Traditional or Modern?

I have been thinking about how we did this year as a show choir and how we did the year before. This year we were twenty third in the nation and the year before we were eighteenth. Even though that isn't so different, we only won one competition this year and they won two last year and got second at all the other ones. When you look at the shows you can notice that the show from last year was more modern and the show from this year was more traditional. this caused me to think.

We are going through a change in the shows show choirs do. they are mixed between the groups being more modern and those still sticking with what has worked in the past. But who is better? It appears that as the songs become more modern, the judges have started to like them more because they are different. Now, groups in CA who have the ability to use better production, are making sets that are new and inspiring and they are being rewarded for it. Just comparing the closers of the shows, you can see Please Don't Stop the Music would kill Shine like the Sun.

So why doesn't everyone do shows that are newfangled? Because it is difficult to pull off a song where the dance has to be modern and less standard show choir like. you have to act differently, dance in less structured methods, and sing with a different tone and style. Plus, old show choir sets are reliable. They don't always win but they aren't hard to figure out and they are very structured.

As we move forward in time, I could see people switching to more difficult, modern set lists that will, in turn, raise the standards for all show choirs. Sometimes we have to give into progress to realize what it can do for us.





And here for the fun of it is someone stuck on tradition