Why is DCI so unknown by almost everyone?

[INSIDETHEFORTY]

Earlier this week at my work, we were asked what some of our favorite hobbies were. There were about 30ish of us in the room and as we went around the circle various answers were given like video games, football, basketball, running ect... It got to me and I said exercising and drum corps. Everyone looked at me with that "deer in the headlights" look and asked what drum corps was. They each said they had never heard of it and passed it off as some kind of "lame marching band thing".

Needless to say this saddened me to no end. I knew that drum corps was not very popular in america, but this kinda opened my eyes more to see just how little the activity is known. No one at my work (about 100 people) had ever even heard of the activity. It was so disheartening, to not only have all of these people not even know what the activity is, but then go on to say that it is just some "foot ball half time show lame thing".

I know DCI does not have loads of cash, and advertising is expensive but to me, DCI has changed my life and what I enjoy watching. Why does no one else even know about it? I feel that if more people could just be sat down and watch some of the best DCI shows in history they would become immediate fans and we would have more people coming to shows. More fans = more money. More money= more shows. More shows= More corps. Why doesnt DCI do more in the advertising department? Why is it still such a little known activity?! It seems that even swimming now is more understood and popular after the 2008 olympics than DCI is! (not dogging on swimming at all I love that sport) But this is just saddening.

What is up with this!?

I asked many of the same questions you ask last winter. I voiced concerns, offered suggestions and solicited input from other fans.

Change can be a very slow process. Unfortunately there are factions in the marching band community that are, very covertly, working to put drum corps out of the public eye completely. Many of the people in those factions have infiltrated the ranks of our corps and now hold key positions among them.

It is well known and documented that certain leaders within the marching band community want drum corps to die. They were unable to get rid of us directly in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Therefore, they changed tactics. They decided to put their people in charge of the corps and destroy the corps from within. They changed the touring model to make it very difficult to impossible for the average drum corps to survive. they got rid of the smaller circuits, one at a time, so that the corps would not have any support or help. Drum Coprps East, Drum corps Midwest, Drum Corps West, and many others fell under the pressure of the top corps. Check the history, the real history of DCI. I have been around since the beginning and have seen the things that have taken place. If you doubt me, check with Scott Stewart and some others who were "drummed out" of key positions in drum corps.

How many drum corps have died since DCI was started? What percentage of drum corps are still active?

Less than 10% of the corps that were active in 1972 are still active today!

The real question is: What is being done to save the corps we still have from extinction? How can we start and nurture new corps in today's economy? Why did we leave the support structure we had in the 50's and 60's? Was it really worth it?

Asking questions, for the good of all corps,

Ron Gunn

Edited October 4, 2010 by INSIDETHEFORTY

[dustyboo]

Well, I got what he was talking about though. Variation is great, because most people can tell the difference between corps by just listening to them, but he was also speaking to the consistency of corps shows back in the day, when a corps like 27th Lancers would do Danny Boy year in and year out. And I'm not sure if that's really what people want anymore, sorry.

People like to be able to relate to something, they want a group to have a certain style. How many people do you think would keep going to a Pink Floyd concert if one year they played classic Pink Floyd and the next year they decided to play easy listening? Fans love the songs they made popular and would go to concert after concert to hear some of the "classics" thrown in with new songs of the same style. Drum Corps used to be that way also.

[INSIDETHEFORTY]

Understanding and/or knowledge.

The masses dont know it and would not understand it anyways. Unless you have a music back ground, marched in school or knows someone who is involved in the activity, you just dont understand it nor do you give it a thought.

Go ahead, put it on at prime time on ESPN. See what the viewership numbers are. Pretty low. The general pubic just dosent care. But lest say DCI has a huge budget and can afford to market itself heavely. Still wouldnt get a ton of interest. The avarage person just dosent care nor do they understand the activity. Not do they care. The viewing public would not be able to tell you if BD was better then x-men or if the Cavies are better then Pioneer. It all really looks the same to the untrained eye. There is also not a lot of knowledge of the activity so the public dosent know and cant tell just how good many of the performers

are. To them its Marching Band.

When drum corps play music that is easily accessable to the general public, understanding is not an issue. Case in piont:

A few years back, I took my then 5 year old granddaughter to her first drum corps competition. She did not understand much of what she saw and heard. However, she LOVED it! It was difficult to get her away from the stadium after the cmpetition. She wanted more! She is hooked on drum corps!

Drum corps is not for everyone. It is for some who crave something different. It is also for some who have "acquired the taste" for drum corps. It is not for people who hate the types of music drum corps play. In order to attact more people to shows, drum corps have to play a wider range of music types! Most young people do not want to hear Bartok, nor do they want to hear what most drum corps play these days. they want to hear music they like! They don't care about being "educated" while at a drum corps competition! The public, like me, wants to be entertained, not educated!

Drum corps is in a lot of trouble financially. That's because they are concentrating too much on educating the people in the stands rather than entertaining us! Why spend 30, 40, 50 or more dollars on a ticket to be bored to death by the corps? I won't and I know that the overwhelming majority of people won't. If the show designers don't get their heads on straight and give the people the entertainment we pay for, then drum cerps will be completely dead within 10 years!

People will pay to be entertained by drum corps. We don't want to be educated! We want to be blown away, thrilled, and have chilles run up and down our spines! We want to go nuts when we see an awesome drill move or hear a superb musical piece that we can relate to!

I challenge the show designers! Many of the fans feel the same as I do. We all are shouting, "It's my drum corps, and I want it now"!

For all drum corps,

Ron Gunn

[JimF-LowBari]

they want to hear music they like! They don't care about being "educated" while at a drum corps competition! The public, like me, wants to be entertained, not educated!

Ka-ching.... IOW - yeppers....

Why spend 30, 40, 50 or more dollars on a ticket to be bored to death by the corps? I won't and I know that the overwhelming majority of people won't.

Why I walked away for ten years and not totally back yet. Why spend the money and time if there are more enjoyable things to do.

People will pay to be entertained by drum corps. We don't want to be educated! We want to be blown away, thrilled, and have chilles run up and down our spines! We want to go nuts when we see an awesome drill move or hear a superb musical piece that we can relate to!

LOL, my wife never did corps but enjoys music so much our stereo/radio gets more use than the TV. From her lay-persons music lover viewpoint she could give a rats hindquarter what corps is more talented, wins or has the most complicated show. From going to that "other circuits" (DCA) Finals weekend for the last few years she has her favorites in Open, Class A, Minis and Alumni. And only one of them has ever won their grouping.

[BrassClef]

This guy is a fan and member of DCI because of PBS.

[Gary Matczak]

Has a drum corps ever done anything by Baltimore-born composer Christopher Rouse?

We saw him several years ago in Baltimore... he had written a piece performed that day by the great percussionist Evelyn Glennie, backed up by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Really cool stuff!

according to corpsreps.com?,........................no.

[mgarside83]

Drum corps is very similar to marching band. To the mainstream public they are they same thing. This activity IS mainstream in that regard, everyone has heard of marching band, and has a perception of what that is.

My opinion is that what most people see, are half time football bands at high school football games. Most marching bands are not very good. Most people have seen bad marching bands and base their entire judgement of the activity on that. Sad as this may be, DCI will never be able to compete with the 1,000's of bad, non competitive, high school and even college marching band programs performing in front of thousands of football crowds every week.

I think the best way to go about changing this perception from the mainstream public, is for everyone with the knowledge and experience to help these bad marching band programs get good and start changing the marching band perception from the general public. Give back. That's what I do. I teach high school drumlines. From there, I educate the kids I teach on the activity, they become marching members of DCI or fans of DCI at the very least.

I am not an advocate for turing DCI into marching band, but I do think that promoting/teaching/supporting competitive high school marching band programs are the way to helping DCI at the grassroots level. When competitive high school marching band programs suffer, DCI is cut off at the heels. Kids in competitive marching bands see DCI as the "next level" If we want them to go on to the next level, or support the next level, we have to make sure they are having good experiences and learning how to be good performers at the bottom level so they understand it enough to appreciate it, and have the skills they need if they want to go to that next level.

I had the opportunity and knowledge given to me in high school to be able to go on to the next level. Thanks to a very hard working and motivated percussion instructor for my high school drumline. I learned about drum corps, I gained the skills necessary to go to the next level, and I did. Now I teach at the high school level to give back. I tell all of my lines I want them to play better than me, perform better than I did, and teach better than I do someday. If they do that, then I've done my job well. If they do that, then the activity has grown. Many of them are doing that now.

Point being, I don't think this is that hard of a problem to solve. If you have the ability and experience from being a member of a corps, and you care about the activity, then teach others and give back what was given to you. I don't know if DCI will ever be mainstream on its own, but the marching music activity as a whole is not in good shape, and it needs help from the bottom up. There are millions of kids in marching band programs, sure, numbers wise things are probably fine. I'm talking about quality. Having thousands of bad marching bands isn't helping the activity in any way. Especially when that's what the average population is seeing on a weekly basis.

[GUARDLING]

When drum corps play music that is easily accessable to the general public, understanding is not an issue. Case in piont:

A few years back, I took my then 5 year old granddaughter to her first drum corps competition. She did not understand much of what she saw and heard. However, she LOVED it! It was difficult to get her away from the stadium after the cmpetition. She wanted more! She is hooked on drum corps!

Drum corps is not for everyone. It is for some who crave something different. It is also for some who have "acquired the taste" for drum corps. It is not for people who hate the types of music drum corps play. In order to attact more people to shows, drum corps have to play a wider range of music types! Most young people do not want to hear Bartok, nor do they want to hear what most drum corps play these days. they want to hear music they like! They don't care about being "educated" while at a drum corps competition! The public, like me, wants to be entertained, not educated!

Drum corps is in a lot of trouble financially. That's because they are concentrating too much on educating the people in the stands rather than entertaining us! Why spend 30, 40, 50 or more dollars on a ticket to be bored to death by the corps? I won't and I know that the overwhelming majority of people won't. If the show designers don't get their heads on straight and give the people the entertainment we pay for, then drum cerps will be completely dead within 10 years!

People will pay to be entertained by drum corps. We don't want to be educated! We want to be blown away, thrilled, and have chilles run up and down our spines! We want to go nuts when we see an awesome drill move or hear a superb musical piece that we can relate to!

I challenge the show designers! Many of the fans feel the same as I do. We all are shouting, "It's my drum corps, and I want it now"!

For all drum corps,

Ron Gunn

I'm not saying I agree or disagree with you BUT Weren't you there this year?

Also I love how people justify their own statements Byt including the MARJORITY...lmao

[WOOHOO]

So true. I don't think we'll ever see the day where a Justin Beiber show or Lady GaGa show happens. If that does ever happen, I'm walking away.

I'm sure I'll get blasted for it, but I see no difference in musical value between this and Chuck Mangione and Earth, Wind & Fire. All of it is fun to listen to, but where's the lasting value?

[fsubone]

I'm sure I'll get blasted for it, but I see no difference in musical value between this and Chuck Mangione and Earth, Wind & Fire. All of it is fun to listen to, but where's the lasting value?

Well, Chuck Mangione and Earth, Wind & Fire can still draw in huge audiences after 30 years on the job. Give it a couple of years, and people probably won't remember Beiber or GaGa. Just my thought on it.