MikeD Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 To emphasize: Hopkins feels the older audience, who might be opposed to electronics, is shrinking, and that their desires should be set aside in favor a a younger audience that desires electronics -- he is clearly connecting audience size to use of electronics. You keep trying to tie all this to one thing, electronics. Hoppy did NOT say any such thing, so no he is not doing this at all. He speaks of making all sorts of changes to attract the audience he believes should be the target, but no, he did not tunnel-vision his position to the use of electronics. You're stretching waaaay beyond what he said, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Um, I took the quote from Hopkins's "electronics" rule proposal -- it was part of his justification for that change. He said no such thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywhopper Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Stylistically, drum corps and marching band are merging. I remember this being the case back in the early 90s. The best marching bands I saw back then looked a lot like drum corps. Broken Arrow, OK; Greenville, MS. My impression has always been that marching bands looked to drum corps for aspiration. In my high school, we were doing body movement and pods and streamers and lots of what was then new innovations in drum corps. We weren't doing them all that well, but we were trying. We also marched tubas instead of sousaphones. This was 20 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywhopper Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 You keep trying to tie all this to one thing, electronics. Hoppy did NOT say any such thing, so no he is not doing this at all. He speaks of making all sorts of changes to attract the audience he believes should be the target, but no, he did not tunnel-vision his position to the use of electronics. You're stretching waaaay beyond what he said, IMO. Did you read the rules proposal? He explicitly said, our future audience is young people. Young people love electronics. Electronics will appeal to young people, who are the only place to grow our audience. There isn't a sentence that says "electronics = more BITS" but he came as close as is possible to doing so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Bells, xylophones and timpani were present in the activity before DCI was, part of the "drum" section. Never heard of a xylophone pre-DCI. And, the VFW made any corps using bells remove them at Nats (69 BAC in Philly, e.g.). I have heard bells (my guess is glockenspiels, just a guess) were around in the past, but not in any corps I saw starting in 64, until 69 BAC's great show. Their amazing percussion show at Nats in Philly was destroyed by removing the bells. I saw them a bunch during 1969, and I attended 69 VFW Finals as an audience member, so I saw the great and the not-so-great. BTW...the pre-web equivalent to DCP...Drum Corps News, had at least one letter to the editor when the contra was added bemoaning the fact and claiming that drum corps was turning into band, and that was around 1961. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 practically every change they have made in the last decade has been a crutch...Bb amps mikes synths No more than adding the first valve, then the rotary, then2-valves, then three....adding multi-drums, then timpani, then mallets, etc...why not go back to 1955? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Oh I get it. you don't seem to, nor do they. Apparently you don't, otherwise you wouldn't keep trying to tie unrelated things together as if they are cause and effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 They even march contrabasses, not Sousaphones. Imagine being a 14-year-old kid, fresh from middle school, and being told you have to march a contrabass on your back! Better do some push-ups! Apparently, this is increasingly the trend in HS bands. Um...there have been contra-style marching tubas around since the mid 70's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Did you read the rules proposal? He explicitly said, our future audience is young people. Young people love electronics. Electronics will appeal to young people, who are the only place to grow our audience. There isn't a sentence that says "electronics = more BITS" but he came as close as is possible to doing so. He did say young people are the future audience, but he spoke in broad terms about making drum corps relevant and attractive to these people. He in no way tied himself to any single thing as you seem to be trying to say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barifonium Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Too true. Watch the videos of last year's Bands of America Finals - also in LOS. Look at the show for Avon HS from Indiana, who won BOA Nationals last year. It looks like a drum corps show. The drill looks nearly identical to contemporary drum corps drill, complete with asymmetric forms that look like something that Zingali would have designed. They do a "wave" manuever, at the start of their show, that is almost identical to one that Star did, in the middle of the Barber/Bartok show. (They are from Indiana, so no wonder that they base their style on Star of Indiana.) They even march contrabasses, not Sousaphones. Imagine being a 14-year-old kid, fresh from middle school, and being told you have to march a contrabass on your back! Better do some push-ups! Apparently, this is increasingly the trend in HS bands. Don't get me wrong - it is not a drum corps show. You can audibly hear the woodwinds in their show. The guard routines are nowhere near as demanding. And the marching quality is not as good: you can spot plenty of ticks. But stylistically, marching band and drum corps have almost entirely. If drum corps does adopt woodwinds, then the assimilation will be complete..... Stylistically, drum corps and marching band are merging. But I seriously doubt that HS or even college bands will be able to perform at the same quality level as drum corps. Marching bands don't prepare 10 months, and practice 12 hours a day, to perform one final show in August. The quality levels will never be the same. Thankfully. ..and THUS was the reasoning behind my point in my rant against people who consistently bash marching bands on this forum. QFT but I DO have a question: why "thankfully?" Is it because it would mean that this activity could lose its "niche" activity status/would not be unique anymore? It seems DC(I)/(P) wants to have it's cake and eat it too: we want to remain unique and exceptional, but are trying to maintain that against an attempt in growth of relevance, in order to "survive" by looking at a product that has more widespread relevance and attempting to imitate it. 'What good is it for a man DCI to gain the whole band world, yet forfeit his its soul?'- Mark 8:36 metaphor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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