TV Can’t Save Drum Corps

[Stu]

Too bad it was fiction.

Bill Cook's favorite Star show happened to be the one I noted...in the same interview linked to earlier in the thread Cook said this...

So what? It does not negate the fact that Cook was initially drawn into DCI via the accessibly entertaining Bridgemen; nor does it negate the fact for Blast to make a profit they had to play accessibly entertaining material. You want a small audience of appreciative artistic clientele perform eccentric intellectual material; you want a large audience of ticket purchasing fans play toe tappin' finger snappin' melodies with a little humor thrown in.

[BRASSO]

So what? It does not negate the fact that Cook was initially drawn into DCI via the accessibly entertaining Bridgemen; nor does it negate the fact for Blast to make a profit they had to play accessibly entertaining material. You want a small audience of appreciative artistic clientele perform eccentric intellectual material; you want a large audience of ticket purchasing fans play toe tappin' finger snappin' melodies with a little humor thrown in.

It is very rare when the national " fan favorite " in any given year winds up winning the DCI Title that year. I would estimate that 90% of the titles won since 1990 were won by Corps that were not the national fan favorite that year. (Even Star 1993 did not win the DCI Title in '93, lets not forget). Also, when fans were asked for their favorite Drum Corps shows of all time in a national poll a few years back, more than half of them were not DCI Title winning shows that year. Some in the final top 20 of all time came in as low as 4th and 5th that year in placement with the DCI judging community. So I think its fair to conclude from this that there is a bit of a disconnect between what the DCI judging community likes ( many of them that have been judging for 25-45 years ) in any given year, and what the national audiences appear to like and enjoy in any given DCI year.

Edited April 29, 2013 by BRASSO

[MikeD]

It was his favorite " STAR" DCI show ( 93 ). He immediately took his Star Corps out of DCI after 1993. Lets acknoweledge that the musical and visual design that his staff took to Broadway for " BLAST " was chock full of fan friendly " classics " of Drum Corps. " Blast " was most assuredly unlike the last 2 years shows that his Star Corps produced for DCI judging. His staff brought over " Medea " as a piece played in " Blast ", but 95% of the " Blast " show that became an award winning theatrical success as well as a commercial success was filled with the " Classics " of Drum Corps that was mass appeal fan friendly, and easily accessible to audiences of all stripes. It would be " fiction " to assume that Cook and Staff decided to take their high placing last few years DCI shows to Broadway. They did not. They frankly abandoned that ( as you said " bleeding edge" ) DCI style for a more mass appeal approach in their design. And it worked. They " won " each and every year for the 2 decades they produced their " bleeding edge " theatrical Broadway style stage show for audiences worldwide. This is principally because their shows were no longer being judged by " DCI judges ", but by the worldwide public at large that bought a ticket to see them. The show " Blast " in essence freed up Cook and his staff to become more creative for world wide mass appeal audiences and in an accessible way. They were no longer constraint by the shows that were being rewarded in competition by DCI judging. THATS the central point that I am making above.

I was referring to your analysis of what Bill Cook thought, and why decisions were made along the way, as fiction.

As for Blast!...they programmed a 2-hour show, so they had the luxury...actually the requirement... to touch as many levels as possible. I consider Blast! to be more related to an evening of a variety of drum corps as opposed to one corps' 11 minute show.

Don't forget, the culmination of Act 1 of Blast! was "Medea". You make it appear as though they turned their back on their former corps. They didn't. They expanded their show to fill a complete evening of visual/music.

They 'won' for two decades because they were able to attract a lot of people to what they were doing. Absolutely agree on that. Their presentation touched all sorts of emotions and musical styles, including what they did as Star of Indiana.

You speak of DCI judges in a very derogatory manner, IMO. Don't you like the idea of competition, and putting your best show and performance out there for the judges and fans? I do, and I have since the mid-60's. I like the idea that corps produce a variety of shows in a variety of styles, from the BD to the Cadets to Crown to Surf to BK to....

[MikeD]

So what? It does not negate the fact that Cook was initially drawn into DCI via the accessibly entertaining Bridgemen; nor does it negate the fact for Blast to make a profit they had to play accessibly entertaining material. You want a small audience of appreciative artistic clientele perform eccentric intellectual material; you want a large audience of ticket purchasing fans play toe tappin' finger snappin' melodies with a little humor thrown in.

Blast! also used Medea as the culmination...the highest impact point so to speak...of Act 1.

[Pete Freedman]

Anyhoo...

My points are:

1. Drum corps depend on a critical combination of tour fees, fundraisers, and philanthropy.

2. Tour fees are flat or up if anything (there's apparently no shortage of people flying in to audition)

3. Fundraisers account for a small amount of the total, except for cases like BD Bingo, in which it is decreasing rapidly over time as laws change.

4. Philanthropy makes up the critical difference, and seems to be a key missing link in corps that fail.

5. Therefore the activity today is reasonably financially healthy, except for a critical shortage of philanthropy. *

6. Performing arts summer boot camps (drum corps) should be exciting for philanthropists, if they find out about them.

7. It is likely that philanthropists in the area of performing arts still watch PBS.

8. Even those philanthropists who don't watch PBS probably have family and friends who do. With DVR it is possible to bring it to a philanthropist's attention after the fact. (Today, even if Carl Cook had lost the TV battle he could still have shown Phantom to his dad later.)

9. DCI is unlikely to even know how much money in aggregate all the member corps get from philanthropists who discovered the activity via PBS. Without this data, they can't effectively take it into consideration in their decision making. In making these decisions they may only be considering the financial impact for DCI itself. Which wouldn't have helped the Glassmen.

Discuss. in particular, am I wrong about #9? Does DCI poll all of the corps on how their major donors found out about the activity? If not, then even if I'm wrong about PBS, we've found our problem.

* I know Garfield and others have promoted the idea that much improved fundraising is possible, given a better financial management foundation. I'm not disagreeing with that.

Edited April 29, 2013 by Pete Freedman

[BRASSO]

Don't forget, the culmination of Act 1 of Blast! was "Medea".

and " don't forget " that I stated above as an acknowledement that " Blast " played " Medea ". So my guess you either " forgot that ", or did not read that. I also stated above that 95% of the show of " Blast " despite the playing of " Medea ", was the incorporation of music and visual Classic moves from Drum Corps from the past, including the creative " blindfold " percussion playing whose concept came directly from the Bridgemen show from the 80's. " Blast was chock full of classics of " Melaquena".... " Bolero ".... "Simple Gifts ".... Officer Krupke "... etc type of accessible audience friendly music along with and Phantom's visual foot crossover moves, and much much more. It was wonderful. For both Drum Corps fans, as well as those theatre goers unfamiliar with Drum Corps. The fortunate part of the design in my view was that " Blast " did not incorporate so much of Star's high placing music and visuals from their last couple of years in DCI. Had they gone that route, its questionable if they would have attained the level of theatrical and commercial success that Cook & Co. did with " Blast ". Like I said, they " won " every year ... and for over 2 decades.... with that show.

Edited April 29, 2013 by BRASSO

[BRASSO]

You speak of DCI judges in a very derogatory manner, IMO. Don't you like the idea of competition,

I spoke about " the disconnect " between the DCI judging community and the national audiences as to what judges like and what audiences like. I would assume that this is no new revelation to you. It is your intepretation that this is a "very derogatory " comment of the judges. A " disconnect " statement regarding 2 separate parties is no more derogatory toward one party over the other, but you took it that way.

As for your interpretation from my remarks above that leads you to believe that I 'don't like the idea of competition ", I have no idea how you could dervive that from my comments above, so I see no reason to address a reply based upon any such " fiction " you might have created in you own mind regarding your thoughts on how I feel about " competition ".

Edited April 29, 2013 by BRASSO

[Bruckner8]

I spoke about " the disconnect " between the DCI judging community and the national audiences as to what judges like and what audiences like. I would assume that this is no new revelation to you. It is your intepretation that this is a "very derogatory " comment of the judges. Thats like saying that because you might not like something that I like and I point this pout to you, that I have said something " derogatory " about you. A " disconnect " statement is no more derogatory toward one party over the other, but you took it that way.

As for your interpretation from my remarks that leads you to belive that I 'don't like the idea of co0mpetition ", I have no idea how you could dervive that from my comments above, so I see no reason to address a reply based upon any such " fiction " you might have created in you own mind regarding your thoughts on how I feel about " competition ".

BRASSO, your quoating process (using spaces before and after every quote) is difficult to read, and causes me to skip your posts b/c of the extra effort required to read them. It's difficult to discern the start and end. May I suggest that you get rid of the spaces?

I spoke about " the disconnect " between

would be

I spoke about "the disconnect" between

[BRASSO]

BRASSO, your quoating process

Fair enough. I 'll even try to work on my quoting process too. ( haha!... 'just kiddin' )

Edited April 29, 2013 by BRASSO

[MikeD]

and " don't forget " that I stated above as an acknowledement that " Blast " played " Medea ". So my guess you either " forgot that ", or did not read that. I also stated above that 95% of the show of " Blast " despite the playing of " Medea ", was the incorporation of music and visual Classic moves from Drum Corps from the past, including the creative " blindfold " percussion playing whose concept came directly from the Bridgemen show from the 80's. " Blast was chock full of classics of " Melaquena".... " Bolero ".... "Simple Gifts ".... Officer Krupke "... etc type of accessible audience friendly music along with and Phantom's visual foot crossover moves, and much much more. It was wonderful. For both Drum Corps fans, as well as those theatre goers unfamiliar with Drum Corps. The fortunate part of the design in my view was that " Blast " did not incorporate so much of Star's high placing music and visuals from their last couple of years in DCI. Had they gone that route, its questionable if they would have attained the level of theatrical and commercial success that Cook & Co. did with " Blast ". Like I said, they " won " every year ... and for over 2 decades.... with that show.

I did miss seeing you mentioned "Medea". My bad.

The important part of the design to me is that they provided a wide variety of styles and musical selections to appeal to a wide array of people. Again...Blast! is more akin to an entire evening of drum corps in concept, not a single 11 minute show by one corps, so I would hope and expect that they would provide a broad spectrum of entertainment, which is just what they did.