Once more into the breach of the regular feature where I combine my interest in drum and bugle corps with the widely beloved movie The 40 Year Old Virgin. With any luck by describing drum corps with quotes for a blockbuster I'll be able to draw in a few extra people into the drum corps fold.
Today's Quote:
And now, I'm making your silver pants blue. -Andy Stitzer
What does this have to do with drum corps?:
One of drum corps most vulnerable aspect are the goofy costumes people see the members wearing. Marching bands are usually donned in some sort of brightly colored pseudo-militaristic garb that always looks incredibly dorky in close-up photographs. Ever since Elvis Presley and the triumph of rock as America's choice of popular music, people have grown accustomed to thinking of music as an individual activity. Our image of a musician is a rock star or pop singer not a member of an orchestra or a girl marching around a field with a trumpet. This seems a little regressive to me, since for centuries music was built around the idea of collaboration and harmonizing diverse voices. Pop music has made us latch onto the model of the solo voice. I think we've gotten some wonderful music out of the last several decades. I'm just concerned it has thrown off our sense of scale. No, drum corps does not work on an individual scale, but not all great music has to. Sometimes music should be grand and immense and meant to be seen from great distances. Modern rock tours have to bring in giant speakers, TV's, pyrotechnics, props, sets and special effects to make the audience feel like they're watching something special. With drum corps all you really need are the performers, their instruments and some empty space and you can put on something huge. Blue and silver pants aren't going to win you many fans, but watching hundreds of blue and silver legs dart in and out with tremendous precision and speed will.
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