Tonight I felt like an old timer!

[littlebirdy]

I feel similarly, but without the confusion.

If a corps came out (BD for sake of argument) and played a show like it was written in the 80s (my personal favorite decade) but with the visual sophistication that exists now, I would have the largest corpsgasm of my life. I throw the 80s and 90s CDs in my car and play them for hours.

However, I still enjoy today's shows. I can still get into about 75% of them, and still love going to live shows. THe activity won't lose me until they bring in electronic guitars to every corps (unless you got some prodigy out there and he/she didn't take over the whole show... just a feature). Til then, I'll continue to throw my money at all the Sovie booths and take my students with me to all the local shows.

[MikeD]

Aren't you a drummer from waaayyy back? I'm confused by you. Byline said I was confusing. Keep the brass, they're doing fine today! imo :-)

Yes, a percussion major who played sax for 6 years in HS, and also baritone horn for one of my three years with the Cadets.

[The Other Mike]

Yes, a percussion major who played sax for 6 years in HS, and also baritone horn for one of my three years with the Cadets.

Ahhhhhhhhh a SAX playing percussion major who went to high school for SIX years ?

Finally I'm starting to understand why you post the way you do.

Edited August 1, 2010 by The Other Mike

[gliderpilot]

Welcome to the club old timer.lol Many of us here on DCP saw this coming a long time ago and were given pretty much the same answer you got from Lance. Most of us have just checked out on drum corps because it's pretty much become marching band. It doesn't resemble what you did 25 years ago, what I did 40 years ago or even what the guys and gals years before us did. I think drum corps still had a connection to it's roots musically until about 1999-2003. But then things started changing and now it's a total disconnect. Oh they will try to tell you that it's still drum corps but we know it's not. Like you said the kids are still aspiring to be great and they get a cool experience touring the country, but that's about it. I was looking up old scores of the Blue Stars the other day on corpsreps.com and I saw where they placed around 300th or so in some years. Imagine that, at one time there were 300+ competing junior drum corps going to the championships. How many groups go these days 50?, 75? I like following the scores, but that's about it for me and many other old timers as well.

I see this a lot on DCP: people saying that drum corps is just turning into marching band because it is no longer like drum corps back in the day. I agree 100% that drum corps has evolved and will continue to evolve from and away from its roots. However, why does everyone just categorize it under "marching band". I marched a competitive high school marching band 4 years ago and attended numerous competitions. I've never seen a marching band show anything like the shows on the field tonight. I mean sure there are similarities like uniforms, music, instruments, colorguard, percussion (haha). But the musical and visual ideas expressed in these shows are so much more complex and intriguing. I think it's safer to say that drum corps is forever changing and will never revert back to its roots, which describes everything that happens in life. Nothing stays the same, it's always changing. I understand why it's easy just to categorize it into marching band if you don't understand it's new ideas. I think saying that drum corps has made a turn for the worse is just a euphemism for saying "Wow, drum corps has moved on without me and without backwards glance." It is a way of saying your feelings are hurt because it's as if what you appreciated or did in drum corps is meaningless. I'm sure in 15 years I will share that same nostalgia, but for better or worse, it is a fact of life.

[FlamMan]

All afternoon I've been looking forward to coming home and watching the top 8 drum corps in the world battle it out. From what I've been reading on dcp this is shaping up to be one of the best seasons ever for drum corp. Brought the projector home from work, plugged in the bose to the laptop and prepared for an evening of big, loud and live home style version. I even had my girlfriend, someone who has never seen a drum corp show, sit on the couch watching.

I have to admit for the first time in the 25 years I've been either participating or following this activity, I finally feel like one of those "old timers" who just dont get the direction of this activity. Im not talking about electronics, vocals, preshows, or any other of the rule changes that have taken place over the last 5 to 10 years. I dont see the diversity or passion written into the shows anymore. There is no question the kids in this activity are highly trained, extremely hard workers with a passion for perfection that many of our nations youth will never achieve.

There was not a single show tonight that grabbed me, threw me down in my seat and then made me jump up before the last notes screaming like a little school girl with goose bumps covering my entire body. Did anyone else notice the crowd reaction during the performances and after the last note? Yea!!!!!!! Great job kids, we can tell you're very talented and work very hard, my ### hurts so its time to stand up!

After the Blue Devils (actually every corp) final note, and seeing the look of utter confusion on my girlfriends face, I almost felt like I needed to appologize for wasting the last few hours. I then decided I needed to show her one of my favorite shows of all time. Without saying a word I played 1988 Santa Clara Vanguard. After the corps disapeared she leaned over and said "now that was something I could get excited about and would pay to see!" I then realized what's missing from todays activity. Diversity, Flow, Melodies and Passionately written shows! Im sure I'll be blasted by the younger generation for expressing my disatisfaction and that's fine, we all have a right to an opinion. It was just a sad realization this evening that for the first time in nearly 25 years I realized I am losing touch with an activity that has given me so much joy over the years.

Great post. You summed up my feelings perfectly. What I cant figure out is... everyone involved in the drum corps activity is aware of these criticisms. The powers that be in DCI surely must talk with people either formally in a fan focus group, or informally at shows, etc. They know that many fans have left the activity because of the ridiculous rules changes & current show designs. Personally I have disposable income that I could spend on drum corp...but I will not spend $50 for a ticket to have to sit through shows that make my head hurt like this years BD & SCV shows do, along with many others.

The Drum Corps activity needs a movement towards a more traditional, vintage & classic style of drum corps which will attract & allow more local kids to join corps.

Edited August 1, 2010 by FlamMan

[hughesmr]

When I read that I got a jolt...during the push in Tenderland at '84 Finals I somehow made eye contact with a middle aged gentleman a couple rows back from the front railing...he was standing along with a bunch of others. Anyway, clearly he was being moved by what he was hearing, then he & I made eye contact for several seconds at the point where the company front went from moving diagonally to forward. He then gasped and just went to pieces at that moment, holding his head in his hands and sobbing uncontrollably.

Must've been that whiplash drill move you guys were doing!

[N.E. Brigand]

I see this a lot on DCP: people saying that drum corps is just turning into marching band because it is no longer like drum corps back in the day. I agree 100% that drum corps has evolved and will continue to evolve from and away from its roots... I think it's safer to say that drum corps is forever changing and will never revert back to its roots, which describes everything that happens in life. Nothing stays the same, it's always changing.

The "roots" metaphor that keeps turning up in these discussions jogged my memory, and I sought out a passage, not about drum corps, but perhaps applicable here. Grist for both sides' mills in the one long paragraph, from which I've excerpted four sentencs of argument:

--"For those living in the days of its branching growth the Tree is the thing, for the history of a living thing is part of its life ... The wise may know it began with a seed, but it is vain to try and dig it up, for it no longer exists, and the virtue and powers that it had now reside in the Tree."

--"Very good, but in husbandry the authorities, the keepers of the Tree, must look after it, according to such wisdom as they possess, prune it, remove cankers, rid it of parasites, and so forth. (With trepidation, knowing how little their knowledge of growth is!)"

--"But they will certainly do harm, if they are obsessed with the desire of going back to the seed or even to the first youth of the plant when it was (as they imagine) pretty and unafflicted by evils."

--"The other motive (now so confused with the primitivist one, even in the mind of any one of the reformers): aggiornamento: bringing up to date: that has its own grave dangers, as has been apparent throughour history."

I leave it to others to decide who in DCI are the "vain", the "wise", the "reformers", and the "cankers"!

(Source: Letter #306, c. 1968, in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. The actual subject was the Catholic church.)

[skewerz]

+1 to that!

I agree with the OP that it's stale due to lack of melodies, flow, and passion - and not so much HOW we are experiencing it. Amps, Voice, etc are not the problem, the boring show designs are.

they are just a symptom. they allow different stuff...not better...just different. they were changes for change's sake, and not for any real improvement.

[Kamarag]

The Drum Corps activity needs a movement towards a more traditional, vintage & classic style of drum corps which will attract & allow more local kids to join corps.

If you think "vintage" drum corps is going to attract more local kids to join the nearest drum corps you are totally and completely deluded. Kids today have zero interest in "old time" drum corps beyond a passing curiosity. You show them a video from the 70's and they will laugh at it.

I've seen it over, and over again. Certainly, they can appreciate the hard work that went into old time corps, but there is absolutely no way they will want to perform those kinds of shows, let alone on restricted equipment. Heck, when I marched in the 80's I certainly appreciated the corps of the 60's and 70's, but there was no way I'd have wanted to do that...I wanted to do what was new and fresh.

You want to attract more kids? Play music that is relevant and interesting to them, not to someone who marched 35 years ago.

As for the "local" aspect, it's a totally separate issue. No corps I know of would turn down a local kid if they had the talent and the desire to make that particular corps.

Edited August 1, 2010 by Kamarag

[Opti-Burr]

Perhaps if you would read my post carefully before firing off a reactionary reply, you would have understood the following to be THREE different groups of people!

It would be impossible to satisfy you (the OP), the guys that want the 70's back (another group that wants something even more traditional) and today's audience (the vast majority of who goes to shows these days).

When people (lots of them, not just the OP) make statements like "There's NO passion in drum corps anymore" or "audiences don't react with enhusiasm anymore to ANY shows", etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. and on and on and on and on and on, I feel the need to point out that there are lots of people over 40 that still LOVE drum corps and still get goosebumps and still think that the corps are truly amazing.

From what I can see at the shows I go to, people are still showing up to watch. They cheer for the corps. The corps still amaze us time after time. IT IS STILL DRUM CORPS.

I think my post is pretty open minded. Maybe if I would have replace all the times I ued the word "YOU" with "ONE", you may not have thought I was talking only to the OP. His post has been seen here many times in different forms. My overall point is that longing for the good old days is a pointless endeavor. People have been doing it for all of drum orps history and things only continue to change. Whatever YOUR favorite era of drum corps happens to be, IT IS GONE FOREVER (unless it happens to always be "Tomorrow")

Sorry if I sound passionate about my opinion. Actually, no I'm not. Drum corps is a passionate activity that brings it out of me.

I thought that one of the big problems for the acticity is that attendance is way down, which is causing revenue to be way down as well. That being said, would it not be reasonable to note the reason might be that us "old timers", who are also baby boomers that represent a huge number, are staying away? Why are we staying away? We aren't being entertain as we once were. We are the customer here and we aren't getting what we want! If this activity really wants any chance to survive, they must bring the goods to a competition that a big mumber of potential fans would be willing to pay to see. I hear some people say that the activity must evolve, but the way I see it, it's like a catch 22 situation right now. The Corps insist on designing shows that please the judges, causing the older fan to be bored to death, thus not attending shows and causing DCI's revenue to crash. All it would take to get most of the fans back would be to play recognizable tunes...play what the people want and they will come. Look what it did for the auto makers when they weren't making a product that the people wanted. It just looks to me that that's the same route that Drum Corps is going.