Fastest Growing Youth Activity in America?

[Schnitzel]

What am I missing here?

This exposure for DCI and BD seems to be a positive thing for the activity we all say we "love." It's not from Time magazine, or a government research study, nor does it appear to attempt to be a definitive clinical source. A "puff piece."

So, in this forum dedicated to drum corps a thread is created with the purpose of refuting this presentation, right?

Why?

First Amendment rights? The spirit of lively debate?

Just because you can doesn't mean you should . . . negativity noted.

[Cappybara]

What am I missing here?

This exposure for DCI and BD seems to be a positive thing for the activity we all say we "love." It's not from Time magazine, or a government research study, nor does it appear to attempt to be a definitive clinical source. A "puff piece."

So, in this forum dedicated to drum corps a thread is created with the purpose of refuting this presentation, right?

Why?

First Amendment rights? The spirit of lively debate?

Just because you can doesn't mean you should . . . negativity noted.

Because people hate the direction this activity is going and some people don't like the Blue Devils either.

[JimF-LowBari]

Your last point is a good one.

And yet, from when I first encountered drum corps in the late 1980s, when I was in a high school marching band, it seemed obvious that drum corps were a kind of marching band. The best kind, to be sure, but at its core, basically the same thing. When I subsequently learned that there was a significant part of the drum corps population who insisted otherwise, I was flabbergasted.

One analogy that springs to mind is cinema. In 1927, the talkies began to replace the silents. Nowadays, most people conceive of movies as having continuously existed since the 1890s, albeit with changes, big and small, that happened over the next 125 years. But for a couple decades starting in the 1930s, there was a contingent of experts who said that silents and talkies were two totally different things. The talkies were crude and vulgar by comparison to what had been done before, in their estimation. (As regards the earliest years of sound cinema, this opinion holds some merit: camera movement had great fluidity in the silents that was temporarily lost when sound was added, because the noise of the camera had to be muffled, which made the camera much less mobile, for a time.) Actual quote: "Give us back our beauty!"

I'll go with kind of marching band but every time I hear "It's the same" without any qualifiers I want to bang my head......

LOL love to watch older movies. Some of the early sound ones are just painful to watch. Or listen to if the camera was not in the sound proof booth (rrrrrrrrrrrrrr).

[BRASSO]

What am I missing here?

This exposure for DCI and BD seems to be a positive thing for the activity we all say we "love."

I agree as well. This article can only be construed as a positive for the activity... even if the overwhelmingly positive premise may or may not be entirely accurate. Who should care about that, anyway ? If some writer wants to write in the media and tell world that I am handsome, intelligent, impeccably well dressed, fascinatingly interesting, etc and so forth, who am I to tell that writer, or others reading the glowing depiction, any differently ? ( haha!)

Edited July 15, 2015 by BRASSO

[flammaster]

When I went to HS we had 2 or 3 of us in corps.

Last year there were 15 kids in the open class and I think 2 in WC. The school across town has pretty much the same amount but in the other rival corps.

Why? Because here we get involved instead of wizzing on the cherrios and saying "see see..it's dying"

We hosted two different drum corps at our high school. How about yours?

[yogitom]

When I went to HS we had 2 or 3 of us in corps.

Last year there were 15 kids in the open class and I think 2 in WC. The school across town has pretty much the same amount but in the other rival corps.

Why? Because here we get involved instead of wizzing on the cherrios and saying "see see..it's dying"

We hosted two different drum corps at our high school. How about yours?

You continue to miss the larger point.

[flammaster]

Quite the contrary.

We are leading by example. Get involved. talk to perfect strangers about drum corps at every cance. go to your high school band reviews.

[N.E. Brigand]

Well, seems like there's a surge in Open Class. Here in SoCal, we lost one this winter (City Sound), but one came back to the field (Incognito), so we have five Opens within spitting distance of each other and the potential for one more to come back. Gold is stronger this year with a bunch of kids, and Golden Empire from Bakersfield is pretty studly, too. Things are looking up in SoCal.

Which is good news indeed, although Incognito actually came back last year. Here's a list of year-to-year changes in competing corps for the past five years, using the numbers previously offered. I omit corps visiting from overseas:

2011 DCI - 45

Lost: Platinum

Gained: none

2011 DCA - 22

Lost: Kingston Grenadiers, Sun Devils, Vigilantes

Gained: Sunrisers, Tampa Bay Thunder

2012 DCI - 44

Lost: Spirit of Newark

Gained: none

2012 DCA - 21

Lost: Alliance, High Country Brass

Gained: Cadets2

2013 DCI - 40

Lost: Forte, Glassmen, Revolution, Teal Sound, Velvet Knights

Gained: Columbians

2013 DCA - 23

Lost: San Francisco Renegades,

Gained: Centurions, High Country Brass, Sun Devils

2014 DCI - 46

Lost: Thunder

Gained: Coastal Surge, Eruption, Golden Empire, Guardians, Incognito, Louisiana Stars, Watchmen

2014 DCA - 19

Lost: Centurions, Empire Statesmen, High Country Brass, Shenandoah Sound, SoCal Dream, Tampa Bay Thunder

Gained: Alliance, Skyliners

2015 DCI - 49

Lost: City Sound

Gained: Heat Wave, River City Rhythm, Southwind, Thunder

2015 DCA - 19

Lost: Sun Devils, Windsor Regiment

Gained: Chops Inc., Erie Thunderbirds

Note that "Lost" and "Gained" don't refer to the existence of the organization, just its appearance in competition.

[JimF-LowBari]

Interesting that DCI and DCA is going in different directions.

Then again DCA hit its max number of corps a few years back and pendulum is going the other way. Like I said before it goes in cycles.

*ugh* Never noticed Windsor Regiment wasn't coming out this year.....

Plus DCA is getting more and more Class A (smaller corps) heavy. And not really a brand new corps on the All Age side since 2013.

Edited July 15, 2015 by JimF-LowBari

[flammaster]

wow - are we rooting against it being "the fastest growing youth activity"?

if they are talking the past few years - it could be the case!

there's been a deep decline in football/baseball/soccer participation -- and a migration to other outdoor youth activities with a athletic component // hence the rise in activities such as archery, birders, and yes, marching arts...

this plays right into our hands - hopefully DCI will work to open avenues to more "locally based" and assorted "skill level" summer groups via the percussion and small ensemble competitions they are currently exploring

it may very well be the time to revisit a vibrant regional circuit approach for these smaller groups/ensembles -- at least an investment in the NE and CA areas -- say a five year plan, with six or so summer events. They could be coordinated at times with traditional DCI events to raise awareness and participation. C2, BD B, etc stand ready with organizations who could properly coordinate such a start up venture.

IMHO

World Class

Open Class

Regional Class

thank you George!

It is growing quite a bit on the west coast. these indoor percussion shows are quite big and I love it. It reminds me of the early 70's.

We have a couple local shows of just open class here in the bay and so cal. I know Oregon and Washington have a little circuit too. It makes me feel great going to see these smaller shows. I soak up every minute I can.