These are the glory years

[BRASSO]

Having followed the activity since the late 70's, I am convinced that

When somebody starts out with... " I am convinced that..."

Why present a contrary view ? The poster said " I am convinced ", didn't he ?

I'm convinced he's convinced. So I say.. time to move on to the next discussion !

[corpsband]

Agree with every point you made!! I too have a feeling that *many* of this year's shows are going to be memorable.

[sagnasty]

Man did you nail this one. I concur wholeheartadly. I marched late seventies, early eighties. I have two kids marching in two seperate world class corps'. If you compare our era with todays era there is no comparison. Visually, musically and physical demand today is far superior. My fear though is fan base. As the baby boomers age and disapeer the numbers are going to diminish from the fan perspective. There were literally hundreds of corps "back in the day" The corps members from that era are now the fans, volunteers and financial support of the activity today. With the number of active corps left the fan base will eventually get smaller over the years. I hope the drum corps activity will not be dying on the vine in 15-20 years. DCI needs to take a hard long look at this.

Look at it from the example of Medicare or social security. Baby boomers are going to suck these programs dry, Less income than outcome. Maybe this is not the greatest example but the gist is the same. It's a numbers game. The kids marching today are tomorrows fans and there will be alot less of them because there are alot less corps. Just food for thought.

[Piper]

It's all relative depending on what era someone marched in. For me it was the 70's, but someone who marched the 50's 60's 80's or 90's could just as easily claim the same thing.

[StarVoyager]

I've said it before and I say it to you now...... "You sir, are a steely-eyed missle man!"

You've seen Apollo 13 one too many times...........and so have I.

[Lance]

4. Expansion to 150....the greatest rule change ever! 70-80 person hornlines are now the norm. Or 40 plus in the guard. The hornlines are blowing me away. The visual package is stunning with the extra bodies and it creates a lot of expermintation in show concept and ideas.

5. The rise of Carolina Crown, the re-emergence of the Blue Stars and the Troopers comeback...

7. I'm starting to hum tunes once again after a show...thanks to talented horn arrangers in the activity. I am starting to pay more attention to who is arranging shows now, besides Wayne Downey. Key Poulan, JD Shaw and Micheal Kletch are favorites.

Still hate #4. The field looks like a big mess with that many people on it, even with the best staging.

Don't understand how #5 says anything about this being "glory years."

With regard to #7, I find the number of "whistle to the tune" shows consistent pretty much every years for the past 20 years....usually 4 or 5 in the top 12. I also prefer to enjoy the hornline itself rather than trying to figure out who arranged it. When I hear a show and instantly know who arranged it, chances are it's going to be trite.

Agree with most of the rest of your list. Thanks for the great post!

[chaos001]

I still listen to recordings of corps from '80 to about '97. Current shows? Not so much. Everything is too disjointed and cobbled together, with the rare exception. Not denying the talent, but in general the music has been bleh for about 12 years or so.

Seconded.

[Jeff Ream]

i agree with 1-3, 5-6 and 8 100%. I agree with 7 50%

[BRASSO]

Not sure I agree 100 percent with the OP.... but there are a lot of good points there.

I marched in a championship-winning corps on the DCA side, and for our era we were a great corps (Mike Davis can attest to that... we were one of his favorite DCA corps back then!).... but I can't even imagine doing what is being done now, an average, in DCI and DCA.

The bar has been raised quite a bit in recent years. I tip my hat to the staffs and performers for their efforts.

I think there is universal agreement... even among most of the Legacy fans.....that todays Corps have superior overall talent numbers and the shows have much more demand. The instrumentation is easier to use, there is better nutrition and better conditioning.( How many marchers in Corps today smoke unfiltered Lucky Strikes ? ). Are the shows overall more entertaining today than in previous years ? That depends on one's perspective. I think this is where there is greater disagreement among fans.

Edited June 10, 2010 by BRASSO

[perc2100]

It's all relative depending on what era someone marched in. For me it was the 70's, but someone who marched the 50's 60's 80's or 90's could just as easily claim the same thing.

They could, and to an extent we all tend to see our past with rose-colored lenses. Personally, I think I marched in DCI during it's darkest era (late 90's). It's pretty easy to look at random shows from each decade/era, and see that clearly the talent level and design difficulty increase substantially every era. Personal taste aside, I can't imagine anyone thinking that talent level, individual member simultaneous demand, and show difficulties is not great now than it was even ten-fifteen years ago (let alone the 80's or earlier).