TOC/G7 Related Discussion

[BRASSO]

I never said a person could be splitting themselves into two groups at the same time. Looks like you do.

No. I never suggested at all... anywhere on here... that a person should be allowed to do 2 musical units simultaneously. Nice try.

You championed just a few days ago the marchers right to leave one musical unit ( DCI Corps ) for another musical unit ( another DCI Corps ), without penalty, nor recriminations, but then today, you flip flopped on this and you now apparently Champion the right of another musical unit ( a school band ) to deny a marcher to do DCI Summer Corps if it overlaps with that Directors " Band Camp ". Today you championed the Band Directors right to " dictate " ( your words ) and deny the marcher to choose one or the other without recrimination from the previous musical unit. Its sheer hypocrisy, imo. The " overlap " is secondary as to who gets to choose what, and your words today that the " Band Director gets to dictate " unilaterally the terms with the Parent and their Child seems pretty clear to me that you are engaging in a little bit of hypocrisy here with this.

Edited April 3, 2013 by BRASSO

[BRASSO]

BRASSO,

"

But, why was that? What did Blast do in its promotion to the "regular" folks that worked to cause those "regular" folks to attend as they did?

Fair question. I 'll try to address it the best I can.

In a nutshell, the creators of " Blast " ( from Star ) scrapped a lot of the esoteric Star of Indiana DCI offerings in their last 2 DCI competitive years, and played quite a few songs in " Blast " that these " regular folks " ( as you aptly referred to them as ) could immediately identify with. Yes, they did the unfamiliar to most of them " Medea ", but they played mostly songs that either were easily identified with or had a nice beat, ie, " Bolero ".. " Officer Krupke ( West Side Story )... " Simple Gifts "... " Everybody loves the Blues "... " Land of Make Believe".... Appalachin Spring "..... " Melaguena ". Blast 2, the sequel played " Adagio for Strings ".... "Good Vibrations"( the Beachboys ).... Swing, Swing, Swing ".... Bohemian Rhapsody ( Freddie Mercury, Queen ).... " Carmina Burana " and such.

"Blast" did not open on NY's Broadway until it had already been to London, Boston, etc and other places for 8 months where it was already a hit with audiences before hitting " Broadway". Noticeably absent from the " Blast " repetoire were their DCI judged competition offerings from Star of Indiana such as " Parados "... " Kantikos Agonias "... " Roman Festivals ".... " Praise Ye the God of Gold ", etc and so forth. The " Blast " creators intentionally set out to make their production a hit commercially with diverse world wide audiences, and they did. They were even a popular and commercial success in international venues that never heard of the Blue Devils, Carolina Crown, etc., nor any of the major High School or College Marching Bands from the United States, etc.

Edited April 3, 2013 by BRASSO

[Jeff Ream]

The goal is to provide the most effective "hook" to all who have some interest in buying this product, not just those who already have interest due to having already bought the product. We have those folks. For others, millions of others, the message needs to be "here's a product you know, but did you know this is the very BEST of that product?" In other words, there's beef, and there's Wagyu beef. They're both still beef, but if you like beef, you really should experience this. It's the absolute best beef experience, available at a stadium near you!

the key is a name that can attract interest and serious, hardcore marketing and branding. Ya know, something DCI's never had

[Jeff Ream]

The more accepted DCI is by the scholastic music programs (i.e. band directors), the more those directors will bring busloads of kids to shows...BITS.

The reason the BD are so good has nothing to do with the instrumentation and everything to do with the skills of the performers and staff.

here's the thing...with all of the marketing aimed at band directors, the tie ins with NEMC, etc...we're never going to win an overwhelming majority of them.

with school budgets as they are, and with many directors being very anti competition, we're only going to get so many.

[Stu]

There is a sub topic here in which sort of needs to be addressed. When did it become ok to teach students that they can do everything they want, when they want, irrespective of conflicting activities?

Part of teaching youth to become responsible adults, whether done by a parent or a teacher, is supposed to be instructing them that sometimes one thing has to be sacrificed to do the other. There is very little compromise once we reach adulthood; and youth need to be taught this at some point 'prior' to them getting blindsided as an adult. Sure, we can debate all day on whether or not being in drum corps enhances or detracts from being in marching band; however that is not the issue.

When a band director 'requires' everyone who wants to be in band to attend summer rehearsals that is the prerogative of the director (who, by the way, is not only thinking about winning a fall contest but also attempting to teach students a sense of duty and responsibility). Then along comes a student who desires to not only be in the marching band but also be in a summer touring drum corps which creates a conflict with summer band attendance 'requirements'.

Some here on DCP say that DCI is the greatest thing to do in the summer; far better than summer band camps and the mean ole band director should just create a special compromise for the drum corps kid because that kid is getting way more valuable experience in the drum corps. However, I say there is actually greater educational value, as it applies to adult life preparedness, in having that youth choose only one of the two conflicting activities.

[Jeff Ream]

corpsband,

I think we have some agreement. That is, outdoor entertainment has FAR too many impediments than people are willing to pay for today. There is so much more potential available in some different setting. All this incredible talent does deserve better packaging.

indoor however means fewer bodies needed. and, it still isnt cheap to start an 80 member group...so we lose even more participants

[Slingerland]

I'd be curious if DCI or anyone else has ever done any polling to see what, if anything, the public thinks when they hear "drum corps.". If they did, and we all found out that the general public viewed us as something similar to "Civil War re-enactors", would that be a reason to consider a major rebranding of the activity? The faux-military vibe, while not nearly as common as it was 30 or 40 years ago, seems a little out of step these days (no pun), especially when some of these same faux-mlitary units show up with color guards who clearly didn't get the 'military" memo.

Garfield, re: your tennis/badminton/ping pong, question, the better analogy might be racquetball vs squash. To the untrained eye, there are more similarities in the two sports than there are differences, being played in very similar environments, using implements that are similar, and with the basic elements of the two games being pretty closely aligned. Squash is the older of the two games - when racquetball first caught on in the 70s and 80s, I always figured it was because no one my age wanted to be caught dead playing squash.

So which is drum corps in that analogy - the old school traditional game, or the less-restrictive modernized game?

Edited April 3, 2013 by Slingerland

[danielray]

I'd be curious if DCI or anyone else has ever done any polling to see what, if anything, the public thinks when they hear "drum corps.". If they did, and we all found out that the general public viewed us as something similar to "Civil War re-enactors", would that be a reason to consider a major rebranding of the activity? The faux-military vibe, while not nearly as common as it was 30 or 40 years ago, seems a little out of step these days (no pun), especially when some of these same faux-mlitary units show up with color guards who clearly didn't get the 'military" memo.

Garfield, re: your tennis/badminton/ping pong, question, the better analogy might be racquetball vs squash. To the untrained eye, there are more similarities in the two sports than there are differences, being played in very similar environments, using implements that are similar, and with the basic elements of the two games being pretty closely aligned. Squash is the older of the two games - when racquetball first caught on in the 70s and 80s, I always figured it was because no one my age wanted to be caught dead playing squash.

So which is drum corps in that analogy - the old school traditional game, or the less-restrictive modernized game?

I'm all for Hardcorps Tour.... just sounds more interesting.

Something like 2013 Pepsi Hardcorps Tour.

[Stu]

I'd be curious if DCI or anyone else has ever done any polling to see what, if anything, the public thinks when they hear "drum corps.". If they did, and we all found out that the general public viewed us as something similar to "Civil War re-enactors", would that be a reason to consider a major rebranding of the activity?

It is very easy to do this type of study on your own in an informal manner. For over 30 years now when I am chatting with people in line at a grocery store, at the post office, sitting on an airplane, waiting in a tram/subway station, at a bus stop, etc... I always at some point ask if they have heard of the drum corps activity or DCI. The 'overwhelming' response, I mean over 90% of the response, is a reply like, "Drum What?". And when I begin to describe DCI to those 90% most of them are not interested at all or say something like, "Oh yeah, my (kid, niece, nephew) is involved in marching band at school." Point being is that in the 30 years I have been promoting the activity to anyone who is willing to engage in conversation, the vast majority of the 'general public' I have ran into flat do not care one iota about the subject of drum corps or marching band or the high quality marching arts. To them it is a mere sideline or side activity for some youth and therefore an afterthought for them as adults at best, or more likely, just shear disinterest.

[BRASSO]

Some here on DCP say that DCI is the greatest thing to do in the summer; far better than summer band camps

No, not " some ".

As a matter of fact., not a single solitary poster has said this on this thread, Stu. I challenge you ( or anyone else for that matter ) to repost from this thread where a single poster has said this.

One of the problems it appears we have here on DCP is that some posters comment on things that were never said, nor even implied. Such sensible dialogue then becomes impossible. If we can't read and comprehend properly what is being stated then communication quickly devolves into attempts to defend things that in fact were never uttered at all. It would be like me stating that you posted here that doing Band Camp is " the greatest thing to do in the summer; far better than doing DCI Drum Corps " and telling you to defend that... something you never stated at all on here, Stu. Would you like to be put in a position to have to defend something that you never said at all ?( nor anyone else has said on here either ? )

Edited April 3, 2013 by BRASSO