MikeD Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 The rubber will hit the road however in about another decade. The test will be whether or not the marchers of today remain devoted fans of the activity, and will become financial contributors to the activity... volunteers to the activity, future staff and judges to the activity, support it with their time, energy and dollars.Start their own new Corps perhaps. Will they return to march a reunion Corps 25 years from now to show the younger audiences of 2035 what their entertaining group did for the fans in 2012 by making them throw babies and go wild with delight in 2012 ? If they value and cherish the activity as previous generations have that have passed the torch to them, it will survive. If they walk away from Drum Corps after marching a year or a few, and consider it a summer's excursion and the torch passed to them has the flame go out, then Drum Corps will die. I don't think its any more complicated than this, Mike. I disagree...you are looking at a model of how things were, not how things are and will be. The focus on scholastic musicians as members and audience ensures a never-ending supply of fans every year. As older fans fade away from attending, there is a constant stream of new fans taking their place. Some will stick, of course, and some will move on after their school careers are over. The key is the renewable source of people by focussing on scholastic kids as the primary audience/members. The flame will not go out in such a world...like the Olympic torch being passed along the route, the drum corps flame gets passed on to each subsequent generation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain88 Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 We're missing the boat. Drum corps has been and wil be all about the kids (young adults). If you asked a member in 72 or one that is marching today whats there greatest satisfaction is they would probobly say the crowds reaction or applause. That crowd response sure did it for me when i marched. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musclebud Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 (edited) I disagree...you are looking at a model of how things were, not how things are and will be. The focus on scholastic musicians as members and audience ensures a never-ending supply of fans every year. As older fans fade away from attending, there is a constant stream of new fans taking their place. Some will stick, of course, and some will move on after their school careers are over. The key is the renewable source of people by focussing on scholastic kids as the primary audience/members. The flame will not go out in such a world...like the Olympic torch being passed along the route, the drum corps flame gets passed on to each subsequent generation. I sincerely hope you are right. But we need to be aware that the scholastic musicians you refer to may become an even more limited group from which to draw members and fans. I see no let up in the budget cuts being made to music and art programs around the country. These are the very programs from which the constant stream of new fans is expected to come. I hope that this is a trend that can be reversed, but the political and economic climate that has brought about these cuts seems to be getting worse and not better. Edited July 26, 2012 by musclebud Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 I disagree...you are looking at a model of how things were, not how things are and will be. The focus on scholastic musicians as members and audience ensures a never-ending supply of fans every year. As older fans fade away from attending, there is a constant stream of new fans taking their place. Some will stick, of course, and some will move on after their school careers are over. The key is the renewable source of people by focussing on scholastic kids as the primary audience/members. The flame will not go out in such a world...like the Olympic torch being passed along the route, the drum corps flame gets passed on to each subsequent generation. But, as more corps die off and some of us believe, fewer age outs will support the activity for decades to come, eventually there may be no one to carry that torch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 I sincerely hope you are right. But we need to be aware that the scholastic musicians you refer to may become an even more limited group from which to draw members and fans. I see no let up in the budget cuts being made to music and art programs around the country. These are the very programs from which the constant stream of new fans is expected to come. I hope that this is a trend that can be reversed, but the political and economic climate that has brought about these cuts seems to be getting worse and not better. There are over 25,000 HS in the US, plus all of the colleges. From a pure numerical standpoint, I don't see the cutting of a relatively few programs having any real impact (again...just talking numbers!!!!) Over 70% of the schools in the US have a music education program, according to a NAEP study. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 (edited) I disagree...you are looking at a model of how things were, not how things are and will be. The focus on scholastic musicians as members and audience ensures a never-ending supply of fans every year. As older fans fade away from attending, there is a constant stream of new fans taking their place. Some will stick, of course, and some will move on after their school careers are over. The key is the renewable source of people by focussing on scholastic kids as the primary audience/members. The flame will not go out in such a world...like the Olympic torch being passed along the route, the drum corps flame gets passed on to each subsequent generation. What are the numbers of alums of Corps from years ( say ) 1990-2005 that are actively involved at least in some way in the Drum Corps activity today, Mike ? Those numbers DCI must have ( or should ) at their disposal. This 15 year period saw a LOT of marchers pass thru the DCI ranks in Corps. Probably over 30,000-35,000 would be my estimate in this 15 year time period. What percentage of them are volunteering ? Going to Regionals?, Finals?, contrbuting financially with donations to their former Corps?, training to be judges?, or instructors ? We naturally have always had marchers march Corps then leave and thats it... we never see them involved again. But with so few Corps today, the onus is much greater to have a much higher percentage remain as annual fans of the activity and as active contributors with their time, energy, dollars. We should have a pretty good idea now of what percentage of marchers from 1990 to 2005 that are still active in the activity, even just as fans. But at the shows I attend, it seems like the DCI graduates that would be in their late 20's to early 30's now from this time period are nowhere to be found, Mike. Maybe you are seeing the 27-35 year olders at DCI live shows and at the DCI theatre shows these days, but frankly I'm not seeing too many of them at all. Edited July 26, 2012 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywhopper Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 And for historical context, people told Bob Dylan not to forgo his unplugged folk guitar for the fancy new Gibson in the mid 60's. But Dylan insisted. So he bought the fancy new electic toy, plugged in his new electric guitar that was all the new rage, went to the stage with it, and his commercial career subsequently went right down the tubes as a result. Really, you think Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding, and Nashville Skyline were commercial failures? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 (edited) Really, you think Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding, and Nashville Skyline were commercial failures? I don't think there can be much disagreement that the post 60's years of Bob Dylan were nowhere near the success he had in the 60's. If you've read Dylan's memoirs, he himself laments the career decisions he made in retrospect. He got so lost in his career with different bands he organized, that he even dabbled for a bit in Country- Western style music in the 80's. Bob Dylan had a few successes here and there in the 50 year period after his monumental commercial succeses in the 60's. ( a few you correctly cited ) But lets be clear here. Once he left his folk guitar, folk singing, beatnik venues, etc behind for the electric guitar " Rock " scene, he never came remotely close to matching the phenomental commercial and iconic succeses he had in his 5 year Folk Music period of 1960-1965. Once he left the Folk scene, his overall career nose dived for the most part. I don't think any clear headed, non biased, objective analysis would dispute this either, imo. Dylan himself acknowledges it. Edited July 26, 2012 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill M Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 Yea for trolls: hip hip - hooray!!! My thought exactly. First and only post, no follow-up. Classic troll. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 (edited) I just went and watched both Phantom and Bridgemen 1979 on the DCI Fan Network... with an open mind.... and they were actually more alike than I was expecting. I have seen the shows before, but I was surprised how "loose" Phantom was during parts of the performance... something I associated much more with the Bridgemen. Anyway.... the shows are much more alike than Crown and BD's 2012 shows in the following areas: timbral variety visual design (drill) visual choreography (dance, body movement) show pacing (opener, concert, percussion, etc... BD's 2012 show completely rejects this) show cohesion musical arranging Yes, the unis are more different, but the source music is about the same amount of "different," and marching styles actually seem more different to me in the modern corps, but that is difficult to tell. But the most important things to me in a drum corps show, I have listed above... and I find much more variety in 2012 Crown and BD. Again, I still find a great deal of variety in the 1979 shows, but I contend that the very constructs of what was acceptable as drum and bugle corps in 1979 was far narrower than what we have today. What you haven't mentioned and think lot of other people haven't noticed is the type of music being playing. Bridgemen played different types of music so their "claim to fame" was the humor for a few years. So I'd say Phantom and 27th would be a better choise to show that type of difference. As for what you listed can't argue as that's what we had during that time. Some by rules, some by things not discovered yet and (IMO) having drill software opened things up from the pen and paper days. Just sounds like we're looking at things in two different ways, no problem with that. LOL - I'm thinking you'd probably look at Caballeros and Skyliners from BITD and say how alike they were. At looking at it your way, you'd be right. Meanwhile I'd be looking at the music played way and thinking "Wait a minute". Edited July 26, 2012 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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