"I'd like to find out if it really lost it's taunt factor... "

I've only used it about 30 times since I've had it, and it's never taunted
anything for me (this was all before the supposed Bard Taunt Reduction).
Heh, think of it this way:

Bard: Aaaaaaahh! I'm in trouble! Time to go all out!
{Bard AE nukes mobs for 325}
{40th level mobs laugh at the bard's best attempt only causing a minor
scratch as they pound on the real damage dealers.}

The best taunt for me has been twisting the three Chant lines, even if they
don't stick. I could get ogre bouncers to glue onto me by the time they
were at 75% health -- I'd run around in circles while my druid brother nuked
the snot out of them. The Chants may have stuck about 10% of the time.

One other argument for Screech over Dirge is that Dirge is limited to 4
mobs, so if you get a gross train (don't think they exist these days),
you'll have a problem. Caveat: all of my experience has been on a live
server, where populations have gone from comfortable to atrocious, so I've
never had the luxury of an undercrowded dungeon.

Raiel