Drum corps and the mainstream

[IllianaLancerContra]

From what I remember reading in Jodeen Popp's book, in the late 50's-early 60's drum corps was played on 'popular' radio stations in the New York/New Jersey area.

[Stellathediningdiva]

A little off- topic, but it's been suggested that food network follow a day in the life of ....the drum corps food truck! (alas, no bites, tho- pardon the pun)

Not exactly mainstreaming, but, hey, if it gets drum corps more in the public eye, I'm all for it!!!!

They'd HAVE to have (insert corps here) show music in the background, though.

[07-Socks]

I'm still waiting on DCI to be in the Sports section of video/entertainment stores.

[bluecoats88]

In the eyes of the mainstream, drum corps is band. Are you talking about mainstream popular music? Never. There ARE mainstream outlets for instrumental music... classical music radio stations (NPR, etc.). Those stations won't be rotating in youth drum and bugle corps with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, etc. I can see NPR doing a drum corps feature though.

Well actually it turns out this does happen. My sister in law was working with someone who always listened to classical music station in ohio and they were talking about something she had heard on the radio. she said it was this really interesting arrangment of Dvorak's new world symphony. she said then all of a sudden there was all this percussion and drums. turns out the station was playing the 1989 Phantom Regiment.

[t-mac]

Depends. What if you had bus races at Indy during finals week? Lucas Oil is the title sponsor for the stadium. Why not? You could have pit crew competitions, too, but it would be a little different than the car pit crews!

Garry in Vegas

Hey, you might be on to something. They could have Pit relay races where a set of standard pit instruments are pushed across varying terrains with strategically placed obstacles along the way.

They could also have timed packing drills for luggage, equipment, instruments, etc.

Any other suggested "competitive" activities you can think of?

[zachariaswmb]

Any other suggested "competitive" activities you can think of?

We could have them do a drum corps show. :P

[Guizeppe]

Drum corps lossely falls into the same category as soccer in the US. How many of us played soccer as a kid? About 80%. How many of us watch soccer today (in the US)? About 10%. Soccer is one if not the most popular sport amongst kids under the age of 14, but here in the US it doesn't translate to main stream sports.

Just as others have put it, drum corps is a youth activity with a niche community. We all want to hear drum corps on the radio. We all want to see full shows on network tv. But it's just not going to happen. Fans of drum corps are ex-band/corps members & their friends, are parents, are teachers or have music as some part of their profession. The sum of those folks doesn't equate to very many in the mainstream world.

But it's ok. We fans get to see drum corps as much as we would like. Drum corps championships is nationally televised. Drum corps makes it to the big screen 2 times a year. There is more media available to us than ever before (DVDs, CDs, downloads, BlueVeiw, etc.). The number of corps and shows are on the increase.

All in all, I would say things are pretty good right now in the drum corps world, even if the rest of the world doesn't know it.