Thoughts from the "other" fans

[sday88]

Taylor Hicks. . .bomb

Kat McPhee. . .bomb

Ruben Studdard. . .near bomb

Girl from 2 season ago. . .near bomb debut

Bo Bice . . .big bomb

On the flipside. . .artist the public voted off: Daughtry. . .wildly popular

AI has become a horrible example, imo, of how great people in masses do at choosing what is good, and even moreso, what will sell, and the concept the OP presented seems akin to this.

As in Clay? Sorry, had to do it. I know, different spelling, and pronunciation. Nevermind.

[drumkid]

Perhaps DCI should include one judge per show with no music background. Let them judge GE.

wow, i am going to say it: I love this.

paradox is we are judging GENERAL effect with very SPECIFIC criteria.

the only criterion for GE should be... well, GENERAL EFFECT.

which of course would be very subjective.

so yeah... open the phone lines.

and remember: there is GE and then there is actual general effect.

i.e. general dc audience opinion vs general public opinion.

[sday88]

Here's my take on what the "other" fans would think. If you were to grab 100 people off the street that meet the description in the OP and sit them in the audience of a drum corps show, this is my opinion of what they would like.

1) Drummers throwin' down

2) Brass blowin' their faces off

3) Guard doing crazy cool tosses, etc.

4) Entire corps visual package out the ying yang

I'd be willing to bet that about 75% of the people watching would need to see the above to even be interested. They want entertainment. Anything less than that, they'd be bored.

[SC_Band_Fan]

I remember seeing my first drum corp when I was 4. Yes, I remembered then at 4 years old because it was the Hawthorne Caballeros. Who wouldn't have remembered that?

Jump to elementary school. My mother made me take guitar lessons. That was the extend of my "formal" musical training.

Jump to high school where I was a member of our marching band's "drill team". Yes, I'm dating myself. Those were the days when the only flags carried on the field was by the girls who didn't learn their drill them drill well enough to perform that week. They stood with a 7 ft. wooden flag, just to mark points where the band should stop, turn, about face, or whatever.

Jump to college where I learned what a "real" color guard was, and re-discovered drum corps in Birmingham 1979. Was already too old to march corps, but been a fan ever since. Also worked with high school guards in my time. But that's the extent of my actual experience.

Does that mean I can't recognize good brass, good percussion, good visuals, good ensembles when I see/hear them? I sure hope not. Learned a LOT about music though drum corps without ever playing a marching instrument. Learned a lot from other fans, from band directors, and from a good friend way before he became a DCI judge.

Passed the love of the activity to my daughter, who played in marching band, did guard for one year under the direction of the aforementioned friend/DCI judge, and worked with a guard of her own in college. She had way more musical experience than I did and I learned a lot about music from her too. She had many good friends in Carolina Crown, and would have loved to march with them, had she been able.

I've turned my husband into a pseudo-fan too. If you ever see a guy in the stands reading a book, that's him. He's not as into it as the rest of us, but he loves to listen to the music while he reads, and can certainly tell when someone has hit a less-than-perfect note (he says he has to read that page over again).

So I guess this qualifies me as on of those "other" fans?

[victorcoly]

Here's my take on what the "other" fans would think. If you were to grab 100 people off the street that meet the description in the OP and sit them in the audience of a drum corps show, this is my opinion of what they would like.

1) Drummers throwin' down

2) Brass blowin' their faces off

3) Guard doing crazy cool tosses, etc.

4) Entire corps visual package out the ying yang

I'd be willing to bet that about 75% of the people watching would need to see the above to even be interested. They want entertainment. Anything less than that, they'd be bored.

Mr. Day -- you are 4 for 4! The only unfortunate thing is that we don't see enough of #3 anymore!! And we need to HEAR more of #2.

[bawker]

Okay . . .so not many people like the idea of opening it up to the masses.

Stay with me here.

Since DCI likes the music education angle, what about . . .for regionals and finals . . .bringing in some big names in the music business and giving them a chance to write an article about what they saw for DCI.org and to guest judge in a general effect capacity?

Easy targets for this: Wynton Marsalis, Keith Lockhart from the Boston Pops, Wendy Whelan from the NYC Ballet, Mark Scatterday from Eastman, Mike Daugherty @ UM and a ton of others.

This way you get some of the "outsider looking in" cred that some want, while still respecting the artistic nuance/ music education mantra for the other side of that argument.

What would some of the above folks think about drum corps? Might be interesting to find out.

[Grumpy]

Although my memory isn't quite as good as SC_Band_Fan, my first recollection of drum corps was in the early 60's, tagging along with my father and watching a local corps (long since departed) practice. That, and my dad playing the Fleetwood "1960 Hawthorne Caballeros" until the grooves in the album wore down to nothing. Where I lived, drum corps departed in the mid 60's and my school didn't have a band program. I next came into contact with drum corps in the mid 80's, when the local Fourth of July parade committee held a contest as a fund raiser. I was instantly hooked once again, and after another 10 years or so, I took the "big leap" and joined a local alumni corps that was looking to recruit members "no experience necessary" and I certainly fit that. I picked up my first drum at the young age of 33 and learned how to play, read music, march and that all those cool moves I saw corps doing on the field took countless HOURS to refine. I never knew anyone that marched and had zero musical training. Since then, I have spent more than I care to remember travelling to DCI Championships (this year will make it the 15th straight year I have gone), local shows and have more CD's and DVD's than I can keep track of. I recently took stock of my supply of drum corps shirts and realized I could go for three weeks wearing a drum corps shirt every day without wearing the same one twice. Every year at finals I always try to make sure that every corps' souvie stand gets at least a few bucks from me towards their "fuel fund". I support this activity because I know that every kid that marches will benefit from their experience later in life. All I would like in return is what I think the OP wants...GIVE ME A SHOW THAT ENTERTAINS ME!!!! BTW, IMO the '95 Madison Scouts (referred to earlier) were unbelievable...I didn't get a chance to see them until quarters, and after their performance I turned to the people I was with and asked "Fourth??? How could they possibly be FOURTH????" Lastly, my cat, who has since gone on to that big mouse farm in the sky, didn't share my enthusiasm for drum corps, but that could have had a lot more to do with the volume of what was being played as opposed to the content.

We don't need musical or corps background to appreciate GREAT SHOWS and the tremendous talent and work put in by ALL performers (whether we like what their show or not!!!!)

[keme127]

I must say I was looking forward to reading the string on this post. As a father of a crop member I have no music background but I know what I like and don't like. I am seriously disturbed that those of you who can't let anything pass without making a negative comment or putting someone down need to understand that people have differing opinions. This string started as a request for views of people like the original poster had to say about there impressions of DCI.

Thanks for ruining a good post.

[Nation of Bass]

Really what scares me about this whole "make DCI more for the casual fan" idea is that I don't want DCI to become casual. BTW, casual people often do NOT know what a good drum lick is. At my old high school, we could play any random crap and have people cheering like crazy, as long as it was loud and aggressive. If DCI became more casual, I believe it would be cheapened. Advertise DCI and make people have to appreciate it for what it is now. DO NOT cheapen it. Sorry if I offended anyone but I just love drum corps so much I don't want to see them change so your average citizen will buy a cd. Not worth it, at least not to me and hopefully not DCI.

[keme127]

Your point is well taken. I would be the first to say that I am not qualified to judge any aspect of DCI. I do know what I like and don't like and it doesn't follow with the judging often times.

I do think that the original post on this topic was to look for the input of those who do not have a background in music. A way to take in different perspectives and let those that have a background see it from their point of view.