The Old Days vs Modern Drum Corps

So, every once in a while there’s a discussion on one of the Drum Corps Planet Forums I’ve taken to participate in. I ran into a heated discussion titled: The Old Days vs Modern Drum Corps and was forced to add my two cents:
For the record there is no "old days versus Modern Drum Corps" anything. That’s like those people who have a Tyson versus Ali thing going on. For the sake of delineation though, “in the old days” everybody marched (there were kids as young as 11 and as old as 21!) now members are between 19 and 22 (or if they can prove they're still in college!) we had fat kids, we had skinny kids but mostly we had kids! “In the old days” there were very few marching members who could read music; these days you cannot march if you don't.
Now don't get me wrong - I loved my era, I couldn't understand the era previous to mine but I can understand and accept where DC has gone since I put down my Mellophone and apparently picked up a cane.
But let's be very clear: Speed be damned - backward, crab walk, guard or no guard dancing boys in tights or girls who look like overly made up Rockettes, the death of the Cadet style uniform, the pit, the microphones, the talking, the field littered with equipment, the lack of uniformity, the idea that every drummer has to now carry at least 5 or more drums on his body but refuses to think in terms that 4 guys can play a timpani part as one (try it - you can't do it and march a drill at the same time! Why? because you never tried!) Oh yeah; do a 12 minute show! Oh yeah; carry, spin and toss an 8 foot aluminum pike with a nylon flag that weighs 15 pounds for 12 minutes! Oh yeah; carry, spin and toss a rifle that weighs 8 to 10 pounds for a whole show. What is different from today versus yesterday is mostly what we won't allow.
If you're too poor, you can't belong. If you're too fat, sorry. If you're young, no way. No papers?! No marching. Oh, that's right - no marching anyway. There's that weird no leg lift thing that separates the generations of Drum Corps of today versus yesterday - the (no matter how much more athletic we are, let's not try to do anything too strenuous like actually lift our feet past our ankles) which I guess gives us more energy to walk around at increased speeds while ignoring the idea that the bell of your horn is designed to actually spread the sound in an almost 200 degree arc (yes, you don't have to lean back to reach the top stands - in fact you are losing those who are sitting in the bottom rows!) but that's OK - instead of 40 or so horns you now have 80. Instead of a 4 or 6 snares you now have 12. Instead of a similar contingent of tenors you now have 8 who are carrying 4 to 5 drums each.
The difference between then and now - I've read this entire thread and only a couple of people get it. Elphaba most notably. The real comparisons have been left out because most don't see them. IMO there is no comparison between the two. I was glad at 13 years old to march in a Class A Drum Corps that was different than that of the fifties but I am aware that if I were 13 today I wouldn't be allowed to march in what is now called World Class organization. Not because I didn't have the talent but because I wouldn't have the money and more sadly because I would be too young. And that, my friends is the biggest difference: The youth activity I embraced and gave me so much is no longer populated by youngsters but by adults.
There. I've said it. Not discounting what Drum Corps has become, but observing what it no longer was in my estimation designed to be.
Puppet
Needless to say there was an instant response
Hey Puppet,
Pleased to meet you here. You make some eloquent points. I have been troubled greatly by the grave expense of marching in drum corps these days.
A note on drum corps fees:
I aged out in 98 and paid $875 for the year. This is surly a price that may ruffle your tail feathers, I'm sure. It really didn't seem all that unreasonable at the time. However in just 10 years kids are now paying up to and including $2000. When you factor in what kids get for this price, they really get their money's worth. But it still excludes kids who aren't in some way privileged. I know that there are people I marched with that wouldn't be able to march these days. It's sad. Just ten years ago I marched with kids from "the hood" and others destined to literally become rocket scientists. What an odd and beautiful mixture that could be had in this activity. I hate to see this become an ivy league activity just based on price.
Puppet, I may be reading your post wrong, but I get the impression when you say the following:
“Speed be damned side wise, crab walk, guard or no guard dancing boys in tights or girls who look like overly made up Rock-Ettes, the death of the Cadet style uniform, the pit, the microphones, the talking, the field littered with equipment, the lack of uniformity, the idea that every drummer has to now carry at least 5 or more drums on his body but refuses to think in terms that 4 guys can play a timpani part as one (try it - you can't do it and march a drill at the same time! why? because you never tried!) Oh yeah; do a 12 minute show! Oh yeah; carry, spin and toss a 9 foot pike with a nylon flag that weighs 15 pounds for 12 minutes! Oh yeah; carry, spin and toss a rifle that weighs 8 to 10 pounds for a whole show. What is different from today versus yesterday is mostly what we won't allow.”
You are suggesting there may possibly be a lower level of endurance required to perform a modern drum corps show because they are shorter, the instrumentation is a tad different, color guard equipment is lighter, and so on. If this is the point that is indeed being made, I must humbly disagree. One of the many reasons the average age of the A Corps drum corps member has increased, and adolescents of larger carriage are less common, is the intense physical demand of modern pageantry. The equipment may not be as bulky as a timpani, but what a young member is expected to run a marathon forward, sideways, and backward with the equipment they have. The modern mellophone player spends less time at a high mark time and more time moving at high velocity in, through, and around others with very little park and blow. (Again, no disrespect)
A note on age in drum corps:
A 13 year old has a place in drum corps. Alas I began summer marching programs when I was 12. I was not prepared for the big boys until much later. Here's a thought: Today's western society is a "give me everything NOW" society built on instant gratification, hedonism, and easy gains. The fact that a 13 year old must spend years perfecting an art, practicing independently, marching lower corps, getting individual instruction, trying, failing, trying again, failing again, and finally succeeding, is a beautiful thing. The level of drum corps today begs this generation to work diligently, set goals, follow through, be organized, and become team players when many other messages in their lives tell them to be impulsive, expect something for nothing, and don't bother with activities that don't instantly make you rich. The activity, in the way it exists today, serves a very unique purpose for our youth. They must compete with themselves to become more competent before even being considered for a World Class spot.
My response:
Let me reply in as a succinct manner as possible. There is an "Ivy league" mentality prevalent in the current Drum Corps activity today. Those who participate don't see it as they eat their peanut butter sandwiches and drink their bottled waters, but it is there. It's very much like a club atmosphere - you buy in, you get in and you get to pretend that for a couple of months during the course of a year that you're a poor little rich kid sleeping on air mattresses provided by whomever, etc. I don't (and will never!) deride those who are participants these days.
Keep that in mind when I say this and pose this important question: Why is there no room for young people in a youth activity? And this: If goals are to be set, why should they come at such a high price?
Or personally: When I was accepted to Music And Art High School at the age of 12, do you not think that came with years of perfecting, practicing and learning the art I was trying to participate in - do you not think that a 12 year old BITD who could learn an instrument and a drill and who, over the course of just months involve themselves totally in an activity that gave them much to learn and take away much more (in terms of self respect, selflessness and a true team spirit) without an incredible outlay of thousands of dollars - was that not indeed unique?
And how about this: Am I just looking at the past having lived it through a pair of rose colored glasses knowing that my life was made more rich by being in an organization that showed me and my compatriots from the inner city of New York parts of the country we would perhaps otherwise not see during a time (the mid and late sixties which you may have heard about when young Black people were more or less looked upon as second class citizens) when except for very few corps were either all white or all black - when indeed there were hundreds of Drum Corps to choose from and that at any time someone like myself could find themselves marching in competition at its highest level and then go on to fly a B52 in the World's greatest Air Force only to return to find people who would spit on me for doing that so they could get the instant gratification that was so prevalent during the decades after my return to what those of us who were there called "the world"?
Yeah, I know my teachers would rail at that last run-on sentence, but at least I know that it is.
Do not for one single minute tell me there is only room for people approaching adult hood in the upper strata of Drum Corps. To me that is like saying only twenty something’s should be in the Olympics! They have the stamina, the smarts and if given the chance all the ability. Open the door - open your mind.
And take this with you: Even BITD the Cinderella Corps From Brooklyn New York never allowed it's members to sleep in anything less than a Motel while on tour. Get back to me next time you spend the night in the Marco Polo Hotel on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach. We did that - we ate in restaurants not out of the back of trucks. Our only monetary outlay was the food we ate while on tour.
Now and then? It’s an easy choice for me. Being a part of something year round; working and practicing every week two and three times a week made us strong and joined us like no couple of weekends of "camp" can do.
Again, not knocking modern - but you haven't marched in real bucks.
Oh, one last thing: If we were asked to do the kind of shows that happen now, we could have done it – we would have done it – and easily because we would have had all fall, winter and spring to perfect it. We were BTW the Corps who invented the "run on the field, knife fight, damsel in distress, smoke bomb" show.
Thanks for reading and come back soon.
Puppet