There’s been a lot of discussion about “Baby It’s Cold Outside” this holiday season.  Many people are finding the song offensive, calling it a tune about “date rape.”  Looking at the lyrics in the current climate and from only a narrow 2018 perspective, one can see how this conclusion could be drawn.  But the world is not so black and white, but is full of nuance. The world is grey.

Frank Loesser who wrote the music and lyrics for the song (along with other amazing achievements like “Guys and Dolls”) is one of my heroes.  I found it hard to reconcile what I knew about this composer who toiled so endlessly to find the perfect melodies for carefully crafted lyrics full of cleverness and meaning with this current discussion.  Loesser was a word-smith of the highest order.  And of course, if we look at the lyrics of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” in the context of the day in which he wrote it, you find it’s not offensive but quite clever.

A terrific commentary and explanation can be found here.

We live in a time of instant outrage and making quick decisions without knowing all the facts or examining the nuance of the situation.  But I encourage you not to fall into this trap.  Don’t be a lazy thinker.

This applies to our world of marching arts as well.  I encourage students of the activity to watch the great shows of the past.  You have to know where we’ve been to know where we’re going.  But I often find myself reminding young designers and instructors to remember the context of the TIME in which a show occurred.  Certain shows may seem tame or even ordinary in today’s world of marching, but watching the show IN CONTEXT of the time in which it appeared can help you to understand how wildly innovative and ground-breaking it was.

Likewise, I encourage designers to make sure the audience can watch a new show they are creating in context as well.  There have been times when I wanted to make sure that the audience watched everything happening on the field from a certain point of view, with one idea in mind. One way to do this is to put a large backdrop with the word or concept on it.  For example, I created a show called “Dangerous” for the Rock Hill HS Band from SC.  Everything that happened in the show made sense if you knew this was the show title, so we put the word in the background so it would be “in your face” the entire time.  Then when you saw someone running with scissors or tossing a rifle with a blindfold or playing with fire, you interpreted it in this way. You can see the Dangerous show Here.

I encourage you to makes sure your show idea is clear and that the audience can watch it in context.  I like to feel smart when I watch a show, so do your part to make sure I can understand what you’re trying to say and then can enjoy the show idea and the clever and creative ideas you bring to me.

Tim Hinton