Re: Re: Re: Re: Kings new BBb Contra


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Posted by Wade (long DCI rant) on August 29, 2003 at 01:29:39:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Kings new BBb Contra posted by Doug Whitten on August 28, 2003 at 19:58:58:

Drum and Bugle Corps, as an activity, was never intended to be an educational experience.

Drum corps as an activity started in the northeast and later spread to the midwest. These groups formed up in order to get rough, inner-city kids off of the streets while school was not in session. Many started as activities for boys or girls (not "and" - more on that later) within a given Catholic parish. The CYO held a lot of early contests, as well as the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion. As these grew, more and more neighborhood corps popped up and bigger contests were held. Even the Boy Scouts formed musical troops in some towns.

Again, this was only to get the kids off of the streets during the summer.

The famed Cadets were founded by the priests of Most Holy Name Catholic Church in Garfield, New Jersey. The old Bayonne Bridgemen used to be the Saint Andrews Cadets. The Madison Scouts were founded as an actual functioning Explorer Post. These were all kids from a single neighborhood: everyone that showed up got to participate. There were no ringers from Holland, the snares didn't all have scholarships to universities. I was saddened to see the demise of the Bridgemen; they were still mostly kids from the Tri-State area at that time, if not all from Bayonne. But even worse was the loss of the experience to all of the Bronx kids that couldn't afford to tour with a big corps and "had" to stay home and play with the City Mission Cadet Corps Warriors. When CMCC Warriors rolled over due to trying to keep up financially with the DCI-styled tours, well, it was a loss. Maybe not musically, but it was a loss for that neighborhood.

These small corps were the activity. They were literally families, having grown up with one another and gone to school together. People like me ran them off or wooed them to march in "a REAL corps" instead of that dinky thing they had spent their childhood honking in. I feel bad about that now.

There were many, many small, all female corps a long time ago, as well. Again, money and trying to keep up with the machine-like West Coast corps folded a bunch of these,too. Some were still around when I came on the scene: Mellodears, Arbella, Les Chatalaine, Les Etoiles, etc.

None of these groups were founded by musical organizations. Many of these kids were not even in any kind of a school band program. The focus was on character and discipline. And I for one really miss that. I thought that the activity was more pure when it was not so slick, the focus was what I just stated, and the goal was to have fun going head-to-head with your rival neighborhoods. I was part of the "new" generation of DCI, the one geared towards television and LPs (like big CDs, kids...). When I got in, one guy - ONE - made and sold all DCI recordings. The quality was much lower than what you see today. So what. So was most of the playing. Because, as I said, that was not really the point of the activity at that time.

My point is: just because you improve the public perception of a thing, just because it is packaged better, is much more professionalized, etc - is that really a good thing if the kids that were the original focus of the activity, even the founding organizations in many cases, are shut out due to the influx of money and talent from somewhere else?

I think that DCI has done a wonderful job of making membership in a Drum & Bugle Corps an attractive thing; it has "legitimized" the activity by drawing some of the best educators in the country into the various staffs (more like faculty in a few cases); it has encouraged and directed the flow of tons of money into research and development by many companies in order to improve the state of percussion instruments (not just field drums, either).

But it tossed out the street kids and "youth directors" along the way and replaced them with nicer, shinier, people as it grew. It cut off its own roots by taking the activity far too seriously. DCI did WAY TOO LITTLE, FAR TOO LATE to save these grass-roots corps, constantly touting Open Class while letting All-girl/Class A corps languish on the vine. The small corps were always told that only DCI membership meant anything, that World Open, CYO, VFW and AL shows were for losers, that those scores somehow did not matter. You HAD to tour to be anything worthwhile. And that was quite wrong. (And yes, I am fully aware the Div. II and III are doing well . . . sort of. That part of the activity is still a shadow of its former self.)

I miss the older corps for what they were: a way off of the streets for a few months. It was never supposed to be educational. It was supposed to be character-building fun for these kids. These were some rough kids, too. Some time back in the sixties, a contest that was very close between the Scouts and Cavi ended in overturned busses and hospitalized kids. These kids were, despite that one famous fight, being denied the chance to get into too much trouble by being in these youth groups. Where are those rough, inner-city kids now during the summer months? On the street in many cases. And without much adult supervision. Drum corps used to be like street gangs with musical instruments and guidance by preists, youth ministers, and Scoutmasters. Now they are lots of scholarship students from the middle and upper classes.

DCI came in and tried to make things nationalized, televised, and more musically legitimate. And they have been very successful. I see it as a legitimate educational experience for the kids in a few corps, with educational poseurs staffing many, and one of two frauds just making extra money during the summer. And I see a huge pool of talent each year troop the stands at the "Summer Music Games" (DCI too self-important? Naaa!!) and I think about the poor group that was touring with us one summer with an unpaid staff. They had to pack it in and go home three weeks from Atlanta. They just couldn't afford DCI Top Twenty-five status. In trying to keep their local members interested, to keep them from joining Suncoast or Spirit or my corps, they had to produce a tour for these kids, many of which were young and not all that stellar on their instruments. If the good kids got bored and jumped ship, they would not be able to compete. No DCI Member "appearance fees" would come in from doing shows on tour, and then they would have to fold, leaving all of the interested local kids out in the cold. Which was what happened. They folded, and a great summer youth activity died in that town.

Things change. I liked old "bad" drum corps better than the high-dollar machine the activity is now. Just like I enjoy playing in freebie community bands more than my orchestra gig, as the players in the community group are all having a great time playing music and being a "family", where the our Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Local and the Management really makes music feel like work. It is infinitely better than the community groups, but in its slickness it loses something crucial: the pressure of playing for a paying audience all of the time, the rigidity of our contract: it is a job. The people in community band are just so happy to see you, happy to be able to play so late in life (" . . . and the grandson sits a chair above me, too!") and just try to make MUSIC HAPPEN. The product usually is so-so, but the group experience is wonderful.

DCI has made the D&BC activity too professionalized, leaving out so many kids that were the original focus of the activity.

Now, how was THAT for a rant??

It was not aimed at you, but at the general idea that DCI needed to improve anything. I do not see why it could not have done a better job at providing more local shows for non-touring, neighborhood corps. I fail to see why it couldn't have tried to keep the CYO, VFW, and AL shows from disappearing. As the self-proclaimed "umbrella group" for the activity, it just sprawled with little or no concern as to what it was doing to the roots of the activity. It helped drive the money train right over a lot of decent small corps that had been just fine for decades prior to 1972.

Wade "sorry for this long, opinionated rant" Rackley


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