1980 Santa Clara Vanguard - High Cam

[@americanspirit8932]

This is just before, that DCI, destroyed the entire activity forever. Today is April 22nd 2022

[@tomshea8382]

On what date was, DCI, destroyed forever?

[@p.l.vasquez9040]

It wasn't *totally* destroyed, but did, after a Renaissance period between 1982-1986, morph into a dumbed-down, politics/power-controlled shell of its former idealistic self (much like our own nation). Philosophically, most of DCI was forced to buy into the belief that the original, "spiritual" purpose of the nine month period of building a corps' chemistry, overall show execution, *individual* execution/challenge/improvement had been replaced by a "better", newer system of beliefs based on the role of Judges as a proxy for an "average" audience. This would be the rise of "General Effect" as the main measurement of show quality. Individual challenge, learning, and the raising of the personal "bar", especially in Percussion rudimental performance, was now swapped out for rarely-consistent human *opinions* of what a corps and its members should be doing as a primary function: "pleasing the audience", instead of teaching members to hone current skills and gain new ones. Some changes were beneficial. The great increase in drill complexity whilst playing was perhaps the most critical *positive* change, especially for Percussion members, and their "inclusion" in the overall drill book. However, the negative effect of this evolution was the "watering-down" of performance material complexity, especially in the first decade of this change; but, again, not by ALL top corps (see the Percussion book of the 1989 Cadets for an example of personal challenge). Percussion, again, was heavily affected by the removal of the extended Percussion Feature, as items like props, Broadway "themes", and gimmicky movements started to proliferate. When the 1987 Garfield Cadets drum line (as awesome as they were, with a not-easy drum book and the return of George Zingali - they worked tirelessly that season (as they always do)) was awarded two perfect 10.0 scores in Finals by an "East-friendly" Judge, as the rumor went, it felt like the paradigm had been *forced* to shift...it felt wrong. This was followed by two years of undeserving champions, their rings gained through political movements, audience sentiment, and payback. I'll stop this book writing now. I marched 1987-1990, so I witnessed these things first-hand. I started out wanting to play in a Marty Hurley-style Snare line, with lots of challenging rudiments and interesting music. By the close of the summer of '90, our (NOT PR) drum book had been whittled down to High School-level pablum due to the often conflicting opinions of Judges who rarely followed even *similar* trains of thought on our tapes, and we certainly had stopped being challenged in our playing or learning. This may be what the above commenter is referring to, in general (effect!). Thanks for reading.