A Possible New Direction

[Jeff Ream]

I was reading some of the posts regarding the future of music and it was a good thread. I agree with what someone said in the future of music thread. While I think that there is a lot of extreme talent, incredible virtuosity, executions and incredible marching and designs in drum corps today, I do have to admit that some of the music played in many drum corps today has been a bit boring (even to me); and the music CAN BE one of the downfalls of DCI drum corps. I mean it seems like the kind of music they play these days are for some of us who studied music and are/or were music majors, and is not accessible to a general crowd.

But even I, a person who studied music and even teach music, would prefer to see drum corps the way they used to be (especially back in the 80s, but I'd like anything from 1995 and below). Even I would prefer to hear grooving music, and not so much emphasize on themes but just jams, and maybe a little bit of the drum corps music that we hear today, but not TOO MUCH of it. Isn't that what is drawing crowds to our parallel activities like HBCU bands? People go to those shows to hear the music and I think a lot of the things they do comes from drum corps. I've even done this experiment at my own school where I started a drum corps that plays popular music and things that are recognizable and has things that people want to hear (and frankly, I and the students wanted to hear) with only one symphonic song (for variety) and the crowd LOVED it and we had kids fighting to get in it.

I also agree with what someone said about having more local talent and sometimes I even think there might even need to be a new circuit besides DCI that allows all kinds of corps to play in it and drum corps to not be so elitest. I even question why even worry about a circuit? Why don't corps just go out and play their drum corps music in the way they see fit and if they want to compete, directors can just get together and schedule their own competition (at their school or somewhere) or do something like this. These are just a few thoughts.

IMO, a lot of it isn't neccesarily the music they chose...it's the current trends of design. too focused on the visual, and it doesnt allow for full melodic, counter melodic and harmonic flow to happen