Your input needed

[BRASSO]

1969

Yes, there are no votes on here before then. Not that we could expect them to be voting here either.

[EllmerFUDD]

Yes, there are no votes on here before then. Not that we could expect them to be voting here either.

1) I agree the people that saw drum corps before 1970 is probably a small number of respondents

2) The creative/artistic growth started to increase in about 1970 and just continued to catch fire in the 80’s, 90’s and continues today

3) So far the poll results are about what I expected. I do think the numbers for 2006 – 2010 would be higher if we were not in season and current members were voting

[HOOKEDBYLEGEND78]

To me, the best example of artistic growth started around 82, primarily with what began happening at Garfield that year. I also look at the new CG uniforms that BD implemented in 81 as part of this, PR's 81 themed show (Spartacus, Part 1), Bridgemen's theatrical telling of WSS in 81, etc. But Garfield seemed to light a fire under all of this artistry with the staff and products starting in 82.

I see things as having peaked artistically in a musical sense no later than 1999, the last year of the G-bugles (because adding new horns and electronics does not seem to be artistic growth, but rather just using new tools that are available). Visually, the artistry was creative with the Cavies run up to 2006 - but not a lot of significant visual improvements since then.

So, given the choices on the poll, I split the difference and went with 1991-1995 - but could have easily gone with the periods just prior or just after. Even though Garfield was such a groundbreaker starting in the early 80's, the activity as a whole did not get the artistic fever throughout the Top 12 and beyond until a little later.

[Martin I. Zing]

I enjoy this question very much. Thank you for posting it.

To me --and I should tell you that it has been 40 years since I competed in drum corps-- I certainly recognize that there is a strong artistic component to the activity and I'm proud to say that I participated in it and that I understand it both in my own life and I see it in the practice of others who are attempting to create and communicate an idea or feeling through the music and performance of a modern drum and bugle corps.

I guess you could say that I get it. I want to think I always got it, but the truth is, I got it on different levels at different times depending on my own mindset, maturity and understanding of the artform and the world around me. But aren't we all like this? I guess what I'm asking is . . . what is art? And of course, that is a whole 'nother debate.

But what I find interesting about drum corps as an activity --and now I watch from the sidelines, and only occasionally --as in, I see a show ever couple of years or a stumble on to a website like this one, once in a while to see what is going on . . . . is that drum corps still needs to foster a sense of competitive scoring. I assume this is to somehow motivate the teens and their parents, along with staff, alumni, contributors, investors, sponsors, etc. --AM I RIGHT HERE? Correct me if I've missed something along the way.

So -- yet today, the point system plays an important role in the "business model?"

But in my soft memory (i.e., my heart) emotion is much more important. The emotional connection of drum corps to an audience is much stronger than any point/score result. 40 years later, I can't remember where my corps finished at any show, but I can close my eyes and still see a stadium of fans jumping to their feet to cheer the corps coming across the field.

It is the emotional buzz that drum corps is capable of providing that hooks all of us for a lifetime and in someways it is masked by discussion of "art" or by "competition". As I've grown older and far detached from the inner-workings of drum corps, I've had more time to think about it and I've come to the conclusion that the experience is neither art, nor a competition in the truest sense. Instead, it was and in some ways remains a search for that rush that comes from the audience/performer contact.

I saw Madison Scouts perform Saturday at the show in Minneapolis. They have the spark and the show to make that connection, at least with me. It was fun. Just like the old days, it brought a tear to my old tired eyes. And I could care less what they got for a score. Was it art? Probably not. BUT IT WAS A RUSH LIKE NO OTHER.