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3 hours ago, KeithHall said:

 

Just my thought....why not bring drum corps back using the local/regional corps.. Why do new corps have to shoot for the top? Keep the kids local.

 Corps were " local " jn the post WW2 period, and all through much of the early 60's. But in order to become more competitive, Junior Corps increasingly all began to take in " non locals". For example, church sponsored Corps decided to take in non parishioners at first. Well, as you can imagine, not a lot of parishioners, especially those who were not musically inclined, did not want to have their church monies go to a Corps, increasingly being made up of not only non parishioners, but more and more with Marchers that did not even live in the town.

 Corps themselves decided to break away from their Parish's, and in the late 60's, with the Draft, and the increasing disfavor with the public on the Vietnam War, Corps increasingly began to spurn the local VFW, American Legion's Post local financial support and donations as well..

 As a result of a combination of  factors such as severance of Parish and Veteran Groups support, along with the Feds implementation of the military draft, Corps lost marchers, volunteers, And their original " local roots ". With that, hundreds of Corps began to feel the financial strain.

 Then DCI came in in 1972, and adopted a national touring model for many of the remaining Corps. Corps that now were taking in marchers from everywhere in order to stay afloat and be as good and as competitive as they could possibly be. The increased travel costs, and many of the fewer remaining Corps getting bigger and bigger provided a Darwinian like environment where only the very few strong survived in such a financially challenging, new environment.

 As such, there can be no " putting the toothpaste back in the tube " now. The period of the " local " Corps that nurtured and developed the local kid, is a thing of the past, and will never come back. As others have mentioned, the local schools have now taken up and filled the void and we have lots of school sponsored Musical and and Guard units in WGI. The music tastes have changed over the years too. What generation of kids.. whether it was the 40's or today... liked the music of their parents or grandparents ? Some do. But most kids growing up,  preferred to develop their own generation's unique music, and it usually wasn't the radio station with the songs that Pop, and Grandad were listening too, if we are honest with ourselves about it. So kids today are not going to march a 1960's, 1970's style Drum Corps... just like marchers in the 70's,80's, were not going to march a 1940's, 1950's styled Drum Corps either.  And guess what  ? In 10-20 years, the marchers of then will not want to march a 2018 like show either, and many of today's marchers in DCI will not like that, and will prefer the shows and styles they are marching now, not what will be out there in 10-20 years. So many of them will likewise face the same frustrations down the road too. But thats life.. lol. All this said, I do share your frustration, as I wish sometimes I could turn the clock back and pretend it was an earlier generation too... with a lot of things... lol. But its not happening. That much I'm sure of anyway.

Edited by BRASSO
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8 minutes ago, GUARDLING said:

Welcome to 2019 EVERYTHING about those days are pretty much gone forever. There's the good as well as bad of that.

For one thing, the Texas Longhorns no longer run the Wishbone option. :laughing:

That actually is the reason I became a Texas and Alabama fan... that option offense they both ran back then.

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4 hours ago, KeithHall said:

Before I start my day today I had to jump on DCP just to toss out some thoughts.....

 

    Can we say that the 1960's and maybe more so, the 1970'S, were the biggest for this activity? Well back then there were more corps and shows across North America every weekend. One didn't have to travel a day or more to see a competition. In my home town (North Tonawanda, NY) we ran 2 shows every summer ( Sights and Sounds of [insert year] and the NT Open). Both shows were packed on concert side. We could go to shows in Toronto area, Kitchener area, Rochester, Syracuse, Angola, Sheffield, PA, Hammondsport, NY, Corning, Binghampton, Oswego. The last two years of our corps we started in May going to Canton one weekend and then to Michigan for two shows Memorial Day weekend. There were always enough corps to give fans their money's worth. DCI traveled to different cities every 2 years and could make it affordable for corps near that city. 

Today we probably have 40 total corps (my guess) and who knows who they are anymore because each year they have new uniforms with different colors. The music is stuff no normal person knows, whatever happened to the theme from "The Midnight Cowboy?" Soon we'll have a scaffolding with LED lights, huge amps and every horn and drum mic'd. The field will be covered by HUGE tarps with Broadway style props and scenery. 

Just my thought....why not bring drum corps back using the local/regional corps. DCI could boost their likeability. Provide workshops for want to be directors, business managers, etc. Why do new corps have to shoot for the top? Keep the kids local.

What is local today?  There are so many things kids can do today versus BITD.  When I was growing up you could play baseball, Pop warner football or skate on a pond.  Now you have traveling teams of baseball, soccer, football, lacrosse, basketball, cheer, robotics, skiing, swimming,  and on and on.  Many more choices for kids than ever.  And that dilutes participation in any of these things let alone drum corps.  And drum corps probably costs a lot more than any of those.  And don't even get into liabilities especially with what has been going on over the past year.

What was so good BITD actually would suck today.  Broken busses, and bad food (if you got food all the time - is PB&J really food?), hard to find/keep rehearsal sites (have insurance to use a site?)  And having clinics to teach someone how to be a director?  How about clinics to teach some of the directors today how to be a director?  And if you think of DCA in terms of local drum corps, there aren't many of them here either.

For me personally.  I like what is going out on the field today.  Yes it has changed, but it is pretty darn good.  I can appreciate what is being performed now.  I recognized what Bluecoats were playing.  And Crown and Bluestars and Boston.  Being in Indy has probably saved a lot of money for corps too, being ably to prepare way in advance.  Who liked Miami in August or Jackson in August?  It might not be bad if finals were held in another site every 4-5 years.  That might work for some people.  Use rotating cities across the country:  Pasadena, Denver, Madison, Baltimore.  As far as your comment about scaffolding, amps, tarps.  I agree with you and I think they are here already.  Maybe not scenery per se', but we have variations on that too.  The thing is, nothing today is local.  Social Media and the internet sees to that.  OK, rant and rambling is over.

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Hey I got 2 pages and we're not talking about GH or RB . 

 

Listen , I knew what the answers would b but wanted to get some discussion going that was different!

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3 minutes ago, KeithHall said:

Hey I got 2 pages and we're not talking about GH or RB . 

 

Listen , I knew what the answers would b but wanted to get some discussion going that was different!

I think in a lot of ways SoundSport could be similar to the local circuit concept, and would be interested in seeing more performances on a local level from groups like this. I don't know, however, what this would take to get up and running.

As for a tour model that was similar to that time frame, and to some extent until the demise of all local circuits in the early 2000's, it would be fun.

Having marched 1997-1999, I loved having the local circuit with DCM because there were more shows that I had friends and family at, than if I were marching now.

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Admittedly, I don't know that much about SoundSport, its structure/rules etc., but I agree with tesmusic. The larger void will never be completely filled again, but some incremental strides appear to be making some progress. There are a zillion choices now for young folks out there now in a zillion different forms that weren't there 30-40 years ago. 

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Of course other established corps could start feeder corps

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5 hours ago, CrownBariDad said:

According to corpsreps.com, Heat Wave did this in 2018 -- "The Times They Are A-Changin'".

check back with me in a few years 

new organizations WILL crop up - hopefully enough or more to support any attrition

however the youth local-based activity is dead and will not be returning IMO

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In a way, feeder corps were a contributing factor to so many corps being lost, especially those who weren't officially tied to the big corps. 

Nearly every small corps member across the midwest in the 70s wanted to and often did leave for the Cavaliers, Madison, Blue Stars, Belleville etc etc. 

 

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Soundsport would be the closest way to make it happen. But these days, getting a church or a Legion or VFW or PAL or whatever to sponsor a corps wouldn't happen. There's so much competition for donated money, that many of these places are struggling to fulfill their actual charter. 

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