2000Cadet Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 1. Preformers mentality 2. Staff Issues 3. Costs 1. So many of those eligable to march DCI have bad mentality. They either think they arn't good enough or believe that it's only cool to march in top 12 corps. If they would give Open Class or bottom of World Class a chance, they might realize DCI isn't all about winning. Better Every Day Who in the upper World Class thinks it's all about winning? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skewerz Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Who in the upper World Class thinks it's all about winning? BD designers... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 (edited) The only new instrument in the above list is the addition of synths. Bb is just a key change to the horns, amps are instruments and vocals have been legal for a long time. So one new instrument is hardly make changes 'quickly'. I was talking about all types of changes Mike, not just instruments. You can throw in the style changes (aka chop and bop) too as that has helped turn off some people I know (including myself). Edited January 30, 2011 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 The 70's and 80's saw lots of progress in drum corps instrumentation. Percussion sections in 1971 and percussion in 1989 were VERY different with the initial use of timpani...later mallets...leading to the full pit by the end of the 80's. Horns went from single valve/rotor horns to 3-valve fully chromatic instruments in that same time-frame. Look at a color guard in 1971 and one in 1989...HUGE changes. Visually a show from 71 and one from 89 are like night and day. The 90's and 00's have continued that progression, which really started long before the 70's....all IMO of course. 70s/80s = greater use of tymps (still percussion) and bells (perc to some) and change to upright valves on the (still) horns 00s/10s = synths and whatever is to come with new instruments So adding non-horns/perc sounding making instruments is the same as changing the configuration of the horns and increasing use of perc equipment... totally disagree IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Losing fans is important, of course. I doubt anyone would disagree with that. But total season attendance is, IMO, the ONLY accurate way to measure the health of DCI. Only if DCI has the same number of shows in the same places year after year. If total attendance stays the same and shows are added then the average attendance went down. If the number of shows went down then avg attendance went up but... why the Hades did we lose shows. Gotta go into more detail to look for information that can be useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Many on DCP seem to feel that drum corps (the activity as a whole) is facing some serious problems (now and in the near future). What do you feel are the three largest challenges facing the drum corps activity today? 1) money 2) money 3) money Ssme as it ever was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glory Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 and yet, the most anachronistic activities in the world are the most popular. why is that? You're saying an increasingly anachronistic drum corps will be more popular than before? There is no reason to expect that. HH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 70s/80s = greater use of tymps (still percussion) and bells (perc to some) and change to upright valves on the (still) horns Mallets were not legal in my era. I understand they were in some areas before that, but in my era I saw BAC's 69 show decimated at VFW Nats in Philly when they had to drop the bells they had been using at local shows. Timps were new in 70. Auxiliary percussion was also not permitted in my era, pre-DCI. 00s/10s = synths and whatever is to come with new instruments That is the ONLY new instrument added in everything you have mentioned. So adding non-horns/perc sounding making instruments is the same as changing the configuration of the horns and increasing use of perc equipment... totally disagree IMO. Yes, we disagree. Totally. But that's OK. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glory Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 (edited) The ultimate straw man argument. One that can't possibly be proven. Like jobs created "or saved". Mysterious exogenous events would have made it worse without our heroic deeds. Please. Your strawman accusation is no more or less substantial than the assertion it purports to discredit. DCI faced many challenges in the past couple of years. The disdain of some fans for electronics was just one. The U.S. tumbled through what might have been ts worst economic retreat since the Great Depression over the past couple of years. And the Indy/Lucas experiment is about more than just amp impact. And let's not forget the unfair and unfavorable drumbeat of legacy fans, many of whom seem to prefer the disappearance of drum corps to seeing it change. Even if it were just electronics, staunching the exodus of fans just might be as important a goal/achievement as attracting new ones at certain moments on the timeline. Suggesting DCI has done so is part of the discussion and shouldn't be so easily dismissed as just a "strawman." HH Edited January 31, 2011 by glory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glory Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 So to survive in 2011 we must be more like modern music today? Care to explain what music or style of music that is? I didn't say (and dont' believe) that drum corps needs to play contemporary music. What I said is it can't freeze itself in time by not incorporating electronics into the repetoire. Drum corps' biggest problem is the growing gap between its obviously uncontemporary style and the modern music environment. Where we saw synthesizers as mysterious new gadgets (expensize ones at that), today's young people grow up with tone-bending power at their PCs, if not their smartphones. Electronics in music, including marching band, are convenient. It's also part of the musical language. We can't take that retrograde step. It would be the ultimate geek move. We would mark ourselves as more irrelevant than ever. And we all know how irrelevant we've been. As I said, it would be equivalent to mandating that the guard must be female or can't wear a uniform different from the rest of the corps. Those once made sense in the contemporary context. Banning electronics just wouldn't make sense to a generation that grew up with different possibilities. HH 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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