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Youre totally right

As for drum Corps changing. Personally I dont see as much change in Drum Corps as others do , I see more a change in the member and who the drum corps community serves now. TOTALLY DIFFERENT!!!!!

But as far as some changes in a very long history of the activity, WHY WOULDN'T IT CHANGE I ASK. Hasn't the world changed in almost every way? Why would drum corps be an exception. Ive heard some posters say " well it's the legacy fans who spend the money to come to shows not the kids , well that may be true but as legacy fans move on or hate to say die off ,if attention isn't paid to what the younger ones of today like or want to see and all we do is constantly revert back in all areas including some outdaeted shows which I might add will be successful for a while right now with many of the paying fans but soon wont due to the fact it may not be entertaing or the cup of tea current members want. Just a thought , but a necessary concern I believe and one that needs balance until the tides turn completley as they will like in everything.

Good golly, I rarely opine. um...Here's my response.

Personally I've been in an IT job or 33+ years. Change happens.

I'll accept that I'm a fossil but continue to learn something new every day.

Note to myself. Take out the garbage and find a DC show that we can go to in 2012 :-)

I agree with scottgordon. It's all about the music! Hey Scott, no worries. I'm out of denial. I'm a fossil too :confused:

edit: to stay on topic I'm guessing It is me may be me? To Keith Hall, that DM uniform in your closet may fit me, the one that may be my uniform? Keep it, it's yours :-) I've emailed you the 1 photo I have of your corps, I can't do any more. I'm done.

Edited by lindap
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Sadly, drum corps will never again be as good as it was in the 80s/early 90s.

All corps is today is glorified marching band.

Band uniforms

Band instruments

Unrecognizable music...

If Hopkins has his way woodwinds will be on the field in the next few years.

I consider myself extremely lucky I got to march corps from 86-90 and teach for several years after aging out.

After the 96 season I had finally had enough.

The Bb horns and electronics have finally driven me away for good.

I go to Regiment's home show every few years to see old friends but that's about it.

It amazes me how the current 80+ member horn lines can't produce anywhere near the volume or sound of much smaller horn lines back in the day.

I look back at the 87,89, and 90 seasons and EVERY show was fun, exciting, and you could hum the music afterwards.

Instead of lamenting what corps has become I prefer to pop in the old videos and enjoy.

I would much rather sit at home for the evening and watch finals from 89 than go to a live show in 2011.

Such is life.

thats funny cause alot of people from the 60s and 70s said the same about the 80s and 90s....lol......generational...how predictable

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thats funny cause alot of people from the 60s and 70s said the same about the 80s and 90s....lol......generational...how predictable

LOL I heard my first "That Ain't Drum Corps" in 1975.... Have a collection of recordings going back to 1950 and 1950s -> 1970s differences are huge just like 1970s -> today. But the main difference to me is DC got away from all acoustic.

Just double what Linda said for me except 31+ years in IT and I ain't female. :tongue:

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It's not just you, Keith!

I guess I miss the raw, kids-off-the-street, in your face drum corps. The kids today, if you can still call 19-22 year olds 'kids', are very polished musicians doing what they do very well. There just doesn't seem to be that 'edginess' to it and there doesn't seem to be as many of those 'goose-bump' moments that I loved BITD.

I guess it's just a matter of taste. They are very good today, but it's just not my cup of tea. So you are not alone.

Ray

ditto

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The nature of the complaints today is different, in my opinion. I too have heard the nostalgia bit ever since I got into DC in the mid-70s. People have always said: "I preferred when back in the day bla bla bla...". BUT, until recently it was always accompanied by the admission: "but there's really no comparison - it's better now." Since the inclusion of amplification and electronics, the "back in the day" stuff no longer seems about nostalgia... the vibe I hear from people who don't like the recent changes, is that as a result the shows are simply not as good.

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I share the same feelings that other dinosaurs are posting to a degree. There are so many tangents to the main thought though....

My buddies and I make a male bonding trip to Allentown every year - 17 years in a row this year (including the 2 Phillys. We do it to escape for a weekend - and Allentown is a great venue for old timers to congregate. We tailgate - and perhaps drink too much - but it becomes our home for the weekend.

That being said - we have seen the activity change a little bit year in and year out. Some of my old time friends - who have not seen a show since 1980 - HATE what drum corps has done. My reply is - drum corps does "police" itself, but does tend to push the envelope. (Remember all of the on field props - they disappeared after a year or two).

I guess I tolerate the change in show design, but what I do continue to support is the young people - who, just like me - want to please the fans. Heck - the kids have no say in their show design. They perform what they are told to do. If the staff screws up - the kids suffer via audience response - and now - blogs.

What does bother me, is the constant churning by one of the directors - the constant rules changes - the proposals to include band instruments. Of course - I see no other motive that for personal financial gain. It makes sense to that director to include a segment of kids (woodwinds) that otherwise do not participate. I would propose - to start a new division of marching bands to compete at the same events. If DCI feels that they have less touring corps, and need to bolster the gate receipts - then let the host add another segment.

Bottom line - I continue to support the activity because of the kids. When woodwinds are introduced (is it a mtter of time ???) - then they have lose me forever, and it will be their lo$$.

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I'll agree and wax philosophical for a moment.

Constraints are the measure by which one can compare performances. Entertainment is the byproduct of the competition for excellence and creativity. Competition requires boundaries by which to adjudicate and the genre requires constraints to define itself.

Some innovations do not upset these necessary constraints and are welcomed. Some proposed "innovations" break the constraints and disrupt the genre.

These are separate and distinct in theory, but in practice are equally proclaimed as subjective opinion.

That being said, I believe there are some who would willingly sacrifice the genre using misleading rationale and rhetoric to further their own agendas.

I also believe there are some who would rail against any innovation in the name of tradition. But, if I had to identify a greater evil to the activity, it would be the former.

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As long as I have a corps to root for on some personal level, I get excited about drum corps. I guess I will always be a homegirl at heart. This year, I still have a personal connection to Madison; two sons of some good friends of mine are in their second and third years of marching, respectively. But distance, expense and a few other factors have made it impossible for me to go to a show this summer, so I guess it's a "Fan Network" season for me, only. The interesting thing is that I'm not terribly upset about it (though I would love to see Madison in-person). I think I've hit that point I got to in the mid-'90s, when things got a bit too esoteric and uninteresting for me.

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I go to rehearsals once or twice a year. I haven't been to a show in 4 years. I just don't have that excitement to see it anymore for some reason. Would love to see the alumns at the show but I just haven't felt like going to a show.

I'm guess I'm a fossil as well. The electronics and such don't bother me that much. I know the hornlines are spectacular and the shows are complex. It just doesn't grab me like it used too.

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Wow! This, my mostly fossilized DCP compatriots, has turned out to be one of the most eloquent threads to read in many a moon. No rants, no bickering just clearly thought out discussion of the topic with understanding of the other writer's positions. Clearly we are all thinking of the many years we have all given to this activity and clearly (to varying degrees) are trying to adjust to all the changes. I said to a friend the other day on a completely different topic: "Oh heck! I just sounded like my Father!"

Is it you, Keith? No, brother, it is me and us and just like I embrace my lap top and my iPhone and all the technology that makes my life easier as a writer and producer I still wish I could open up the hood of my car and see that the tension belt needs tightening and then do it.

But I can't anymore.

And I can't understand for the life of me how or why we lost bit by bit, piece by piece the core of what made Drum Corps to me. Great sounding horn lines aside, nothing will ever replace the "snap, snap, snap" of 12 6 to 8 pound rifles being spun in unison during those brief moments of a drum solo or just before an entire cadre of a massive 35 horn front hits that final chorus of a song you know and didn't have to pay the rights to play.

The humanity lost when shows were the product of a single person's imagination and realized on the field with his corps over hours and days and months of rehearsals with teenagers whose lack of musical acumen was made up for by their enthusiasm and (dare I say it?!) esprit d corps.

Is it me? It's not me.

'Is it about the Kids?' as one writer put it? Gee, they're not kids. The people we see on the field are adults. The shows the 'spectacular' shows they reproduce on the field are first perfected via computer programs as are the charts they play.

You cannot open up the hood and get in there like George Z did with amazing success and tighten up the belt a little.

And there ya go.

Puppet

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