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Has drum corps lost that magic?


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This might sound like pandering like some, but I feel the magic more every year. I suspect a lot depends on the attitude with which one goes to a show. The more people I meet, the more I connect with marchers current and past, the more I love the magic of drum corps and the corps on the field continue to light my fire.

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I wonder if kids today going to their first shows feel the same kind of magic that you describe? I think they probably do, but I don't know. For me, magic has been replaced with admiration and appreciation. It's more cerebral. There are moments of magic here and there. There are some great things happening today, but it does feel different.

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Consider that part of your feeling may be connected with your own memories of those nights. However, I tend to think that much of the visceral energy that is present in the shows you mentioned simply is not present in most of todays drum corps. However, there is still hope - everything goes in cycles, and hopefully we are getting to a point where more corps will start openning up again.

Just as an aside though, keep in mind that I haven't marched and I can definitely detect more musical and emotional maturity in shows from the '80s and '90s to the majority of shows today. Not to say those aspects still aren't present today, but it seems they were more prominent in past decades. The music, the emotion, the magic...to me just seems not as strong, overall, in today's drum corp. Visual aspects, though, I think are the best they've ever been.

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I wonder if kids today going to their first shows feel the same kind of magic that you describe? I think they probably do, but I don't know. For me, magic has been replaced with admiration and appreciation. It's more cerebral. There are moments of magic here and there. There are some great things happening today, but it does feel different.

I'm pretty sure they do. I won't speak for anyone though.

The music, the emotion, the magic...to me just seems not as strong, overall, in today's drum corp. Visual aspects, though, I think are the best they've ever been.

Wow, you're pretty wrong there buddy :)

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I'm pretty sure they do. I won't speak for anyone though.

Wow, you're pretty wrong there buddy :)

He's wrong that that's what it seems to him?

How can that be?

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I don't think we necessarily have to equate "magic" to whose brass line sounded the best or who marched at 200 bpm for longer than the other corps.

Remember the feeling when you knew Madison was only two or three corps away from performing? The buzz in the stands as the line formed in the endzone? THAT was magic. That is one thing that I really miss.

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Wow, you're pretty wrong there buddy :)

I'm...just not going to say anything. You do see why I would take offense to a statement like that, though, right?

Edited by Hrothgar15
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I wonder if kids today going to their first shows feel the same kind of magic that you describe? I think they probably do, but I don't know. For me, magic has been replaced with admiration and appreciation. It's more cerebral. There are moments of magic here and there. There are some great things happening today, but it does feel different.

oh they do, i did and i didnt even seen a show, i just watched the 2000 dvds and it hit me hard like a meteor from space. and i had about 10 kids in every lot ive ever performed in tell me that they feel the same way at that moment. theres one major difference between now and then, though. now, we have a whole generation of people who refuse to believe that there is anything better than "their years" and will try to tell the wide-eyed impressionable kids that all the performers/performances of now arent as good. its those people that are trying to bring down the activity, not the directors, judges, sponsors, or any other governing body of DCI.

i spent a whole 2 years listening to drumcorps oldheads tell me that corps arent as good, players dont work as hard, theres not enough power, the shows arent that great, the raw emotion is gone, the changes have made it weak. etc. etc. etc.

then i marched and found out that all that crap is just plain untrue. drumcorps is incredible.

Edited by karl E. Hungus
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oh they do, i did and i didnt even seen a show, i just watched the 2000 dvds and it hit me hard like a meteor from space. and i had about 10 kids in every lot ive ever performed in tell me that they feel the same way at that moment. theres one major difference between now and then, though. now, we have a whole generation of people who refuse to believe that there is anything better than "their years" and will try to tell the wide-eyed impressionable kids that all the performers/performances of now arent as good. its those people that are trying to bring down the activity, not the directors, judges, sponsors, or any other governing body of DCI.

i spent a whole 2 years listening to drumcorps oldheads tell me that corps arent as good, players dont work as hard, theres not enough power, the shows arent that great, the raw emotion is gone, the changes have made it weak. etc. etc. etc.

then i marched and found out that all that crap is just plain untrue. drumcorps is incredible.

I'm sorry you had to hear "drumcorps oldheads" tell you that corps aren't as good, etc... That's a really mean thing to say. I think most of us are going to say that the years they marched in were the best. Or something like that.... I can't relate, I guess. On my first live show, I saw Phantom Regiment play The Nutcracker and SCV play their Russian show, Bluecoats in their first year in finals, Boston Crusaders, Glassmen, and other corps I can't remember... Phantom and SCV were absolutely magical. I can not describe how magical they were to my ears. To this day, the visual looks a little dated, but the music is still magical. Today' corps are incredibly good. It's different. Not good or bad, but not the same. I still think there are magic moments to be had.

Anyway, sorry to hear that some of us "old timers" are giving you a hard time.

Edited by jjeffeory
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