Rules Congress

[Jeff Ream]

I said it earlier as did his Fastness. It's all in how you arrange the music. In this very thread we see two pieces of classical music talked about that aren't toe rappers to the average Joe: yet people cheered like mad for them!

And let's be honest; we have all seen tunes considered drum corps standards get the applause of a wet fart in church. There's more to drum corps music arranging than loud and screaming sops. My favorite DCA chart ever is Cabs 03 ballad.

And Tom thanks for the reply. I figured you had a plan, but your original explanation, IMO, came off as an applause meter kind of thing.

And it is fun to tell staffs when they are obnoxious

[Glen]

Ok, a rare diatribe by Glen Johnson follows ...

I dunno, I think the "homer" advantage might be a little overblown. People aren't going to sit on their hands for a fantastic show just because that corps isn't the home team. The Empire Statesmen got a lot more than golf applause at the Reading show last year.

There are a hell of lot of things competing for entertainment dollars these days. Netflix, the Internet, 700 cable tv channels, 3D movies, Xbox, Wii, Playstation, this MacBook, even your iPhone and your Droid... "Back in the day" in NY/NJ, when there were drum corps all over the place and thousands of fans at every show, there were a total of 7 TV channels available here, and none of the other stuff I mentioned. The crowd could easily be taken for granted. Now, we have to compete for it. We have to get people to CHOOSE to come to the drum corps show on Saturday instead of going to the movies or playing Halo or Rock Band 3 for a couple of hours. So, we have weighted the product even more heavily toward entertainment.

Getting fans in the stands and getting them to come back NEXT week, is far more important than impressing the other drum corps' staff with their "innovative and envelope pushing brilliance". Or whatever adjectives you'd like to use. If your corps produces a mind-numbingly incomprehensible show, Mr. & Mrs Sixpack will go "What the hell was that?" and sayonara. If you want to showcase your "innovative and envelope pushing brilliance", then the fans better ###### well get it, and like it.

I think we did a good job of driving the point home to all of our corps, that we are entertainers ABOVE ALL ELSE. If you do not entertain the audience, then why are you here? And this applies to ALL corps, great and small. If you have 20 horns, write your drill for 35, and play a book that needs 50, what on Earth do you think that is going to look and sound like on the field, and would YOU pay $20 to go see it? And moreover, would you pay another $20 next week to see it AGAIN? This is not rocket science or nuclear physics. Produce something people like, and they will buy it. And now we have developed a judging system that rewards it.

If a corps won the championship and there was nobody there to see it, does it matter?

Ok, I'm done :)

[Spartans87]

Couple quick things here:

1. I look forward to seeing how the changes affect the shows on the field, because I do believe the folks that made the changes are out for the best of the activity, and that includes us fans.

2. Liz - I love the pic under your signature. Very nice!

[LegalEagle50]

Thank you. It's bigger than I hoped tho.

[BIG BARI 3]

As far as appealing to a wide audience is concerned, although we are NOT a competing corps St Kevin's may have accomplished this. Please go to our web site http://www.stkevinemeraldknights.com/ and click on the media page. Then select America's Hometwn Celebration 2010 Plymouth MA.

Listen to the music, listen to the crowd reaction. After we played Shipping up to Boston we had young people in the crowd leaning over the railing to try and high five the bari line! This show appealed to a WIDE variety of people.

Perhaps the competing corps could do less theme and more fun to help keep our activity growing?

[LegalEagle50]

And then there are those of us who like themes....

[Dmlkmen]

Thanks for the explaination on the Class A discussions. To be more specific in my question- With the expansion of corps in Class A as we head into 2011, 2012, etc; Was there any discussion to increase the Finals slots in proportion to growth in the Division?

[A Cavalier TDY]

Not totally...the short version is this....

Captions judged on the field will be...

Brass - 10% of total score

Perc - 10% of total score

All others captions judged from press box...

Color Guard - 10% of total score

Music Ensemble - 10% of total score

Visual Ensemble - 10% of total score

Music Effect - 25% of total score

Visual Effect - 25% of total score

A great weekend for DCA in putting this new system through...more details to follow.

Thanks for explaining the breakdown. You did a MUCH better job than the DCAcorps.org site!

Jeff

[Golde]

I dunno, when pop music sounds like this:

I definitely think we have a lot to tap into on the top 40. You know, high quality stuff.

However, I suppose certain corps could play this and play it off as ironic.

I think Spirit of Golde will be using that as a walk-on drum cadence and off the field when we go into our next performance! DI-NO-SA-UR, That's ME! NoT! LOL!

[Golde]

Ok, a rare diatribe by Glen Johnson follows ...

I dunno, I think the "homer" advantage might be a little overblown. People aren't going to sit on their hands for a fantastic show just because that corps isn't the home team. The Empire Statesmen got a lot more than golf applause at the Reading show last year.

There are a hell of lot of things competing for entertainment dollars these days. Netflix, the Internet, 700 cable tv channels, 3D movies, Xbox, Wii, Playstation, this MacBook, even your iPhone and your Droid... "Back in the day" in NY/NJ, when there were drum corps all over the place and thousands of fans at every show, there were a total of 7 TV channels available here, and none of the other stuff I mentioned. The crowd could easily be taken for granted. Now, we have to compete for it. We have to get people to CHOOSE to come to the drum corps show on Saturday instead of going to the movies or playing Halo or Rock Band 3 for a couple of hours. So, we have weighted the product even more heavily toward entertainment.

Getting fans in the stands and getting them to come back NEXT week, is far more important than impressing the other drum corps' staff with their "innovative and envelope pushing brilliance". Or whatever adjectives you'd like to use. If your corps produces a mind-numbingly incomprehensible show, Mr. & Mrs Sixpack will go "What the hell was that?" and sayonara. If you want to showcase your "innovative and envelope pushing brilliance", then the fans better ###### well get it, and like it.

I think we did a good job of driving the point home to all of our corps, that we are entertainers ABOVE ALL ELSE. If you do not entertain the audience, then why are you here? And this applies to ALL corps, great and small. If you have 20 horns, write your drill for 35, and play a book that needs 50, what on Earth do you think that is going to look and sound like on the field, and would YOU pay $20 to go see it? And moreover, would you pay another $20 next week to see it AGAIN? This is not rocket science or nuclear physics. Produce something people like, and they will buy it. And now we have developed a judging system that rewards it.

If a corps won the championship and there was nobody there to see it, does it matter?

Ok, I'm done :)

Too Bad that you are done because no one can say it better! This is the way Drum Corps is going to survive, either DCI or DCA in this day's society! It is a shame that the choices have to be made, but then again to the "new breed" the age of technology demands it! Thats why we have these discussions in such a timely fashion for goodness sakes! LOL!