Stu Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 (edited) Many have people have posted that part of the demise of drum corps’ has been their attempts to homogenize with high school marching bands. Here is a different theory: What if the demise of drum corps’ has been partly caused by the high school marching bands over the years homogenizing with corps’? As high schools began emulating drum corps’ show design and competitive prowess their activity grew (both in quality and in extra due fees to be in the high school band). Broken Arrow and L.D. Bell now charge thousands of dollars to march, and if you took out woodwinds they could compete very well in DCI with the upper part of Open Class or the lower part of World Class. Moreover, by studying the history of the entire spectrum of the marching activity, one can see that as more bands joined BOA, or became more competitively active in other local/national competitions, more corps’ folded. That has to be more than coincidence. Now, open for discussion: Edited February 4, 2011 by Stu 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soccerguy315 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 how many bands are in BOA though? my impression is that it is a very tiny percentage of bands in the country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corpsband Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 (edited) Many have people have posted that part of the demise of drum corps’ has been their attempts to homogenize with high school marching bands. Here is a different theory: What if the demise of drum corps’ has been partly caused by the high school marching bands over the years homogenizing with corps’? As high schools began emulating drum corps’ show design and competitive prowess their activity grew (both in quality and in extra due fees to be in the high school band). Broken Arrow and L.D. Bell now charge thousands of dollars to march, and if you took out woodwinds they could compete very well in DCI with the upper part of Open Class or the lower part of World Class. Moreover, by studying the history of the entire spectrum of the marching activity, one can see that as more bands joined BOA more corps’ folded from DCI. That has to be more than coincidence. Now, open for discussion: IMO this is exactly the case (and why you'll never see drum corps return to the "glory" days of ubiquitous drum corps. People who complain about the "marching-band-inzation" of drum corps have it exactly backwards; in reality marching band has been "drum-corps-ized" and have effectively replaced those hundreds of local corps with 1000's of local HS "corps". Instead of denying this reality, drum corps today should focus on how to "fit" DCI corps into this landscape. It's all a matter of perspective. Once you have the courage to think of all those HS programs as local drum corps serving their local communities, the world is suddenly a very different place. The "activity" is flourishing as it never has and is reaching levels of excellence that early corps have never dreamed. Summer drum corps retains it's uniqueness -- HS "corps" in the Fall can never provide the member experience nor can it truly approach that level of excellence. Drum corps continues to provide it's unique approach to the activity. But denying the larger landscape and insisting that drum corps is isolated and separate from the rest of the marching arts experience IMO serves no good purpose. I think there maybe opportunities for more local corps in a very regionally-focused but the barriers to such a system are very high. In order to be attractive to local youth, such corps would need to provide an experience superior to high school programs. Financially that's going to be a real challenge. It's certainly not the "build it and they will come" scenario that many here seem to believe. The bigger challenge is solving the vicious cycle which current DCI Corps face: a model with ever-rising costs and apparently decreasing revenues. I don' t have the answer to that question but I'm sure that it involves the E-word (despite all the outrage that term seems to invoke). Ticket sales = revenue -- it's an irrefutable fact and corps need to face it squarely and very soon regardless of how it "offends" the "artistic" sensibilities of many. Edited February 4, 2011 by corpsband 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NR_Ohiobando Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Never liked BOA. Too much money and most of the shows I've seen are nightmares design-wise. I always feel like the shows in BOA want to be something great, but always fell short for me for one reason or another. It's like Madison's 2009 show except every band in BOA seems to have that problem... (sorry Madison, I love you guys but that show was hard to stomach) As per charging money... getting money to the music program is a challenge in a LOT of schools so I don't think you could just blame DCI for this. Schools have band programs that average 200+ members (some even 300+). My high school was around 300 members the whole time, and the school ONLY gave us money for busing to football games and competitions. There was a $25 fee for the class, and it helped pay for staff, music rights, and other stuff. But if you want to go to BOA I'd bet it's more expensive... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie1223 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 (edited) how many bands are in BOA though? my impression is that it is a very tiny percentage of bands in the country. It's sort of a vague question because to be "in" BOA is just to compete in one of their venues during the season. Some marching bands don't compete in their venues all the time (because of travel and locations) while some compete in their venues every year. So, it's really hard to get a number like that. But the idea is that any band can perform at a BOA venue. Even some of the consistent bands that make BOA finals don't compete in BOA every year. Edited February 4, 2011 by charlie1223 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie1223 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Moreover, by studying the history of the entire spectrum of the marching activity, one can see that as more bands joined BOA more corps’ folded from DCI. That has to be more than coincidence. Now, open for discussion: I don't know if that's true. how did you measure the "number of bands joining BOA" (what that even entails), but correlation does not mean causation. If this reverse homogenization is even legitimate then I would look more towards the instructors of drum corps. Maybe someone can clarify the history of the instructors in the 70's and 80's. But I imagine that they were involved with local drum corps when they were younger which is why drum corps stayed in a certain direction during that time. Now, directors, when they were younger, were more involved in marching band in their high school. Maybe they teach marching band or are involved with marching band during the fall, (marching band being an activity with hundreds of more children involved and much less strict set of rules.) So obviously the directors would become (somewhat) influenced by marching band than drum corps on the single idea that marching band is less limiting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted February 4, 2011 Author Share Posted February 4, 2011 Slight adjustment to the original premise: Instead of using the term BOA, as more high school bands began to emulate drum corps' by becoming more highly competitive (locally and nationally), as they began to increase in higher quality, and as they began to charge the very high prices in high school band fees, more and more corps' folded. And for posters who cannot see that there are way more highly competitive high school bands today with way more high school band contests around the country, and way less drum corps' with way less drum corps' contests, please open your eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted February 4, 2011 Author Share Posted February 4, 2011 There was a $25 fee for the class, and it helped pay for staff, music rights, and other stuff. But if you want to go to BOA I'd bet it's more expensive... Yes, to go a BOA Regional and BOA Grand Nationals costs way more than $25 class fee; Broken Arrow charges their students around $2000 each per year to be in their program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie1223 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Slight adjustment to the original premise: Instead of using the term BOA, as more high school bands began to emulate drum corps' by becoming more highly competitive (locally and nationally), as they began to increase in higher quality, and as they began to charge the very high prices in high school band fees, more and more corps' folded. And for posters who cannot see that there are way more highly competitive high school bands today with way more high school band contests around the country, and way less drum corps' with way less drum corps' contests, please open your eyes. So your saying that the local corps experience was replaced with the local high school marching band experience. I can definitely buy that. I think people who think drum corps can go back to that "local" model are kidding themselves. High-school marching bands will always have more support than the local corps, and essentially in today's age, they would be competing against each other. Especially since a lot marching bands nowadays start rehearsals in the summer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie1223 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Broken Arrow charges their students around $2000 each per year to be in their program. do you have a citation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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