I have been calling drum corps an endangered cultural institution on this blog since 2012. Back then, I "expect[ed] Peak Oil, economic decline, and social upheaval to end the national touring model, which has been around since 1971, by 2020." I said that "drum corps' hopes...rest on the one thing that makes Americans act, messing with their entertainment. Americans want their entertainment, and will do just about anything to keep it going." This week, as a relief from shootings by and of police, drum corps gave Americans their entertainment as the following video went viral.
Stories about this video popped up on AOL, Mashable, Jezebel, Huffington Post, and several television stations, including Fox 25 in Boston (of course). This is exactly the kind of attention that the activity needs for its continued survival and I welcome it.
It's not just this video. Odyssey Online has extensive coverage of drum corps in their news and features site for Millennials. Also, Dwayne Johnson is recording a reality show about drum corps this summer that will air on Fuse later this year. I have never seen so much mainstream coverage of drum corps in my life as this summer. I also remember when I marched, fans and members wished for more exposure for "the best youth activity no one has ever heard of." Well, they're all getting their wish. Happy now? I am, and I haven't been this optimistic about the future of The Activity in a decade.
With her flare for the dramatic and evil smile, that young lady is supervillain material!
ReplyDeleteLots of people have compared her to Joffrey Baratheon from Game of Thrones.
DeleteThis was one of the forty most read entries of last year, a story I told in Entertainment for the sixth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
ReplyDeleteDrum corps goes viralfrom July 12, 2016 became the thirty-seventh most read entry of the past year with 1018 raw page views as of March 20, 2017. I'll be a good environmentalist and recycle what I wrote in Most page views ever and other monthly meta for July 2016 to tell the post's story.
"The title of Drum corps goes viral from July 12, 2016 became a self-fulfilling prophesy. I shared it on the drum crops groups and communities on Facebook and Google+ and it went viral, earning 676 page views, 687 according to the raw counter, ending the month as the second most read new entry and the fifth most read overall for the month."