What is wrong with US?

[Vuitton]

19 hours ago, TRacer said:

My kid did; he started at 13 and aged out in ‘21. 

That's great, but that seems to be rarer these days. What I meant was when I marched I think we had 4-5 of us marching Scouts from my high school. And we were one of the smaller high schools in the Madison area. This isn't a broad youth activity anymore, it's much more niche, and that's part of DCI's problem.

It's not like it was back then. I'm sure it's a heck of a lot hard to make it into a top tier corps today than it was in my day.

[Vuitton]

17 hours ago, LabMaster said:

Boston had/has high school kids.  I believe the featured guard rifle kid still is or recently was, a high schooler. 

Wow - what talent to make that guard in high school.

[Vuitton]

4 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

We had several 12-13 year olds.  After we folded, 3 aged out of 1991 Star, 2 out of 91/2 Cavaliers & one out of 92 BD.  Fair amount of talent in that little Corps.  

We had several high school kids in the 80s today. I am just saying I think it's different today. I think you have to be mega-talent to make these top corps.

[IllianaLancerContra]

1 minute ago, Boss Anova said:

Boston Crusaders back field conductor last season was 18 and a Senior in High School when he was chosen to be their back field conductor for last summer . As mentioned above , every DCI World Class Division Corps had high school’ers in their marching ranks last summer . 

 

Curious to know age distribution in the Corps; BD - X 21-yr olds, Y 20-yr olds have o whatever their youngest member was,…..to Les Stentors X 21-yr olds to their youngest.  

[IllianaLancerContra]

2 minutes ago, Vuitton said:

We had several high school kids in the 80s today. I am just saying I think it's different today. I think you have to be mega-talent to make these top corps.

The top talent in Corps hasn’t changed from BITD, what has changed is the talent level of the weakest players.   The first non-cut member today is a far stronger player than from back then.  

[Boss Anova]

2 minutes ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

Curious to know age distribution in the Corps; BD - X 21-yr olds, Y 20-yr olds have o whatever their youngest member was,…..to Les Stentors X 21-yr olds to their youngest.  

 Corps finishing in the Top 4/ 5 most certainly have higher ages ( and vets of other Corps ) marching in their tanks than much lower placing Corps . Blue Devils A Corps , Blue Devils B Corps and Blue Devils C Corps would be a good example of how the distribution of age levels tends to go across the spectrum of DCI Corps marching ranks , imo 

[Boss Anova]

18 minutes ago, Vuitton said:

We had several high school kids in the 80s today. I am just saying I think it's different today. I think you have to be mega-talent to make these top corps.

 I think that’s the key , ie “ being talented “ as opposed to age or experience being the crucial factor especially in the upper echelon of DCI placing Corps .

Even in the 1980’s the top 4/ 5 placing Corps in DCI had better talent in their marching ranks than did Corps placing lower ( say 8th-20th ) in their ranks . Most of the Top Corps even back then filled their ranks with talented vets from the lower placing corps . That dynamic has not changed at all  in DCI in decades . Don’t see it changing anytime soon either . 

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Boss Anova

[Boss Anova]

27 minutes ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

The top talent in Corps hasn’t changed from BITD, what has changed is the talent level of the weakest players.   The first non-cut member today is a far stronger player than from back then.  

I think this is true . Each section now has an instructor . That was not true in the 1980’s . Plus , the best talent in Drum Corps used to be distributed among a much wider number of Corps in the 1970’s and 1980’s as there were far more Corps . As a result , it is my assessment that it’s likely that DCI Drum Corps had both more talented marchers and weaker talented marchers marching BITD than perhaps today as the distribution was much wider and among far more numbers of Corps , with far more marching in total numbers . That said , the top corps of today have access to far more indoor WGI groups and in the marching band community so it’s indisputable ( imo ) that they have phenomenal talent now on display . 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Boss Anova

[craiga]

41 minutes ago, Boss Anova said:

Boston Crusaders back field conductor last season was 18 and a Senior in High School when he was chosen to be their back field conductor for last summer . As mentioned above , every DCI World Class Division Corps had high school’ers in their marching ranks last summer . 

 

This is true.

[Vuitton]

33 minutes ago, Boss Anova said:

 I think that’s the key , ie “ being talented “ as opposed to age or experience being the crucial factor especially in the upper echelon of DCI placing Corps .

Even in the 1980’s the top 4/ 5 placing Corps in DCI had better talent in their marching ranks than did Corps placing lower ( say 8th-20th ) in their ranks . Most of the Top Corps even back then filled their ranks with talented vets from the lower placing corps . That dynamic has not changed at all  in DCI in decades . Don’t see it changing anytime soon either . 

 

This is all true, but it's definitely a shrinking and more niche activity than it was back in the day. The last time I played soprano/trumpet was 1989 finals. I loved marching and I love the activity. I'm so glad I marched. But, I probably wouldn't today because i would have no hope in getting into a top corps. It wasn't my life, it wasn't my ambition. In my day it was a youth activity and very few continued with careers in the activity or with music, dance, etc... after they left. Today this is different. These are kids who want careers in the arts.

Yes we had people who marched in lower tier corps come to Madison, but the change today is that many of us who marched in top corps in the 80s or 90s wouldn't make it today.