89to96

Thanks for the advice but I wasn't really asking for any. I wasn't hating and I am entitled to my opinion and so are you, but some opinions come from experience and facts so...there's that.

I disagree almost all your points. BD is BD, Cavies look like cavies. Cadets step off with the right foot and PR plays classical. I'll stop there... Cadet's charts sound the same but their brass is bright. SCV marches like cavies now and the drill leaves a ton to be desired. the Bluecoats are just a carbon copy of BD for the most part. just my opinion i guess. look i don't get ANY young kids to get where i'm coming from. when i marched 20 years earlier drum corps was dramatically different. if you march now 20 years ago was different but comparable. Yeah corps top to bottom are more talented, they try some different things but everyone just copies and it's more about the people teaching and judging than the actual corps, that's all my point is.

so what is that telling you?

Well I haven't totally checked out. This is actually my first year out of it in many years. Being out makes you really see some stuff. I care cause I care about the activity. Change is fine but what are the options? It'd be nice if people just saw the bigger picture.

Actually I don't disagree... But I didn't say anything about talent. I said soul, heart... It's boring, one note zzzzzz

Completely disagree

FYI, I'm not gonna grill anyone. Opinion are opinion. The shows do the opposite of pleasing a crowd to me.

that's cool man. i got better things to do than comb through the dcp archives. I just wanted to see what people thought. Cause I think corps are boring as hell now.

Hi, So I'm going to be described as an old has been (my name says the years I marched, so you do the math) but does anyone else see the serious lack personality, heart, grit, originality (whatever word you want to put in there) in drum corps now? This isn't to take away from the hard work people put into it but it seems for all the hard work the members are putting in, that DCI and a lot of the corps are not stepping up and doing their part. So back in the day you were penalized for each mistake, so corps that were doing harder shows but "ticking" more weren't getting the credit they deserved. Now everything seems very formulaic, I guess just like the rest of the world. Get up, go to the job you hate in your Camry, punch in, punch out, come home to your house, wife(husband), 2 kids and then get divorced after 5 years. That's what drum corps is now. It's Brittney Spears in the 90s and Katy Perry now. A cute little package, that the staff probably did 5 years ago with a corps they use to teach but the corps wears blue instead of red. Back in my day(shaking fist), each corps had a personality, something different to offer. You could hear a corps at warm ups and know who it was just from the sound of the brass line. You were taught by people who marched that same corps and now you can bring your bright trumpet sound from the bay area to the east coast and pretty much eliminate the sound a championship corps established and changed the game with in the early 80s. Don't get me wrong, I see corps trying to pass along "traditions" but they have nothing to do with the heart and soul of said corps on the field. Who cares about a corps song if it clearly isn't that corps on the field. I'm talking uniforms or 3 valves or not having g bugles. All that change is fine but wasn't drum corps great because it was different and it was local to a point. You rooted for Boston, because they were FROM Boston(that's the Crusaders if you didn't catch on), or you hated them because they were from Boston. Or you marched Phantom Regiment and you would NEVER go to BD because it's a totally different style. You would pick a corps that fit you. Sure there are still a few corps that have very slight identities but it's not like it use to be. People teaching are so caught up in themselves. Everyone is trying to make it about themselves and not the drum corps. It's not about the members, it's not about the instructors, the directors. It's about the corps and being part of that history, and making your own history. It's not the NFL, about money. There is no money in drum corps but we are caught in this place, this facade of an educational activity just to make a buck for like maybe 5 people. Supposably drum corps is more educational now, but now it's like everything else for the most part. They want you to step in ready and don't want to develop anything. It's all about will you pay and the now. When I marched I learned, how to play, how to live on my own, how to deal with people and different kinds of people(not just the middle to upper middle class people from suburbia that dominate the drum corps population), how to take a risk, how to be an individual and express myself, how to be part of a group and know your role but how hard work pays off. Now it's total business. I know there are exceptions, like in anything but it's dead, no!? Again, I respect the hard work done by the members but lets make sure we are part of drum corps because we love the activity, not because we think we are more important than it.