Henson

I'd like to see Bloo do Caravan and play more than 12 seconds of it. ^0^

We knew THIS was coming sooner or later. At least now we know the thread will make the 33 page mark. :P

I would argue that it has changed it's identity. It's not as though Drum Corps woke up one day and decided to become Marching Band through some kind of hormone therapy. It's still not marching band, and I doubt it ever will be. It just grew over time to attract people from a different segment of society and slowly moved its focus in a different direction. While the product is different than it used to be in Div I, I'm not sure why it's 'worse' or 'not as good'.

Thanks

Where can I buy the DVD?

How many current members of the corps are or have been members of marching bands? The activities are no longer separate. DCI has become the moral equivalent of the graduate level of marching band. For the most part it's where the hardcore high school/college band kids go to get their fix of excellence. Drum corps is a different experience than marching band with different instrumentation, yes. But the upper echelon of marching bands, especially in high school, has the same staff, arrangers, designers, style of show, and directors as the DCI corps. I would argue that DCI is setting the standard and starting the trends as opposed to it being the other way around as so many chicken littles here claim. SCV does a show, 18000 high schools wanna do it too. The guy who asked "what's the difference" has a point. Drum corps has not lost it's identity, it has merely evolved. What's wrong with drum corps being another part of the music education community as opposed to being the red-headed stepchild of the boy scouts?

You bring up an interesting point, one that I'm sure is going to be discussed at considerable length. I have only one comment though, and it refers to this sentence: Not many people, especially old-timers, will agree with you as to what the purpose of Drum and Bugle corps is. Though I'm certain it was not intended to be arrogant, that is a pretty elitist view. Drum and bugle corps originally made the performing experience accessible to the previously non-musical masses, and while I recognize that there has been some 'professionalization' in the elite corps, it is sad that we have reached a point where a move to make playing in a drum and bugle corps more attainable for young musicians is considered a bad thing.

IMO a better alternative (DVD producers listen up :) ) would be to show brief periods of 'solo moments' and then collapse them into a small picture-in-picture box in the corner while focusing on a larger segment of the show. Of course then we'll get to complain that the PIP box covered up the best part of the drill, but it's better than what we have now...look at the cinecast of the Cadets for instance: 2 minutes of guard and pit, 1 minute of cool drill, and 8 minutes of the cameras following confused girls running around the field not really doing anything interesting. Those 'girl' moments could have been banished to the corner where we would still see what they were doing, but also see the really cool moments built into that drill.

Those of you who have not seen the Cadets live yet are not qualified to nitpick thier visual performance while sitting in the theater munching popcorn. Why? Because the theater broadcast was 2 minutes of the pit/guard, 8 minutes of the "Dream Girls" wandering around looking dumb, and maybe 1 minute of drill. Their brass is not just awesome, they are moving awesomely fast. Hopefully the DVD will be better. At least we have highcam.

Perhaps the goosebumps are gone because the audience member has become jaded... how sad.

While tradition and history are very important, and a big part of what separates the soul of the Drum Corps activity from marching bands...it can be argued that too much 'inbreeding,' especially in the staff, can lead to stagnation and an almost inevitable fall from the top 12 (Scouts anyone?). Just like at a corporation, sometimes a change in vision and leadership is exactly what is needed to create greatness.