Gary Matczak Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Funny, I've been to recitals at Juilliard and Berklee, and had friends who studied both places, and at no time did any of the performers get up and start moving across the stage at 180 bpm for 11 minutes while they were playing. Drum corps is a music sport. Music and movement. To do it well requires a special set of skills that a lot of other gifted musicians might not be able to handle. i've seen great horn players who literally couldn't figure out how to play and move at the same time get cut, despite their musical talent. Wanna try again? yeah,.........try getting a paying gig playing a tuba while running at 180 bpm,.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 except referees calls can be very subjective, even with instant replay While there are some subjective issues within any competitive activity which has referees and umpires (balls/strikes, roughing the passer, etc...) the actual outcome of those sports is still completely 'objective' based. And out of all the major league stick and ball sports from around the world I can only point to a very, very few games in over 100 years of major league activity where a subjective ref/ump call had enough impact to actually change the final outcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 (edited) ... playing a tuba while running at 180 bpm,.......... That is so old school!!!! In the 'modern' world of drum corps you run with the tuba at 180 bpm and have the electronic keyboard player in the front ensemble press a key to produce the low note!!!! Edited March 9, 2013 by Stu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 (edited) There may just have been an unintended long term economic loss impact as well. Many of the earlier decade marchers tended not to be Music Majors. Many later in life became well paid tradesmen, business owners, doctors, lawyers, economists, financial advisors, business consultants and so forth. These people tended to make good incomes and for many years they financially supported the activity. But in time, they died, or drifted away from their support of Drum Corps. Now increasingly, the activity is relying on its " Music Majors " to continue to become involved in the activity by starting up their own Corps, or substantially contributing financially to growth. But its understandably hard for a lot of them. Its no surprise to anyone here that generally speaking a " Music Major ", while a noble and wonderful education specialty, is not exactly the sort of College Major that is going to make someone a lot of money. While it does happen that some reach the professional heights that they do indeed make a lot of money, the vast amount of them don't. Certainly not at the level of a Physician, Lawyer, Management Consultant, Financial Officer in a Company, Business owner and so forth. Many " Music Majors " wind up in the schools teaching. Again, a noble profession. But not a lot of money to be made there as we all know. The chances of a " Music Major " reaching the level of income in their career of a Bill Cook ( former Corps Director of the Star of Indiana... and multi millionaire businessman ) is slim to none. " Music Majors " did not select this college major in order to " make a lot of money ", and we all get that. The flip side of not " making money " in their career choice is that long term it might just be problematic for this activity, if down the road DCI is asking for financial contributions to support its increased costs efforts from people that are not " making a lot of money ".... its just something to ponder anyway as we try to project things down the road. Excellent stuff, Brasso. "What do you call a music major with a diploma? An optimist." So, if this is true demographically, then the activity is packed with talent, and has no way to pay for them? Is this the crux? Too many artsy fartsy types and no way to pay for them. Is that the talent that the "top" corps are buying? Is this an effort to employ music majors? All you need to do is look at the roster of Friends of DCI to see that the non music-major base of support is diminishing. I've been a member for 25 years and I can tell you that the portion of Friends that contributes significant amounts of money and volunteer time to the activity overall is shrinking at a surprising rate. Is it because there are fewer of them? Or could it be that they don't like the direction of the activity and blame the DCI organization, or because they don't like the content of the product they're paying to see? Edited March 9, 2013 by garfield 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Excellent stuff, Brasso. "What do you call a music major with a diploma? An optimist." So, if this is true demographically, then the activity is packed with talent, and has no way to pay for them? Is this the crux? Too many artsy fartsy types and no way to pay for them. Is that the talent that the "top" corps are buying? Is this an effort to employ music majors? All you need to do is look at the roster of Friends of DCI to see that the non music-major base of support is diminishing. I've been a member for 25 years and I can tell you that the portion of Friends that contributes significant amounts of money and volunteer time to the activity overall is shrinking at a surprising rate. Is it because there are fewer of them? Or could it be that they don't like the direction of the activity and blame the DCI organization, or because they don't like the content of the product they're paying to see? All good questions, garfield, and I'm not sure we quite know the answers unless DCI has contacted the former " Friends of DCI " to find out why they left. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Windish Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 (edited) I'd say, the activity has pretty much gone off the deep end. It's not as much fun as it once was. We don't jump out of our seats like we used to. We're not so sure our neighbors and co-workers would get much out of it, if we took them along. Besides, money is tight in this economy. Maybe next year, maybe not. Sell me once again, and if I can, I will. Note: I never contributed to be a "Friend of DCI." My post is merely to illustrate what I believe could be the reason such a list is diminishing, assuming it actually is. Edited March 10, 2013 by Fred Windish 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kickhaltsforlife Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 (edited) Hmmmmm..... maybe we've inadvertently stumbled upon the answer that's been so eluding us: When dci in general crossed that line (and didn't even realize it) from entertainment focus....to excellence for music majors (primarily) focus.... that might just be the point where it all began to fall apart. You can have all the snob vs. snob contests you want, and I will be bored to death and never want to return (dada anyone?). I will boldly step out there and say that when entertainment stopped being the main focus, the Cash so desired by everyone started to dry up. That, plus the spiraling expenses of touring, is a formula for failure. When art in general isn't focused on its audience I am not a fan. Performing, visual, whatever. I am not a fan of selfish artists... ALWAYS have your audience in mind. When you're writing, you are ALWAYS thinking about you're audience to make sure what you are writing is appropriate! Writing YO WASSUP PEEPS!!!!! as the greeting to an email you are sending out to a bunch of business partners is not always the best idea! The performing arts should ALWAYS be about the audience. This has always been my opinion. It's not about winning a championship. The competition? That is there to make it even more interesting to the fans... and ya know what... in DCI IT'S NOT INTERESTING. NO ONE WANTS TO SEE BD WIN ANYMORE IN THE NExT FIVE YEARS except for BD honks... unless they put out a ridiculously entertaining show that makes the crowd throw babies the entire show like Madison 95 or something. Which BTW.. didn't win the championship, and was the fan favorite that year, by far. Yes people loved the planets... but come on.. the crowd was ####### nuts for Madison the entire show! Nowadays corps HAVE to worry about the competition. If you are not competitive.. your corps may not survive. For numerous reasons. If corps just went back to worrying about entertainment.. they would realize that competition isn't everything. JERSEY SURF ANYONE?????????? CROSSMEN ANYONE????????? (17th to 12th in one year.. just because their 17th place show was so entertaining and satisfying for their members to perform that most of them came back! They went down a placement from 2010 to 2011 BTW!) There is WAY TOO MUCH emphasis put on the competition aspect of drum corps, and that has killed the activity. Too much emphasis on parts of the show that the audience doesn't even notice or give two ##### about! Wanna fix the activity? The on field product has SO MUCH room for improvement. Yeah.. we can make a lot of improvements business wise.. but unless you get BITS... it doesn't really matter. And YES! We can keep the excellence and still be entertaining. Crown? Cadets? Phantom? Especially Cadets and Phantom.. throw in SCV... consistently fan favorites throughout the history of DRUM CORPS. They entertain, while being excellent. Edited March 10, 2013 by kickhaltsforlife 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Hmmmmm..... maybe we've inadvertently stumbled upon the answer that's been so eluding us: When dci in general crossed that line (and didn't even realize it) from entertainment focus....to excellence for music majors (primarily) focus.... that might just be the point where it all began to fall apart. You can have all the snob vs. snob contests you want, and I will be bored to death and never want to return (dada anyone?). I will boldly step out there and say that when entertainment stopped being the main focus, the Cash so desired by everyone started to dry up. That, plus the spiraling expenses of touring, is a formula for failure. When was drum corps ever more about entertainment than today? Certainly not pre-DCI VFW era, when there were just as many points for 'cadence' and 'inspection' as there was for GE (10 for each). When there were 30 points for marching ex, and 20 each for music and drumming. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cixelsyd Posted March 10, 2013 Author Share Posted March 10, 2013 Which came first, their excellence or the payout for winning top prize? The payout for winning top prize predates the existence of all our current corps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cixelsyd Posted March 10, 2013 Author Share Posted March 10, 2013 DCI doesn't have so much an image problem as a "no one has really ever heard of it problem". DCI can't even properly support even part of World Class, how the hell is it a good idea to spread themselves even thinner? Well, why are people more likely to have heard of marching band? Is it because marching band has marketing genius that DCI just refuses to hire? Or is it because there are 100 times as many marching bands? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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