tubajoe Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 I thought this might be an interesting subject for conversation.They televise everything from sports to wrestling to to the most ridiculous talk shows imaginable. Jerry springer for instance.~rolls eyes~ Random FYI... occasionally on the Springer show they have a second line brass band... this is the BS Brass Band from Chicago -- which is founded and run by the tuba player Mike Hogg -- who is an alum of the Blue Devils and Blue Knights. ...so in a roundabout way.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomPeashey Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 (edited) while both DCI and DCA struggle to find a niche that will survive... we all flatter ourselves (the drum corps world) by thinking that any one person or any one (or 2) organization(s) was capable of changing society the way it has changed since the Viet Nam era. The diminishing number of corps and contests and the change from corps being a place for wayward kids and those in search of a healthy activity... to flourish in a disciplined arena were all the result of the growth of the "communications era"... The change is society and world wide... it took down the iron curtain... it caused the religious zealots to rebel as they saw our society infringing on there's - because they were unable to stop their people from seeing and coveting what the more modern world has... boom... 911... There is an old and true story that in the mid 1950's, the communists took films of the tenements of Harlem and showed those films to all their citizens as an example of the debauchery and misery that capitalism has wrought on the people of the United States... many, now point to that as the beginning of the end for Communism... Why? Because what the communist people saw was that the tenements were covered with TV antenna's and they correctly assumed that this meant that even the poorest of Americans had TV's - that new media that was only available to the elite in their country. Small things sometimes cause big changes... but the breakdown of the family... the divorce rate... the cost of education... and a hundred similar things all contributed to the changes in society... and those changes were the REAL cause to the changes in drum corps... What key a bugle was in was definitely a "ho hum" in the world... a decision like that had virtually NO impact on the total scheme of things... Now when fewer of us were willing to run non profit youth organizations because the cost of insurance became totally prohibitive or when the volunteer (and paid) youth leaders (yes .. instructors) had to sign extensive waivers pertaining to their sex lives so the corps could get insurance or when drugs were now far more complicated than just a few having shared a joint after rehearsal... Those types of realities killed many corps... And let's not forget what this society has done to the public... those we count on to pay to go to a show ... so sponsors survive... no sponsors, no shows, no drum corps as we know it... The entertainment media fighting for the few hours of time and the few dollars of discretionary money that people have is immense... we should be thankful that anyone is willing to come... Fortunately... I believe corps is surviving because of the dedication of a few who still insist on promoting the activity despite tremendous roadblocks... To sum it up... get over it folks... societal change is way beyond me, you, George Hopkins, Dan Acheson or Gil Silva. Stop trying to find an individual to blame and go out and do whatever you can to help whatever corps you have the most affection for... volunteer, donate, march... whatever but do something other than complain about some small technical issue that 99 out of 100 people in the audience don't even understand... Just put everything in perspective... keep a level head on and support your favorite corps any way you can. Edited January 28, 2008 by TomPeashey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannyboy Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 Wow. Nice posts folks! I think this is the first DCP string I have ever printed out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cin4057 Posted January 29, 2008 Author Share Posted January 29, 2008 Amplification My father is rolling over in his grave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffe77 Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 Someone may have mentioned this already....I think a lot has to do with familiarity of music/show. It seems that the music and shows used to be more approachable. I love Star 93, but it seems that since 94, corps have design the show to be more abstract, taking a cue from Star's show. This was because the way shows were judged changed in 94. Perhaps this can be remedied by adding a judging component to judge the showmanship or approachability of a particular show. This begs the question, what is the GE caption really looking at? Is this to the benefit of the activity or the nature of competition? Should there be a balance? For example, after the NHL strike, NHL made some big changes to the game in order to bring in more fans. Baseball added the wild card to garner more interest. Perhaps Mr Hopkins has that intent with his copious amount of rule proposals or maybe DCI should examine why rules should be altered and changed, to benefit the activity (popularity) or benefit the nature of competition? Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LegalEagle50 Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 ok i know the young ones will bash me but this is why. back in the day drum corps played music that was very loud and rousing. it got people excited. drum corps flourished when the country was patriotic. the country is not today . we played patriotic music. they don't today. i'm not a young one. i'm 40 and i disagree with you. the country is still patriotic today. just in a different sense than the country was in the 50's. in the 50's you had the "threat of communism" and the nuclear scare being forced down Americans' throats. the rah rah patriotism that was being expressed wasn't one of choice but one of fear for a change in the way of life they knew. as that false sense of patriotism relates to drum corps, the corps then, by the rules of the time, were forced to play patriotic music. i'd rather hear a corps play those songs because they want to than having it forced upon them. and lastly, because the corps played those patriotic songs then, i don't think that is what made them popular. not any more so than a trained seal claps when its trainer blows a whistle. yes you may not like the analogy that people stand and salute and clap when the American flag comes marching down the 50 yard line, but it is a fair analogy. yes people did stand during those patriotic tunes, but did they do it because they wanted to? because they loved those songs? or because they felt they had to? creating an audience of robots IMO is deceiving. if those patriotic songs were so popular, so loved, why aren't they still being played today now that the rules do not require them? [flame suit on ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaraNYC Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 Someone may have mentioned this already....I think a lot has to do with familiarity of music/show. It seems that the music and shows used to be more approachable. I love Star 93, but it seems that since 94, corps have design the show to be more abstract, taking a cue from Star's show. This was because the way shows were judged changed in 94. Perhaps this can be remedied by adding a judging component to judge the showmanship or approachability of a particular show. This begs the question, what is the GE caption really looking at? Is this to the benefit of the activity or the nature of competition? Should there be a balance? For example, after the NHL strike, NHL made some big changes to the game in order to bring in more fans. Baseball added the wild card to garner more interest. Perhaps Mr Hopkins has that intent with his copious amount of rule proposals or maybe DCI should examine why rules should be altered and changed, to benefit the activity (popularity) or benefit the nature of competition? Just a thought. Judging changes have been driving show design for longer than that. One of the reasons DCI was formed was to get away from some of the judging standards of the AL/VFW/CYO organizations to allow for more creativity in show designs. The move away from the tick system in the early eighties was IMO when drum corps started the move away from a "popular" show design to an "art form". (I compare it to the evolution of jazz from a popular music to an art form in the 1940/50's) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fastone Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 (edited) Hey Liz, Happy\Sorry to inform you, you are a young one, hold on to that as long as you can (lol) . I agree with a lot of what you said but the fact is that there was no false sense of patriotism that made people stand up and cheer during those patriotic displays , it was the sheer design of what was being presented and yes for the most part they did love those songs Imo. Over the years since the AL and VFW lost their influence, corps have done patriotic shows with varying degrees of success with the more successful being called out for being cheezy. Drum corps popularity has always been relegated to the people who knew about it, I personally don't think the music has that much to do with it. I think Tom Peasheys' post hit the nail on the head, it's 2008, everything is different. Edited January 30, 2008 by Fastone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LegalEagle50 Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 well Frank i'll take a compliment from you calling me young any day. see you soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brassomaniac Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 i'm not a young one. i'm 40 and i disagree with you. the country is still patriotic today. just in a different sense than the country was in the 50's. in the 50's you had the "threat of communism" and the nuclear scare being forced down Americans' throats. the rah rah patriotism that was being expressed wasn't one of choice but one of fear for a change in the way of life they knew. as that false sense of patriotism relates to drum corps, the corps then, by the rules of the time, were forced to play patriotic music. i'd rather hear a corps play those songs because they want to than having it forced upon them. and lastly, because the corps played those patriotic songs then, i don't think that is what made them popular. not any more so than a trained seal claps when its trainer blows a whistle. yes you may not like the analogy that people stand and salute and clap when the American flag comes marching down the 50 yard line, but it is a fair analogy. yes people did stand during those patriotic tunes, but did they do it because they wanted to? because they loved those songs? or because they felt they had to? creating an audience of robots IMO is deceiving. if those patriotic songs were so popular, so loved, why aren't they still being played today now that the rules do not require them? [flame suit on ] We still play `em, Liz. America, the Beautiful and Battle Hymn were two very well received numbers for us last year (as well as our rich rendition of the National Anthem), in all sorts of performances..., patriotic and otherwise. I'm adding another; American Medly" this year. Of course, that's not in a competive arena. I still love to hear them, and it appears they are still good choices for the general public, IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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