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What if never happened...


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Perhaps, perhaps not.

If DCI ends up being just marching bands and the like on down the road (note the new DCI.org webpage...the "about DCI" section fails to even mention instrumentation now, it just presents DCI as a marketing concept, making the kids and fans just $$$$, no more) then who knows.

While DCI is certainly beneficial in many regards to some junior corps, it may not ultimately be what drum corps...as an overall activity...needs.

True that, my friend. I'm hoping DCI will stay by it's roots; but even if they stray too far, we can always thank them for basically saving the activity (though they may end up transforming it into something that it's not)

Edited by dccorpsfan
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I agree with what most of you are saying. Two things would have caused a decline in drum corps had the activity, namely the directors of the charter corps, not pulled away from the VFW, AL, CYO.

1. The VFW, AL, CYO organizations would continue to scale back on number of shows, sponsorship money, and because of that drum corps would have been looking for another outlet at some juncture. It just happed when it did in 1971-1972.

2. Public school music education would have caused the complete demise in drum corps, minus the smaller parade corps and such, primarily because public education picked up where drum corps left off. Drum corps was a local, community, even neighborhood outreach opportunity for many in the early 1900s, and it continued to be very popular into the 50s and 60s. But for all the kids that drum corps pulled off the "streets" back in the day, it would not have continued because most of those same kids would now receive a public-supported education in music as the K-12 music programs began to grow in the schools. This is not an argument about which is better or which is right, it is the more important argument that there was not as much need to create neighborhood music opportunities when the opportunity was right there in the public school. Kids who were looking for such opportunities, or parents who wanted their kids to have those opportunities now had it right in their backyard as part of a publicly supported and comprehensive music training. The sheer number of kids who marched drum corps at one time was bound to decline, and not because of DCI or a national tour, but because America "righted the ship" when it continued to improve music education in the schools.

Although we know public music education is not perfect, and we also know that there are still plenty of kids who could use a good music education, it was apparent that a real comprehensive music education was better achieved in the schools, where kids learn about all types of ensembles, composers, various styles of performance, and where they have opportunities to study privately and to work on solo literature. The drum corps experience is a selective, specialized offering compared to the comprehensive offering so needed for young musicians, namely those in k-12 training.

So without DCI and the national tour, which has created an attractive byproduct of the overall music experience (not an alternative) has by and large worked. But at the same time it is not perfect, but it was not DCI's fault that so many corps folded or that the community base for drum corps participation waned. All that was bound to happen, and K-12 music education was probably the biggest factor, and therefor had DCI NOT been created, it is likely something else would have, or the VFW/AL would have slowly pulled their sponsorship down to nothing in light of what K-12 education was doing, and the VFW knew full well that in the light of budget cuts it did not need to support something that was so easily supported in the schools.

JW

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True that, my friend. I'm hoping DCI will stay by it's roots; but even if they stray too far, we can always thank them for basically saving the activity (though they may end up transforming it into something that it's not)

I will certainly agree with you there; there's been quite a few positives along the way under the leadership of Don Pesceone and Dan Acheson.

Allying yourself with BOA and WGI makes sense in many regards now...but making the journey away from the uniqueness that brought you to prominence is a double edged sword....the short term recognition may be great, but further consequences of losing said unique qualities have to be studied as well.

There is no counterweight out there to debate the directions the activity moves towards...we can argue amongst ourselves here, but that more or less falls on deaf ears.

I wonder if there could be some sort of public forum yearly to put these things into perspective from Dan Acheson's standpoint. Right now, there's "rah rah drum corps", marketing saavy, and little critical analysis of:

-preventing another Cap Reg situation (as watchmen for the member corps, there is some responsibility to oversee D2D of units, not to take them over...but to at least make sure things are solvent while on tour)

* fuel costs and national touring as a sub-topic to the above

-growing more units (Academy's example should be the rule, not the exception...and perhaps Academy's director could come up with a way to present his example of doing things to new directors at the II/III level. It obviously works as the DCI landscape is now.)

-a helping hand in the business end of the activity (this is where a lot of units stumble, how can it be fixed? How can we get business leaders involved?)

-fan input (referred to as just being blindly loyal to the product on DCI's web page...not everyone is out to say "DCI sucks", and counterpoint from people OUTSIDE the activity prevents too much back-patting and insular thinking)

Additionally, within the realm of recent events... the marketing firm that made a big splash at DCI Atlanta last year....Coltrin and Associates I believe....where are they now? What are they doing?

These are considerations that should be made as we move the activity along, I feel.

Just some thoughts. :)

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Also, considering how long DCA has been around...they could have been running both circuits if DCI had never came to pass. :)

For the folks who never stray into the "Senior" side of things. :laugh: DCA held their first Championship in 1965 with 6 corps and, like DCI, one big reason was discontent with AL/VFW rules. 1966 AL Championship was controversial and any big name Senior corps that was in not in DCA at the time joined shortly after.

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True that, my friend. I'm hoping DCI will stay by it's roots; but even if they stray too far, we can always thank them for basically saving the activity (though they may end up transforming it into something that it's not)

nope, won't even touch that one today

Unless of course you mean saving itself like an alcoholic hitting rock bottom, swearing off booze then finding a $20 in the couch and running down to the local bottle store to get plowed again kind of way

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nope, won't even touch that one today

Unless of course you mean saving itself like an alcoholic hitting rock bottom, swearing off booze then finding a $20 in the couch and running down to the local bottle store to get plowed again kind of way

So, would drum corps be better off if DCI was never created?

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So, would drum corps be better off if DCI was never created?

If "DCI" hadn't been created (or had flopped early on), then something very similar would have had to have come along very soon thereafter or else drum corps would likely have withered and died. Lord knows that the VFW, American Legion, and CYO weren't really all that interested in devoting a lot of their resources toward the activity by '72. Don't forget that DCA came first, after all, and DCI was sort of following in their footsteps.

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