It's called DRUM & BUGLE Corps

[Martybucs]

obviously you missed it. DCA isn't just made up of aging anyones anymore. many of those so called band geeks are keeping DCA afloat now. the aging ones, as you put it, most likely were band geeks as well. after all, the community corps thing has been pretty much gone for the last 20-25 years. sure many members participated in a DCI corps but from what i'm reading they are bad, very bad for drum corps. but if you do the simple math ~ 1985 - 2007 = 22 years ago. even if some kids were participating in a community corps when they were 10, they'd be 32 now. we already had the thread about the average age of a DCA member and it seemed like many of them were in their mid to upper 20's, with a few older folks uping the averages. many were under 25.

so where do you think the majority of today's members of DCA most likely got their start either playing an instrument or spinning in guard? those "band geeks" are already keeping DCA afloat. and apparently ruining while they are at it. doesn't matter that this year was the most competitive DCA finals ever. <**>

so marching band is bad, DCI is bad. community corps are gone. is there ANY positive left for some of you to focus on??? aside from day dreaming about days gone by???

Alas, and forsooth...no.

You've perfectly summed up the worthlessness of my existence.

Actually, everyone knows that DCA and DCI are around because of the influx of band members, (I regret the use of the words "band geek"), however, they are participating in their own activity now. Not drum and bugle corps as it was intended to be in the beginning.

So yes, drum and bugle corps is gone. Yes, I miss it. Yes, I'm OK that today's youngsters, and shall we say, "older" participants are enjoying what they have created. I enjoy it also.

I'm just sad that what is today had to destroy the aspects and style of the activity that I used to enjoy as unique and apart from band.

There are people that are in their teens and 20s, 30s and older that are complaining about changes to the activity. Only, their complaints are about stuff that happened a short time ago or are just happening now, i.e. narration, amps, woodwinds, HD TV plasma backdrops, (it's coming). I'm no different than any of those people.

The truth is that everything that you love about the activity now, will soon be changed and maybe you'll like it, but I think a part of you will always long for the way it was done when you marched.

The drum and bugle corps, I miss was in the 1970s. It's when I marched. You'll also miss the style you marched and maybe you'll rail a bit against the current styles, as I and many others do. Maybe not...good for you, then.

Maybe, you'll understand a little of this sadness and longing for the good old days, when the bloom has fallen from your rose.

May you live so long, not to have regrets, but to remember, with great fondness, all the things you have done and to share and relive them with your friends and family.

Edited September 24, 2007 by Martybucs

[Martybucs]

you obviously still have a problem with them nonetheless.

i've asked this before, how many drum corps people work with marching bands? many do. not just today. not just in recent years either. my first guard instructor in marching band was a Garfield Cadet. 1981. if anything the drum corps people took over marching band and improved it DRASTICALLY from what it used to be. now it suddenly is a problem?

drum corps has constantly been evolving since it began. if the internet was around i'm sure some guys who marched in the 1940's would have been saying how much the hippies in the 60's destroyed it from what they had back when it was "real".

yes things do change. sometimes for the better.

I don't have a problem with people in band and again, I'm sorry I used the term "band geeks" it was a moment of searing, intense passion...or I didn't really mean it. You choose.

I get caught up in the fusing of band and corps and as you can tell, I don't care for it, but it's nothing personal against anybody, except George Hopkins! I'm kidding.

I was there in the 60s and 70s and there wasn't much griping or complaining about newfangled drum corps because it really didn't start changing drastically until DCI took over and DCA started playing catch up. There were changes in the late 70s that riled up some people, but it wasn't until the mid to late eighties that people started seeing the blurring of lines between corps and band that things became controversial.

Off the field, there was much complaining of kids behavior and I guess thinking back, they had some cause for concern.

I agree, that in the mid seventies as drum corps people started becoming teachers and taking over school bands the switch was on, but one would have thought that there'd be limits. Now, the increasing number of teachers and instructors are of a band>corps>band and corps base and the lines have started blurring to the point that essentially you have brass bands and soon you will have woodwinds and brass and anything goes shows.

Sort of a poorman's version of a Super Bowl extravaganza.

Some changes are indeed for the better...some changes, are not. I guess it depends on your perspective.

i.e. I hate all the new housing and development on farmland and the increase in traffic in Southeastern PA.

Developers call it progress.

[atlvalet]

drum corps has constantly been evolving since it began. if the internet was around i'm sure some guys who marched in the 1940's would have been saying how much the hippies in the 60's destroyed it from what they had back when it was "real".

yes things do change. sometimes for the better.

Yes, however, drum corps has changed so much recently that even people who marched DCI in the '90s are saying WTF? Like me, for example.

Don't try and pigeonhole all the people who have a problem with DCI as old fogeys from the 1940's.

[Fran Haring]

Yes, however, drum corps has changed so much recently that even people who marched DCI in the '90s are saying WTF? Like me, for example.

Heh... a little while ago, a poster on the DCI Forums side of DCP referred to a year in the late 1990's as being "back in the day."

Suddenly, I felt like I was 100 years old. :P

Fran

[WayBackBuc]

So can all of the other ones you mention. There is no real need for those corps anymore...school music programs are a better place to focus.

Your the man!!! Home run!!!

[Martybucs]

Lest anyone think I while away my days drooling in a cup and reading and posting here, pining for the old days and old ways.

I just have an opinion on what constitutes drum and bugle corps and it really doesn't have so much to do with what key or how many valves an instrument has.

It has more to do with style. I just don't see what they do today as drum and bugle corps and I state as much.

Is it drum corps? Sure, why not? That's what everyone calls it and I'm OK with that.

Do I hate the shows of today and only love the old shows and old ways? Absolutely not. I would've hoped there could have been room for both bands and drum and bugle corps. Not to be...C'est la vie.

Now, as for this being the most competitive DCA season ever? Personally, I don't think so, but that's just me.

Edited September 24, 2007 by Martybucs

[rudi man]

Yes I also admit that I was out of line to about the band geek thing to say something like that was wrong ! But try and understand that back in the sixty's and seventy's band director's literally hated us kid's ! And the feeling was pretty mutual to say the least ! By us kid's I mean drum corps kid's .

[donincardona]

Alas, and forsooth...no.

You've perfectly summed up the worthlessness of my existence.

Actually, everyone knows that DCA and DCI are around because of the influx of band members, (I regret the use of the words "band geek"), however, they are participating in their own activity now. Not drum and bugle corps as it was intended to be in the beginning.

So yes, drum and bugle corps is gone. Yes, I miss it. Yes, I'm OK that today's youngsters and say, "older" participants are enjoying what they have created. I enjoy it also.

I'm just sad that what is today had to destroy the aspects and style of the activity that I used to enjoy as unique and apart from band.

There are people that are in their teens and 20s, 30s and older that are complaining about changes to the activity. Only, their complaints are about stuff that happened a short time ago or are just happening now, i.e. narration, amps, woodwinds, HD TV plasma backdrops, (it's coming). I'm no different than any of those people.

The truth is that everything that you love about the activity now, will soon be changed and maybe you'll like it, but I think a part of you will always long for the way it was done when you marched.

The drum and bugle corps, I miss was in the 1970s. It's when I marched. You'll also miss the style you marched and maybe you'll rail a bit against the current styles, as I and many others do. Maybe not...good for you, then.

Maybe, you'll understand a little of this sadness and longing for the good old days, when the bloom has fallen from your rose.

May you live so long, not to have regrets, but to remember, with great fondness, all the things you have done and to share and relive them with your friends and family.

so elegantly put. it's so true. in 1972 at syracuse i ran into an " old timer " who said that our corps was very good but that the corps from 1965 could beat us handily. he said things had changed to much. i laughed back then because i saw that 65 corps and didn't think they were as good as us and having marched fron 1967 did'nt think things changed much at all. it's all our perception of our time in corps. having said that i don't like the direction things have gone. i don't concider it real purist drum corps anymore.

[SkyKingBird]

So can all of the other ones you mention. There is no real need for those corps anymore...school music programs are a better place to focus.

With attitudes like your, Mike, Drum corps will die a quick death. High School bands are just that....Bands!!! For as far back as you go in this activity, it would seem that you would have some perception as to what has become of our great activity. If the instruments can't "speak for themselves" without amps and other assorted garbage, they shouldn't be on the filed. Don't you think that it's a little curious that DCI, for all it's greatness and awe inspiring appeal can only draw 25 or so corps, while the "Old Guard" DCA had 22 corps for theirChampionships this year?? Pull your head out of the sand, woodwinds and saxophones and flutes don't belong in Drum Corps, and that goes triple for Amplifiers and voiceovers.

[Mickk3]

I miss the good 'ol days.