Top Recruiting Corps and Auditions

[Phantombari1]

I want to find out what the DCP minds think is the number one reason for the top corps success in Audition attendees. It seems to me that the corps that consistantly place lower have music that isn't as accessable to the listening audience.

Looking back it seems to me that Recruiting and Audition numbers were determined by the previous years placement.

Today as I watch my corp (Phantom) I've noticed that the music that is choosen and the arrangement plays a significant role in Recruiting numbers.

I believe that if a corps that place lower or out of the top twelve makes better choices with the music and arrangements and consistantly executes that portion every year, the auditions numbers should go up and so should the placement year to year.

(IMO) the quality of the musicians and the leadership across all of drumcorp is outstanding boardering on parody, but I want to know what you think is the number one reason a corp has recruiting success...

1. Placement (including individual catagories)

2. Staff/Leadership

3. Music

4. History

What do you think?

[RBarron10]

I think you hit the nail on the head. I sell souvies for a drum corps and you'd be surprised how placement affects that business as well. Everyone wants to be part of a "winning" team, wheather you're wearing that corps T-shirt or want to audition for that corps. Just check out the avaitars here on this site, SCV hopefull, or Crown 2009, etc etc.

[Piper]

History might have something to do with it. The Troopers are a good example. They went inactive in '06 and bounced back in '07 because they're a Drum Corps version of the NY Yankees or Dallas Cowboys.......everybody knows who they are.

[ouooga]

Honestly, I feel that one of the biggest things deciding corps numbers these days is the internet. No, not just in the traditional ways like e-newsletters and websites, but mostly from streaming video/discussion boards/file sharing. These things are allowing people to connect and express opinions very differently then they used to.

I see this example primary with the Cavaliers. Don't get me wrong, I think the Cavaliers have worked incredibly hard to achieve what they have, especially in the last ten years, but to me the number one reason the Cavaliers have had such huge turnouts over the last few years at their audition camps, and as a result have had so much success, is the fact that when KaZaA and Morpheus were first out, if you looked up "DCI" or "Drum Corps" the video that came up the most often was Niagara Falls. That was the first drum corps video I ever downloaded, and for anyone in my high school marching band or anyone that I knew that was marching back then, they had seen Niagara Falls because it was so easy to obtain.

Now obviously since then things have changed and you can find almost any drum corps on youtube (which I in no way promote!), but especially six years ago, this was a HUGE deal! In fact, I remember having a drum corps collection of videos in 2003 that I had downloaded, and aside from a few non-championship Blue Devils videos, the Pirates of Lake Mendota, and a whole lot of clips (like those ones that DCI used to have avaliable on DCI.org of the 97 season), I had three Cavaliers championships that everyone one of my friends had seen. It's a huge push to their success in the last few years IMO.

So that, to me, is a huge part of getting people to audition! The podcasts all of these corps are doing now is a great thing!

[liebot]

I think the number one factor is the past year's show and how much it appeals to John Q. Bando.

[josh161]

among the world class corps i think you will find it has alot more to do with the history of the corps, like the example about pioneer. music is obviously a factor, but msot people go out for audition saying "i want to march phantom or southwind no matter what happens". so they do. i think you will find when you get into open class and the lower level world class its a little more personable. people care a little more who teh staff are and teh people around them. sorry botu the typos... too lazy to fix em

[TerriTroop]

History might have something to do with it. The Troopers are a good example. They went inactive in '06 and bounced back in '07 because they're a Drum Corps version of the NY Yankees or Dallas Cowboys.......everybody knows who they are.

There's some truth to that, but those names can also have a backlash.

I'd have to say that the staff had a major impact on Troop's 2007 recruitment. They were passionate about making 2007 successful, and they made it happen. That energy is carrying into the coming season, and then some. December camps are just about 24 hours away!

[CuriousMe]

I think another aspect that affects recruitment is where a band member's instructors' marched. I know of plenty of kids who want to march XYZ corps because their band director/marching instructor marched there. They learn about the history of the coprs that way and it's even possible that their band style might be direived from the director's alumni corps.

[Phantombari1]

I don't think history plays a much a part in the corps placing below 7th place on down with only a few exceptions (Madison). Maybe others can speak from their experience but I recall the Crossmen shows were they had great music and recruiting numbers went up the following year, then the next year the music wasn't as good and recruiting numbers went down. Only the elite corps can pull off or get away with subpar music (IMO) but if they didn't follow up the next year with great music their numbers would drop off and continue to slide. I believe the music has a ripple effect on the entire program, especially for the corps near or below the cut off.

[gottalovit]

I think placement is one of the biggest factors. I would bet the top 5 placing corps each year, are probably 5 of the top 6 in terms of recruitment, just from what I have read on auditionees here on the various topics, and from what I have heard from friends auditioning on the numbers.

I would almost bet Blue Devils, Cadets and Cavies have the 3 highest numbers on auditions. And if you look at the history of these corps, you can understand why. Between them they have captured, or tied for the championship every year since 1992. And if you add in SCV, these 4 corps have won or tied for the championship every year, except for 4. 72, 75, 88, and 91 are the only years these 4 corps haven't hadn't a piece of the championship.

The number I would love to see would be the number of kids auditioning for a non top 6 corps, that actually auditioned for that corps first, as opposed to the number of kids auditioning for a non top 6 corps that were cut from another corps already.

I think more of the numbers is a result of wanting to perform with the best, rather than the musical selections. One nice thing however now is that I think the term best is now starting to include corps like Bluecoats, Crown, and Blue Knights.