From: dci@cs.washington.edu (Donald Chinn)
Subject: Re: Drum corps and the Media
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 21:40:29 GMT

In article <16550@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> matthews@eecs.ucdavis.edu (Thomas W. Matthews) writes:
>
>The producer explained the exec's reasoning.  He thought that
>drum corps was not an art form.  To support this, he had 
>pointed out that it was a competition.  
>(I pointed out that KVIE carried the Van Clyburn piano competition.)
>She went on to say that only the parents go see these events anyway,
>and besides her program was about the PERFORMING arts (emphasis
>hers).  I explained that drumcorps was a performing art.  If they 
>could do a segment about a little theater group doing obscure
>plays for audiences of 20 people, why couldn't they devote some 
>time to an activity that involves 128 young people in front of
>an audience of 3-4 thousand performing music, dancing, synchronized
>movement, etc.  Anyway, the project was not done.
>
>The point I'd like to make is that drum corps deserves and needs
>media exposure, but it needs the kind of exposure that acquaints
>viewers with their entertainment value and motivates people to
>get off their couches and come to a live performance.  
>Most media producers have misconceptions that work against
>good P.R. for drum corps.  Next year, invite your local news anchor
>to a competition!


I think these observations are correct.  I tried to write stories on
drum corps for the local papers, but they all rejected my queries.
The Seattle Times basically said that most of their work was staff-written.
The Seattle Weekly (circ. of only about 30000) editor was intrigued
by the idea, but preferred to have a story on a local drum corps (she
mentioned the Seattle Imperials; I had to mention that they had long
since switched to a summer marching band), rather than the Blue Devils,
which is who I really wanted to cover.

Here is my stereotype of what non-drum corps people's stereotype of drum
corps is:
+ They play um-pa-pa music; they don't play "serious" music
+ It is not art
+ The performance level is not that high (akin to the local high school
    marching band)
+ It is a "blue collar" activity

One of the biggest challenges (but not necessarily an important one, yet)
in drum corps is to break these stereotypes and to have an image that is
consistent with what it really is.  Perhaps one way to break these stereotypes
is for drum corps to become "established", like classical music or the
wind ensemble.  Thank God for the Salzmans and Zingalis and Campbells and
Cesarios who are trying to do just that.

These stereotypes, in my opinion, are propagated because of the military
nature of the garb, the competitive nature of the activity, and the
fact that there is an age limit.  Some of these stereotypes, as with
practically all stereotypes, have *some* basis, but on the whole the
activity is misunderstood (just as stereotypes are, on the whole,
misconceptions).

Exposure on TV or the press will probably not change any of these stereotypes.
It will, however, attract those people who are already predisposed to drum
corps, but otherwise would not have heard of how to get to a drum corps show.

It seems that experience tells us that the only way to impress anyone is to
bring people to live shows, preferably near the end of the season.  DCI can
only do so much.

I had never thought of inviting a media person to a show; I'll do it
next year!

-- Donald
Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps