Why drum corps has changed and why it's good

[apoch003]

It's countless because I haven't counted.  Nice.  :lolhit:

And I didn't know drum corps back in your day was "for" specific demographics.  Now I do.  Thanks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I didn't know drum corps back in YOUR day was only for the wealthy! Same specifics, different demographic. Well done!

:lolhit:

And by the way, that's what drum corps was. Check your history.

Edited August 16, 2005 by apoch003

[Lance]

Yes, thanks for the response bawker. If I were an alumnus of any corps out there today, I'd be proud of them. I'm confident in that. I'm sorry for those who are alums who can't say the same because their corps, or drum corps in general, no longer fits into their definition of what it should be.

[AnaheimAlumni]

I've been a drum corps fan since 1996 when I was first introduced to it, I marched in 2001, and I continue to work with my old corps to try and help out. Every year I go to my big local show, and almost every year I make the financial sacrifice to go to championships. I evangelize the activity to anyone willing to lend an ear or 10 minutes to watch a show. I beg my drumline students to watch telecasts, classic countdowns, and cinicasts. I buy corps merchandise and DVDs, not only for myself, but to support the corps financially as well. I love the activity. I love the new stuff, I appreciate the old stuff, and I am exactly the kind of fan that DCI needs.

That being said, drum corps isn't about me. And that's the way it should be.

Did you march in the past, before amps? Before Bb horns? Before asymmetrical drill, grounded pits, and other numerous superficial changes to the activity? Awesome! You paved the way for the activity to continue thriving. Do you hate what drum corps has become?

Fair enough, but drum corps isn’t about you either. And that's the way it should be.

That's right. Drum corps isn't about the people who support it. It's not about the people who like it, and it's certainly not about the people who used to like it and can't stand any deviation from what they themselves experienced. Quite frankly, we need to get over ourselves and stop expecting the creative and artistic element to cater to us. It's not our place.

That may be a weird, confusing, and unexpected thought for you, my fellow drum corps enthusiasts, to chew on. Shouldn't we, as the people who pay the money for tickets and merchandise, spend hours analyzing scores, and stroke countless keys while "armchair-directing" over the internet, expect to be the first priority of the activity?

Absolutely not. That's right. We are not the main priority of the activity, and that's the way it should be and always has been.

Simply said, drum corps is about the kids that are in it. The activity, in every way, should and does cater to them. This is not the professional theatre, where the performers are paid and the show designers job is to create a product with the sole purpose of entertaining an audience. This is drum corps, where for decades, the performers have been paying, both monetarily and with hard work, for an experience. It is them that that the activity is about, and it angers me when I read posts on this board that have lost sight of that.

Why has drum corps changed from the hallowed activity that you enjoyed in your youth? Because music has changed. Because the economic climate has changed. Essentially, drum corps has changed like any other activity has changed over the same period of time. But most importantly, drum corps has changed because the make-up of the performers has changed.

Let's be frank- back in the day, there were much more participants of the activity that were untrained musicians. Drum corps was the be-all and end-all of many performers' musical experience. I am not questioning the work ethic, dedication, or desire of these old-schoolers, but can you imagine handing a minimalist Bartok piece out to the kids that chose the police boy's club drum corps over juvie? Can you imagine trying to explain an esoteric and complex show concept to several kids that just started to learn how to play their bugle a couple seasons ago? I can't. But the inverse applies as well. Give a 1960s arrangement of "A Foggy Day in London Town" to a current corps performer, and watch the reaction.

As corps have folded to mismanagement or insufficient funding, and the competition to make an elite corps has become more intense, performers have become more trained prior to joining the activity. Most of the kids who do corps now do not consider drum corps to be their only performance avenue. They view it as part of a diverse music education that includes wind ensembles, marching bands, orchestras, jazz bands, etc., more so than their predecessors. Drum corps has evolved to be more interchangeable with other performance opportunities because it needs to. That's what the performers of the day are gravitating to. Bb horns are different than the bugles of way-back-when, granted, but now kids who have spent 8 years of elementary, middle, and high school band come in with more knowledge of their instruments right of the bat. Sure, mics and amps didn't make their way to the football field until recently, but now keyboard players who have aspirations of playing elsewhere in life can use those 12 hour rehearsal days perfecting a proper technique instead of banging the crap out of the bars so that it'll speak over a large hornline.

This will be my last post on these boards. Not because it's poorly run, not because there aren't cool people that frequent it. To the contrary, really. The reason that I have no desire to come here and read the posts anymore is, truth be told, that I can't stand the vocal minority of so-called "purists" that can't seem to see the purest element of what we are discussing here. Drum Corps is a youth activity that supports the interests of its participants. It’s downright masturbatory of you if you think it’s about you.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Re: your last paragraph

Well, like the newbies always say to the purists, ADIOS, don't let the door hit your rear on the way out!

P.S. I HATE AMPS IN DRUM COPRS AND I'M NOT MISINFORMED!

[apoch003]

"I'm sorry for those who are alums who can't say the same because their corps, or drum corps in general, no longer fits into their definition of what it should be. "

Another sneaky put-down. I don't think people want to be pitied or felt sorry for.

But I DO believe people are under the impression that the history of their own involvement is being lost.

It's tough to be in a corps that values its traditions and teaches them to the kids, then 10 years later, that very kid goes to a show and the traditions seem to be lost.

Edited August 17, 2005 by apoch003

[AnaheimAlumni]

I couldn't agree with you more. I will add that many who do complain about DCI, are people who don't even attend a DCI show. I have asked people who sit next to me and or around me if they have ever heard of DCP, RAMD or Sound Machine. There has been more no's than yes. However, one adult who had a daughter in one of the corps competing said to me in anger, that those fourms are for drum corps misfits, that represent the ***hole of the drum corps activity. I was like Ok Fine!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would prefer not to attend a "DCI" show but we have no choice since they've hijacked the activity. Nothing irks a drum corps alumni more than to hear some newbie ask, did you march DCI? BARF!

[Lieut. General Effect]

Well, you raise some interesting points, but then you leave and tell us that you are not interested in any feedback. So, I can only conclude that this is about " you " and "your "opinion, and you are not really interested in a reply, nor a possible contrarian opinion, nor a different take on things than perhaps your own.. So I won't bother to waste by time with a poignant comment. Good luck and good bye to " you". But I'll leave with the agreement that Drum Corps is certainly not about " you " alone. It never has been.

Edited August 17, 2005 by Lieut. General Effect

[RobH]

I think we all agree that drum corps HAS changed over the past 30+ years, some think it's for the better and some don't.

But the participants today have more talent, more education, more training and better instruction, and the result is a quality product which differs from drum corps in the past.

We likely also agree that the "purpose" of drum corps competition has changed - in "my" day, it was purely a military, marching & maneuvering, execution style method of scoring - now it's more complex, with far more difficult execution, far more complex music, and far more elaborate shows.

Maybe the real problem is that the drum corps world has evolved, but the fans haven't! Or maybe the fans/former corps members haven't kept up with all the changes and/or don't understand the changes.

[Lieut. General Effect]

I've read the posts replies above, and I havn't seen any post reply yet that would lead one to believe that the respodnents to his thread observations were dismissing everything he said .

[octavia9299]

I marched junior corps from 1992-1999.

I am a band director. I promote corps at every opportunity, playing DVDs for my kids and pushing them at cinecasts and shows, and loaning equipment to area junior and senior corps. I've got a group of kids who love drum corps, buy merchandise, go to shows, and obsess over it, and also a few that march the local senior corps. I'm doing everything I can to bring drum corps into the music education culture of my students.

I do this because of what I felt marching, but also because I'm a fan now. I LOVE what's going on out on the field today, and will happily stop a guard rehearsal to show Crown 2004's guard so the kids can learn about performance quality, or BD so the kids can see what it looks like when forms line up to perfection, or Cavaliers when we're talking about what small details mean to a show.

But I guess I also do this for them with WGI videos, BOA videos, Tito Puente recordings, the Dallas Wind Symphony, Eddie Green recordings....and on and on.

I love good performance, and I strive every day to bring this to my students. Drum corps is just another form of this. Maybe I'm over-educated, but I seem to get the "rush" that a lot of old-timers talk about from today's corps. I just appreciate it in a different way, frequently in the absolute ridiculousness of what those "kids" are trained to do.

I feel like people like me are the "new face" of fans, and we're educating crew after crew of band kids, who then educate their families, and all go off and buy tickets and merchandise.

I suppose this post isn't very controversial and won't generate much flak, but my main message is, there are PLENTY of fans of "new wave" out here, and we're multiplying. It makes me giggle when people talk about boycotting of shows or financial doom, because from everything I can see, it's growing. And I'll help it grow only on days when I eat or breathe.

[Lieut. General Effect]

It's only countless because you haven't counted.

It IS for the kids though.  It's just got more elitism now.  Drum corps used to be for poor kids on the street with nothing better to do in the summer.  Now it's for the kids who can pay a $3000 touring fee.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He made some interesting points. But he puts down those who marched, in earlier generations, while at the same time elevating himself at their expense. Plus he's pretty intolerant of possible feedback on his points, many of which has validity. Just so he doesn't unneccessarily exalt today's marching members too highly, and at the expense of those who continue to support the activity today, the instrumentation, instruction, financial resources are available like never before to put a better quality product on the field than in previous generations. Plus, in previous generations, the talent was spread out among several hundred Corps, not the remaining few we have left today. Kids in previous generations perfected their show after coming home from work or school. I can only imagine how good some previous generations Corps might have been had they had 9 weeks of daily non stop summer instruction to perfect the show, with instuctors and show designers who worked with them on almost a full time employment basis, or at least for the entire late Spring and Summer. When I was in Drum Corps, it was inconceivable that I could take off the entire summer to do Drum Corps. We had quite a few in our Corps that were drafted right out of the Corps, when they intended to stay until they were 21. Our baritone Soloist, one of the best I''ve ever heard, formerly in the local H.S band as well, was drafted at age 19 right out of the Corps. 5 others, good members also, were drafted, 2 in the middle of the performing season. One died later in Vietnam. And this was only in one year.This was not unusual for Corps to lose members thru work, the draft, school or financial constraints, etc. as they geared up for what they hoped was a smashing season either. These things certainly affected the quality level of many earlier Corps. So yes, the musicianship talent, resources available to Corps and members, and overall staff experience and talent and better quality instrumentation , etc are available to the Corps of today. And this poster still enjoys the Corps of today while recognizing that change is inevitable. It's still about the kids. We all appreciate their efforts. But those who went before are entitled to express their opinion on things as well. They have earned that right. Whether we like their opinions or not. Sometimes Corps get a hand, and they don't really deserve it. But no one complains. That's fine. Sometimes Corps get unfair criticism, and the you know what hits the fan with a few overly sensitive Corps people of today .If you can take the praise, learn to develop a thick skin when criticism, even unfair criticism ,comes to the fore. Just don't sweat it would be my advice. No need to attack those in the previous generations. Even those who might be better served in toning down the rhetoric of ridicule and vocal or written displeasure. But I'm preaching to the converted with you here, I know. But I'm left with no recourse. The thread originator started the thread and then finished by telling us he wasn't interested in a reply.

Edited August 17, 2005 by Lieut. General Effect