Would you help resurrect your corps.

[CaballarosJr.]

There are many threads here about how elitist and obscure drum corps has become in this forum including my own two entitled something like Saving Drum Corps. George Hopkin's and Star's influence has wiped out thousands of corps and turned drum corps into something that requires a degree in music to understand. Making the entire activity virtually extinct. That pretty much sums up dozens of original postings here.

The question is, to what degree would you involve yourself in bringing back local, old school (pre-1989) drum corps competing in a separate governing body totally separate from Drum Corps International with some other cool name. If you have kids or grandkids with music would you do what your parents did and take them across town for rehearsals. Would you participate in local fund raisers like my mother did almost every night after working all day and raising four kids.

The pre-George Hopkins victims outnumber DCI like maybe 1,000 to 1. For every 1 person who performs or watches in a Drum Corps performance there are like maybe 1,000 who marched or attended a drum corps show. We could have a present of the 27th Lancers, Squires, Royal Crusaders, Bridgemen, Buckeye State Caballaros, Buckeyes, Greece Cadets, Audobon Bon Bons, Alberta Girls, Etibocoke Crusaders, North Star, Marion Cadets and thousands of corps that were destroyed by the elitist movement of the late 1980's. DCI is a small minority of those of us who no longer have kids to have march in your former corps telling your kids of places you practiced when you drive by.

IMO we should stop posting pictures and stuff about the old time and just bring them back. George Hopkins isn't the dictator of the world. If thousands of people who want to resurrect old school drum corps then Hopkins can't stop us from filing Articles of Incorporation. Recruiting members from local high schools. Finding places to practice. Establish an artistic constitution mandating principals that old school drum corps had before the rich elitist music and performance majors. With facebook, twitter, google, really old deteriorating rosters we should be able to contact massive numbers of old school alumni who have long since stopped going to shows that require pages of theme explanations to read while the next corps takes the stage.

There must be places where the hundreds of thousands of G Bugles are located. They have to be in someones' garages or attics or basements. And if enough old school drum corps start then Getzen, Bach, Conn, Olds etc. will make our types of instruments.

I welcome my facebook page to organize the effort.

Steve Bayt

[crownisking]

Edited May 29, 2013 by crownisking

[lindap]

snip

Alberta Girls

end snip : )

They only marched in competition for 1 summer lol

edit: is the spelling resurrect? Watched Waiting for Godot 3 times at live performances and been told I have the patience of a saint.

signed toe-tapping lindap ; )

Edited May 29, 2013 by lindap

[KeithHall]

It was the elitist corps that ruined the activity. It didn't happen in 1989 either.

This statement, "turned drum corps into something that requires a degree in music to understand." is typical of some former corps members who failed to change with the times. When I marched in the 70's as a teenager, I was always hoping that more of my band friends would join me...it didn't happen.

Most corps died because of bad management! Stop blaming George and Star and DCI! All those people tried to keep drum corps going forward and NOT stagnate or go backwards. Hey those days were fun back then! I am guessing that the kids today are having fun too. Yes, many if not all corps have extremely talented musicians and some do go on to get degrees in music but not all of them.

In your "attempt" of resurrection you don't seem to understand the times very well. Money is not plentiful, DCI doesn't have 100 corps attending championships. NY State has no junior corps anymore either.

The blame game is not on DCI but the many inept small corps directors that ran small corps all over the country. No one put a gun to their head to make them follow the DCI touring model. Any smart director(s) would have banded together to try and do something else. I was associated with a corps for a brief time that saw their director steal money from the bingo fund. He was probably doing it for years. The money he took was not going to the corps but to him. After it was found out the rest of the management team tried to carry on but the corps died shortly after. In order to survive, directors had to be creative and business savvy as well. Mom and Dad running the corps and working at a regular job was not going to keep a corps afloat. G bugles didn't die because of DCI! They died because the brass manufacturers could make more money selling Bb horns because the amount of drum corps was dwindling. It was a business move by the companies and it had to be a business move by DCI and DCA corps. Who would the corps that played G horns sell to? School bands played Bb. Made sense to switch and then buy or sell to a high school marching band program.

Another thing.....look at what kids do today! Even the kids that you want to "get off the streets," they have better things to do. They are working earlier, they want to make money so they can get new video games, iPads, iPods, etc. They want everything NOW! The few kids that love to play music....can do so at school (even in the summer), they can do HS marching band. It is a different time than the days when we marched symetrical drills and the drum line went up and down on the 50 yard line.

Stop blaming George Hopkins...he had a vision and he followed it. Star had a vision and they followed it. DCI has/had a vision and they followed it. If you actually think that you can sell your idea of "going backwards" try to follow your vision. Good luck! This 50 something drum corps guy won't follow you.

[Northern Thunder]

Drum corps were dropping left and right WAY before George Hopkins even knew what a drum and bugle was. (George was still marching with the Crossmen in the late 70s.)

It was only natural that something as huge as drum corps was would lose MANY of its corps, only to be replaced by many more new units.

No, it wasn't any perceived "elitist" attitude that killed off those corps. Time killed off those corps.

[pearlsnaredrummer77]

It was a combination of factors that killed off the great number of corps. Deindustrialization ended working-class prosperity meaning more kids had to work summers and with the shift to a consumer economy, there were paying jobs available. I remember in the winter of 83-84 we had 52 horns at one camp. We ended up fielding 29 as most found they had to work summer jobs. Sometimes we forget the external factors that helped cause the activity to decline.

On the other hand DCI policies did not help the situation. By refusing to cooperate with scheduling they helped kill off the regional championships that were often the highlights of the smaller corp's seasons. My Corps director hated DCI back in the 80s because they were deliberately being obstructionist toward the AIO.

Elitism did help destroy DCI. A mindset gradually developed that only the elite corps mattered. I can't tell you how many times at shows people- drum corps people would talk through or mock the smaller corps. Eventually kids became less willing to sacrifice a summer to march a smaller corps. The lack of smaller, local corps us killing the activity. As DCI becomes less and less appealing to non-specialists or the truly hardcore there are no longer enough alumni produced to support the activity. People argue that the Alumni corps will die because of demographic problems, but DCI also has a serious demographic problem. In 20 years, how will 75 people in attendance at a show even begin to pay the costs?

I don't think local corps will have a chance as long as DCI is still defining itself as "drum corps." If it completed the transition (and we are 90%) there to elite marching band with woodwinds, then perhaps smaller corps with a g horn line up can revive. SDCA already provides an example of how smaller corps could organize. I wouldn't worry about the ghorns. If there's a demand someone will produce them. I think some companies still do?

Finally good news from Butler. Rich Zamperini, a Vagabond alumni (also 27th) is now the Corps Director and there had been strong interest in W. Pa. The Corps still owns a large hall, bingo, wedding services, buses and equipment, so one sort of dead (they were doing parades up until about a year ago) corps is reviving. I hope to work a bingo when I go back home!

[Northern Thunder]

In 2012, there were 78 junior corps that were active in North America, meaning that half of the active juniors today have NOTHING to do with DCI whatsoever.

Half of those corps didn't appear in any DCI events, yet they have found a niche to exist on their own terms.

I salute those corps that have carved their own path to existence today.

[pearlsnaredrummer77]

In 2012, there were 78 junior corps that were active in North America, meaning that half of the active juniors today have NOTHING to do with DCI whatsoever.

Half of those corps didn't appear in any DCI events, yet they have found a niche to exist on their own terms.

I salute those corps that have carved their own path to existence today.

Amen!

[CaballarosJr.]

So the first day after the post, you DCPers would rather blame situations and relive the past then try to create a future like the past was. For me, today is what matters. There is no Caballaros in Brook Park, Ohio. I would much rather take my nieces to an actual practice session in Kennedy Park in Brook Park, Ohio for an actual competitive corps than listen to 38 year old recordings.

I await the next 24 hour responses to see if anyone hear wants to have old school corps or just memories.

[GUARDLING]

So the first day after the post, you DCPers would rather blame situations and relive the past then try to create a future like the past was. For me, today is what matters. There is no Caballaros in Brook Park, Ohio. I would much rather take my nieces to an actual practice session in Kennedy Park in Brook Park, Ohio for an actual competitive corps than listen to 38 year old recordings.

I await the next 24 hour responses to see if anyone hear wants to have old school corps or just memories.

if today matters so much ( and I do get what you are saying) what makes you think the kid of today wants to do what you are asking for?You cant believe the kid of today is the same kid of 10/20 or 30 years ago!

There certainly isn't the resources there were back in the day and cost doesnt come close, with or without touring.