnecessary and unwelcome, even for the smallest of drum corps. 4. One thing I really enjoy about 2009 and the early 2010s is that although there are synthesizers, their usage is kept down to a very tasteful minimum (except 2009 Crossmen was quite synthesizer-happy for its era; if it weren't for their total lack of props, they'd be very much at-home in 2014). The mid-2010s started to use synthesizers more, and after Downside Up became a thing, everyone used synthesizers WAYYYYY TOO MUCH (except maybe they made sense for Jagged Line)!! Which leads me to my next point... 5. ....1985 Boston Crusaders offers a tantalizing sample (pun not intended, see Bonus Point) of what might have been; they illegally used a synthesizer! Due to synthesizer technology of the time being very limited, however, they used said synthesizer in a very tasteful way, akin to how 2009 and early 2010s drum corps used synthesizers. I sometimes wish that synthesizers had been legalized in the mid-80s, but limits were placed on how complex synthesizers could be, like "You can only use FM synthesizers, programmable sound generators, Linear Arithmatic symthesizers, and waverable synthesizers; you may NOT use sample-based synthesizers." Chiptune music just so happens to comply with these limits, and it's part of the reason I love playing games on the SEGA Genesis and Game Boy. My point is, limitations breed creativity, and I wish drum corps show designers would start enacting some sort of arbitrary limitation (like no amplification whatsoever, or only amplification for the front ensemble, or no props, or the entire corps plays at a complete standstill for an entire movement, or FM synthesizers and no other synthesizers, or SOMETHING) and design a drum corps show around that. That doesn't guarantee the show would always be successful from an artistic or competitive standpoint, but it does guarantee that the show would at least be a lot more interesting, in my opinion. Bonus Point: The pun was not intended because I am pretty sure the synthesizer the Boston Crusaders used in 1985 was not a sample-based synthesizer. Sample-based synthesizers did exist, but the only one I am aware of that existed for consumers was the Paula audio chip found in the Amiga 1000.

you mean a high cam version, where the camera stays at the top? there are high cam versions, but a lot of youtube uploads are the official releases with camera angle changes

02 Cavaliers tops this, for me.

And the perfect timing of the landing with the last note!

I think Robert needs to relax

@@mr.diddle4853 I don't need to relax when I read the drivel the ignorant, uneducated Americans put up on the Quora site. Do you ever read any of the articles on the Quora site? I guess if you do, you will realise that Americans invented everything, all progress in medicine has been made by them. That without them the British Commonwealth would have collapsed under Nazi rule(just as the US would now be speaking Japanese) had not Commonwealth forces and the Dutch the Gurkhas, the Thais, and Indians helped you keep the Japanese at bay. The US didn't even enter the European conflict until the Japanese bombed the shit out of Pearl Harbour and pleas for help came, from the mighty USA, a plea that that Allied forces in Europe answered immediately, not three years after the conflict had started in Europe as the Yanks did. Nor did we have a fascist capitalist like Henry Ford supplying engines and vehicles to the Nazis throughout the war in Europe (do little searching on Google, you may be amazed.) Is it any wonder i get pissed off when I see these idiot Americans performing a not at all clever routine wearing London Bobbies hats!