Is THIS the "Golden Age"?

[BRASSO]

The poster Geneva 's comments on this page captured the differences well, I thought. As for the OP's question as to whether or not this is " the Golden Age ", this is probably based upon one's perspective and experiences, and with no right nor wrong answer. I certainly hope this is not " the Twilight Age " of the activity. It will be up to the younger generation to pick up the torch and carry it high or let the flame burn out.

Edited July 8, 2009 by BRASSO

[lindap]

The poster Geneva 's comments on this page captured the differences well, I thought. As for the OP's question as to whether or not this is " the Golden Age ", this is probably based upon one's perspective and experiences, and with no right nor wrong answer. I certainly hope this is not " the Twilight Age " of the activity. It will be up to the younger generation to pick up the torch and carry it high or let the flame burn out.

The music world has Golden Age followed by the Platinum Age?

The generation bridge has and can be gapped by modern technology.

There's a Golden Era in every decade, 2 eras I was there, 2 eras I was not.

No right nor wrong answer? agreed; younger and older generation drum corps people

Can work together; it's a niche that strived/strives to be better than the best with words that cannot describe

imo

[supersop]

while the cost of paying to keep up with the big boys definitely hurt, it isnt the sole reason many corps went out of business.

QUOTE (supersop @ Jul 1 2009, 10:20 PM) *

It's fine to prefer that, but what you've seen is a paradigm shift. No longer are the multitudes of "lower" corps teaching kids off the street how to play a horn or march, or possibly prepping them for the "higher" corps. It's now being done by mostly band directors in the school systems who, GUESS WHAT, learned in those "lower" corps, marched in DCI and/or taught.

We've robbed Peter to pay Paul. I would think the fan$ would enjoy seeing corps who are up and coming, learned the hard way, not superb but better than high school marching band and they may be smaller but turn out higher quality players with phatter chops. What you have now are well trained high school kids taught by old DCI vets and in doing so, those teachers are retaining more kids in the summer for their own fall training at school.

Corps who folded like Magic or any other on the long list of the NOT FORGOTTEN .... was mostly due to the DCI machine. First tour regional circuits were killed ....... travel was longer, expenses higher, stress greater ..... bye bye home town corps. Making close to a million dollars every year for a non profit is entirely not easy. You can't charge corps who folded with the blame of being unable to run their organization. The game changed and it killed 90% of the corps in existence over time.

My opinion, I think it blowz. I'm all for having great marching bands in the fall. I'm all for the corps who survive being able to maintain financial viability and not dying off after 2 years out of the gate. But I think people fail to see how it has hurt the broader spectrum of the activity. All we have now are elitist corps and fan$ (for the most part). "How dare they make me pay $40 to sit through a show by some upstart corps who isn't capable of winning a title in the next years". You might not say it out loud, but your post screams it.

I think my fav shows of all time were from small corps back in the mid 80's. They were the innovators. They were very good. They just weren't big. Case in point: 1986 Boston Crusaders or even the corps I marched in before I went top 12. DCI and the newer fan$ have sold a legacy for a business plan.

That only adds 75% more suck in my book

Back on topic, I think there has been more than one Golden Age of drumcorps. I think there was a VFW/AL golden age and a DCI golden age that has long passed. I'm sure at some point, DCI will no longer be DCI because the instrumentation no longer meets the definition of a drum and bugle corps. It hasn't since 2000. When that happens there will be a WhateverCorpsInternational Golden Age that we can all talk about then.

For me it was the Mid 80s up to 93 as it pertains to DCI. I wasn't alive during the VFW fullscale days so I have no clue when that Golden age was, but I image it was the latter half of the 60's.

WOW, out of that entire post that's the only thing you got out of it?

[morganhill]

I don't think the present can be considered a "Golden Age" particularly when:

-- every year sees the loss of yet another corps

-- the competitive season grows shorter

-- the number of shows continues to decline

-- we move farther and farther from the traditions of the activity

Certainly, to those currently on the field and to most younger fans, there's no time like the present. But, when viewed from a broader historical perspective I would not consider this a "Golden Age."

In agreement with this post 100%! I couldn't not have said it better. Bravo to the poster!

[rayfallon]

And yes, Mike D, the HS band programs are now delivering this opportunity for far more kids than in my day, but it doesn't reach many of the kids that drum corps once did.

I will respectfully take issue with this statement which is accepted regularly as truth, but with which I disagree.

I think that HS bands offer an opportunity for an activity that has many similarities to the drum corps experience, but should not be confused as offering the same experience.

Drum corps, in any age, is a unique experience that differs in many substantive ways from the HS marching band experience. To explore those differences, I think, would be another thread.

The fact that it is offered as fact so often does not make it so.

[JimF-LowBari]

Well, who knows, maybe in 20 years we'll have a " high quality " 12 Corps in World Class, 6 will make it through Quarters, and 3 will go into the Finals to see who's the best in front of the one judge at an indoor ice hockey arena in Duluth, Minnesota in front of 800 screaming fans.

Sounds close to my prediction based on number of corps going down and costs going up. Idea is the surviving corps split into two or three groups that do the first half of the tour together to save costs. Then at the "big" mid-tour regional, the corps "shuffle the deck" and new sets of two or three groups finish the tour before DCI Champs.

DCI sets up all travel logisitics, etc, etc, etc....

[KemoLondon]

Back to On topic. In my mind this is NOT the "golden age" of drum corps. I would think that it was between 1965 and 1975 due to number of corps, number of contest, number of shows and fan attendence. While there has been no doubt MANY great corps and years since that time, corps has not been what it was. You can agree or disagree about any and all changes but drum corps golden age has passed. Corps ARE better from a technical level and certainly put on an overall more pleasing show than BITD but that's not the question. Radio had it's "golden age" in the 30s and 40s and TV the 50s. Drum Corps was the 60s and early 70s. Both radio and TV have advanced light years(FM, satillite, digital broadcasting, HD etc) since the hey days and exist today but people still look fondly back to "days of yore".

I make no distinction between old or new corps as which is better by saying the golden age is passed. I couldn't choose between either 65 Royal Airs or 89 Phantom as being better as both to me are fantastic corps/shows. But one mached at the height of drum corps and one didnt'. That's the only difference.