2muchcoffeeman

Interesting stats to look at, for sure, and thanks for putting them together. I'm not sure they answer your questions definitively. But then, you've probably already come to the same conclusion. Consider: It wasn't until the 12th year of the DCI era that the West-Coast grip on the top spot (save for one intrusion by Madison) was broken, by Garfield. Cue up their 1983 opener and listen to the Orange Bowl crowd go absolutely insane at the end with almost warlike chants of "East! East! East!" I was in those stands. It sure felt like a moment when The Established Order was coming to an end. So I don't know that your numbers reveal anything terribly new about DCI. It has always been thus. One batch of numbers I would love to analyze is the number of rookies in each corps, by year. My hypothesis, which might have some bearing on this situation, is that the percentage of rookies in top corps has trended upwards during DCI's 40-year run. Marching members have always moved from one corps to another, but my hunch is that it has become much more common in the current day. In earlier days, when a greater percentage of corps membership was local to the corps, members tended to stick around for several years. They moved up in the standings by making their own corps better. Today, a greater share of DCI's overall membership sees the path upward through several corps. You start in Open Class, jump to a World Class corps, get your chops, then audition up the ladder until you reach your last year of eligibility, when you rook-out with a top-tier corps. The faces of members within each single corps, especially at the top, change more frequently than they did in the past, i.e., the number of rookies in top-level corps not only is higher than in lower-ranking corps, but also has trended higher over the years. Of course, as lower corps lose members to higher corps, this would tend to push up their number of rookies, too. So, perhaps the true dynamic to watch here is whether the rate of rookie increase is accelerating faster among top-tier corps compared to lower corps, owing to the concentration effect of auditioners from ~20 corps vectoring in on a much smaller number of top corps. In any event, the effect is to cement the top corps in position, and it is a pattern that is very difficult to uproot. It tends to establish a caste system that is almost impossible to break without either financial calamity falling upon a corps or the kind of forced-turnover rules in place in professional sports. Perhaps if you want to encourage churn among the medalists each year, you cap the percentage of rookies the corps are allowed to contract. It would create a disincentive to corps-shopping. But it also would run smack up against other important drum-corps values. If the activity is for the members (especially, as has already been noted, they are paying for the privilege to participate), limiting member mobility would be a profoundly difficult policy to impose. But from a data standpoint, anyway, that is my theory, Chris. And it is mine. <Insert picture of Anne Elk here> Additional thought: you asked, is this a good thing? The answer is the always-unsatisfying it depends. If I'm right and the average MM tenure in top-tier corps is gradually getting shorter (i.e., higher percentage of rookies), then you could observe that a greater number of youth are getting the opportunity to march in championship-caliber units. The ranks of the alumni associations of BD, Phantom, SCV et al are growing at ever-accelerating rates. That's a good thing. If your measuring stick of goodness is competitive balance and getting medals to a larger number of corps, then stagnation at the top would be a bad thing.

Okay: You're melodramatic. And thank goodness. This world needs a little more heartfelt sentiment, and a little less ironic detachment. Music is powerful that way.

Troopers announced on Feb. 11: Show: Magnificent 11 Rep: The Magnificent Seven The Theme "Jon Dunbar" from Dances With Wolves The Battle Hymn of the Republic Original compositions by Robert W. Smith and Paul Rennick Trailer:

Yes, of course: It does no one any good to have DCI collapse. But the logic does not work in both directions. While a bankrupt DCI guarantees that no youth learns anything, it does not necessarily follow that a "profitable" DCI guarantees that youth will receive the kind of drum-corps/educational experience that has attracted tens of thousands of youth to the activity for generations. Under the current system, yes, the education of youth is left to the individual corps. But I don't believe for a minute that the same would be true if private investors owned DCI. No sane investor would leave their ROI to the vicissitudes of a federation of independently run nonprofit organizations. If you put private investors, whose only logic is the return they get for their investment, in control of the product on the field, then the only values that will drive the membership, the music, the programming, the touring, the rules, the scoresheets, etc., will be the values that generate the highest profits for the investors. If it were not so, it would not be an investment. If the point of drum corps is to provide young people with meaningful challenges that help them grow into better musicians, citizens and people, it matters HOW the drum-corps activity is funded, and not merely THAT the drum-corps activity is funded.

Uh huh. And the whole educate-students thing?

Methinks Mr. Boo has been waiting for this question for a long time. Hydration advancements? Sunscreen through the ages? Good luck with that, but many good suggestions nonetheless. He certainly covered the bases. How about some kind of device that measures how much air a person can blow, over a period of time. The point being: See if you can move as much air as this mello player here. You'd have visitors passing out and piling up. Or, same idea vis drumming: Patron plays on a pad while looking into a TV screen of a snare drummer playing on a drum, staring right back at the patron. The double-stroke roll begins very slowly, and the visitor tries to match the drummer on the screen, stroke for stroke. The tempo increases gradually. Some kind of sensor measures how well, and for how long, the visitor matches the electronic drummer. Some kind of you-are-in-the-line, virtual-reality exhibit. Think one of those Disney "rides" where it's all visual projections and mind games. This time, you're the trumpet player, and projected all around you are the other members of the line, and the rest of the corps, and the floor/room tips and jolts ever so slightly to reinforce the sensation of forward/back, stop/start, front/rear. Oh, and a gift shop. Wouldn't be a museum without one.

Typically the strongest, most consistent and musical player. Players on the R and L of center listen in toward center, to hold together ensemble. Center snare also typically sets the the tone at practice. No one moves until the center says so.

I guess I'm as stoked as anyone else about the possibilities. Good on 'em. But I just wish, when it comes to moments such a this, when you're introducing yourself and the need to be clear about your intentions is at its most urgent, that the PR department wouldn't march into the room and conduct a hostile takeover of the English language: "We are very pleased to be unveiling DrumLine Battle™ and SoundSport® today, as DCI prepares for its 41st season and its annual summer tour across the United States. In harmony with the objectives of our business plan and our strategic vision for the future, we are focused on creating dynamic opportunities for vast new audiences to engage with our organization and the positive values it represents." Ugh. Will someone at DCI please launch a search for John DeNovi? Because the cyborgs evidently have taken over his body. Someone once said, "Breathe, Dah." Simple. Breathe and play. Just play. Breathe, speak. Just speak, simply.

Given the G7 ultimatum and the anxious air surrounding the upcoming DCI board meeting, this is tin-eared public relations at best. When so many fans are connecting so many dots with so little information, it's reckless to be flinging words like "battle" around without any context. These are not days for cute.

For 40 years the Troopers have had to rely not only on out-of-town members, but out-of-state members. They hold out-of-market camps in several different locations. This fall, they'll hold auditions in Cheyenne, Indy, Austin, Las Vegas and Daytona Beach. Notice you don't see the word "Casper" in there. For Troop, which lives smack in the middle of the least-populated state in the Union, occupying the Time Zone The World Forgot, recruiting from outside the home base is not some recent strategic move made for competitive reasons. It's been a necessity for survival for a long time. Troop has begun a program to partner with Wyoming high school music programs, partly to be a good neighbor to those schools, but also to help revive participation in the corps by Wyoming kids.

. . . probably not iconic to anyone else, but that percussion feature included the absolute best tenor lick of all time . . . .

Agreed. 1983 was an inflection point in the activity. For "Garfield," 1983 was the culmination of many years' progress, but it wasn't until 1983 that their innovations changed the arc of drum corps more generally. And it was more than drill. The Cadets of 83 had a horn sound that remains the foundation of the sound today. Another big moment, already mentioned: the advent of Kevlar heads. The snare sound changed from the "wet" dsit dsit dsit to the "dry" dawk dawk dawk. Not a positive development, IMO, but no one asked me.

A very astute question, Granny. Thank you.

I am, currently, funking out, in every way.

Good news. I've attended "Big, Loud & Live" for several years, and look forward to it each August, but it has yet to live up to the "Loud" billing. More volume!

Hmmm . . . . color me skeptical. Someone has posted the above announcement on the TS Facebook wall. But no one from TS is answering the many questions that naturally have followed, such as: who is the director? If this is the way TS is making such a dramatic announcement, they're doing it in a sloppy way -- not the sort of impression the corps would want to make if it were serious, especially after the way things collapsed in 2012. There is not a word about this on the TS website at this hour. Why the delay? Why ANY delay? There is not a word about this at dci.org, or on DCI's Facebook wall, at this hour. There is not a word about it at jacksonville.com, the news website for the Florida Times-Union, in Jacksonville. I hope it's true, but so far, this has the air of a hoax.

Context is everything. 1980 Bridgemen: Confederate flags in the guard. The show: The Civil War. Crowds cheered. No one batted an eye. Put the Stars and Bars on the field with Spirit of Atlanta, however, and crowds will march out of the stadium in protest. I can't imagine any context where a swastika would be regarded as anything but flat-out offensive, even if the other half of the corps were in a set the shape of the Star of David. Ugh. I don't even want to think about it. As for sexual innuendo, there are ample examples of suggestive bumping and grinding through the years. The Cavaliers aren't even subtle about it: "SPLOOOOEEEEEYYYYY!!!" It comes down to what the community will tolerate. Even when it comes to obscenity, the strictest control the Supreme Court could come up with, in 1973, was the "contemporary community standards" test. And there's nothing the government can do with performances that deal with politics, morals, religion, race, etc. But that doesn't mean the public will buy tickets if they are offended. Michael Boo is right: designers are sensitive to what is in bounds and what is out, and they test those boundaries with care, not because they'll get busted by the police, but because no one will buy a ticket to their show. Drum Corps, being independent organizations and whose latitude is limited only by what they think audiences and judges will like, are one thing. In the public-school context, the controls change somewhat, partly because public schools are government institutions, and partly because minors are involved, and when it comes to minors, the concept of free speech is a bit murky. The Supreme Court famously ruled that "students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate," yet is also has ruled that school administrators can, in certain circumstances, prevent the publication of stories in the school paper -- or, presumably, certain shows from being presented on the field. In the HS band context, a community would have the same degree of oversight as it would for, say, the drama department. Patrons of the district would have the right to speak up, to the school administration or school board, if the drama department planned to put "Equus" or "Oedipus Rex" on the stage. As someone else has pointed out, booster money becomes school money once it's handed over, and anyway no amount of booster support diminishes the claim that ordinary taxpayers have upon the nature of the education they're helping to pay for. At the end of the day, the school board answers to voters, which include but are not exclusively band (or football or drama) boosters.

Way too many variables to reach a definitive conclusion. The vibrancy of football is only one of them. In places like, oh I don't know, Montana or Hawaii, football occupies a different place in the culture than it does in Texas or Ohio. So in some areas, this whole question is strictly academic. Some communities simply have higher tolerance than others for head injuries. Across that football/culture spectrum, you encounter a wide range of other particulars. For example, in some school districts, each HS has its own football field and stands. Ample facilities and time slots for all. But a lot of districts,especially in newer cities, build only one football field for all the HSs in the district, and access to the field is rationed. Unfortunately for band directors, these fields are invariably managed by groundskeepers who have A) the only key ever made to open the gates and B) adequacy issues. This leaves the teams and bands with their respective practice fields, which themselves are of varying utility. So you have football culture on the X axis; facilities on the Y axis . . . . . . and on the -- what, Z? -- axis, you have the music programs, which as already discussed run from the purely introverted and artistic to the intensely extroverted and competitive. Some schools are content to practice in the parking lot; others build band-only practice fields (with lights). There is one variable that would seem to push the equation toward marching band's ability to survive the loss of football: The elevation of competition throughout HS life. Cheerleaders now have their own competition circuit. The chess team competes. DECA competes. Even the bus drivers compete in bus rodeos. Many school activities stand on their own competitive legs, and are less reliant on football or any other support system. Throw in district-funding variables, urban/rural distinctions, the rise of charter schools, the internal regional politics of band adjudication, the phase of the moon and the value of the dollar vs. the yen, and you wind up with just about any outcome being possible, the existence of football being only a mitigating factor, not the deciding one. Personally, I think HS football is a great way to A) spend a Friday night, and B) to create a very visible/audible connection between the music program and the community. It builds goodwill. I know of a HS where the football team shows up, in uniform (minus pads) in the stands to cheer on their school's band during state competition. Football and band can live together happily, and I hope the relationship continues.

Troopers hire Andrew Ebert as drill designer.

A useful clarification. Thank you. I suppose much the same could be said of many states. For whatever reason, it seemed more obvious in Oregon during my admittedly narrow investigation of HS music programs recently. . . . which is the impetus for my question. I start from the assumption, possibly wrong, that a successful drum corps is unlikely to take root in an anemic HS music ecosystem. HS is where most future DC members catch the fever -- through first-hand exposure to nearby corps and shows, and from evangelizing HS music teachers. Though one person in this thread claimed the HS MB landscape to be "irrelevant" to the health of OC, I think that's a bit too facile. It seems more than passingly relevant.

Dang. Now that's what I call a thorough answer. Thanks.

1981 Bridgemen. In those days, the timing judge fired a starter's pistol to signify the beginning of judging, and two pistol shots at 11:30 to alert the field judges that their judging period had ended. That year, Bridgmen played selections from "West Side Story." Precisely at 11:30, the corps was supposed to reach the point in the WSS storyline where one of the Sharks shoots Tony. So, when the timing worked right, it went like this: Big, fast, busy musical rumble. Lots of action. High volume. The Shark takes aim at Tony Music impact: Bow! Complete corps cutoff. A beat of silence. The Shark fires his gun. Judge's pistol: Bang! Bang! It was tricky to march 11+ minutes of a show in perfect time to line up the climax of the rumble with the judge's pistol. On the '81 finals recording, the corps cutoff comes at 11:20, and the pistol at 11:26 (indicating the rcording itself might be a hair on the fast side). Still, it was a cool idea: Judging element as entertainment.

Curious about OC. Oregon is a state where competitive HS marching band is not emphasized -- or so I'm told by several HS band directors in Oregon. In much of Oregon, marching band is an afterthought at best, while symphonic and jazz bands get the attention. In Oregon, HS wind ensembles compete for a state championship. A HS in Bend, for example, touts that it is the "state champion" band for its size classification. They won that championship on the stage, not the field. Maybe Oregon HS competitive marching band is more widespread than I know. Yet it's curious that a borderline world-class drum corps would take root in such a place. What's in the water in Oregon?

IDK whether it makes financial sense to head west at the start of the season instead of starting out in the midwest, but a western swing would at least enable Troop to swing through Wyo/Colo/Utah for home(ish) shows on their way east, preventing the need to make a run back home from some spot in the Midwest and then hightail it back out to the Midwest to continue tour. Then again, maybe all that travel comes out in the wash. A mile is a mile. If the corps runs move-ins/all-days in Indiana as it did last year, a Western leg to the season becomes more of a burden.Still, the Casper newspaper published this in July: "Morris has said he will submit Casper as a show site for the 2013 summer season when DCI holds its scheduling meeting in September." Troopers have been working harder in recent years to deepen their ties with Wyoming music educators. They run a winter program in Wyoming. They are, officially, "Wyoming's Musical Ambassadors." They get support from the state university. At some point, they need to show up in Wyoming and play. The Casper show this summer was a sellout, or purt' near. The VIP/fundraiser event before the show was a sellout. The lineup was small, but good: Troop, Cascades, Phantom, SCV and BAC. And DATR is the biggest show west of San Antonio. Isolation and monster travel is nothing new to Troop. They invented the touring corps.

Yeah, they didn't perform at DATR in 2011. In 2012, the drum corps gods were not pleased. Bad karma.