Why is “Clash Of The Corps” Important? Posted by admin on Friday, September 30, 2016 · 1 Comment

Next week is the premiere of an 8 part docuseries, called “Clash of the Corps” on the Fuse Network. It’s a reality show that follows two legendary drum corps, the Blue Devils from Concord, California, and the Cadets from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is an executive producer on this show and his team followed these two rival corps through the 2016 Drum Corps International season.

We follow the marching arts community pretty closely ourselves since we’re actively promoting our documentary feature film “Scouts Honor: Inside a Marching Brotherhood” and we can accurately say that the fans of drum corps are either very excited about this show or they have already made up their mind that this is not going to be any good, even though none of the episodes have premiered yet. Drum corps fans can be pretty harsh with their criticism and they are often hard to win over.

Well, we’ve made up our mind about this show already as well, but we don’t just think it’s going to be good, we know that this is going to be huge for the marching arts community. Why do we say that?

Exposure – The marching arts community is getting showcased on a cable TV network to hundreds of thousands of people; many of which have never heard of drum corps before. Yes, there will be plenty of drum corps fans watching, but don’t underestimate how many new eyes and ears will be exposed to the subculture that we know and love for the first time. Association – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson brings a huge amount of clout to this project. He’s a household name and people expect a certain level of quality from him. His association with this project creates a huge amount of publicity. Yesterday, the very popular blog, Deadline Hollywood published an article about “Clash of the Corps.” Who knows how many other major news outlets will jump on publicizing this show just because “The Rock” is involved. Inspiring Young People – You’d be crazy if you said that this reality show won’t bring new fans to the activity. We all know the moment that we were first exposed to drum corps and that event changed our lives. Why can’t this show be that for some young people who have never been exposed to DCI before? Maybe it will only be a few dozen, but I bet there will be kids showing up to drum corps auditions in November because they saw this show and that was their first exposure to this activity. Building New Fans – Creating adult fans is just as important to the marching arts activity. They are the ones who not only purchase tickets to live shows and buy merchandise, but they can be the ones that make a difference by driving vehicles, sewing uniforms, building props, cooking meals and helping out anywhere that’s needed. You may think that those volunteers are only parents of marching members, but we’ve met a number of adult volunteers who don’t fall into that category. Showcasing a Positive Youth Activity – We live in interesting times, and our culture certainly needs positive activities for our youth. The timing of this show seems perfect to us, especially when people are tired of seeing the same stuff over and over again on social media and television. The young people who participate in drum corps work so hard and are truly inspirational.

While there have been many documentaries that focus on drum corps, there has never been a reality show on this subject. I’m sure it was hard for the people behind this series to figure out exactly how to make it work. They are creating something brand new, and even if it’s not perfect, you have to give them some respect for doing it. They are setting the bar for the way this activity will be portrayed in this format. Fans of drum corps have been critical about some of the promotional images, and we understand that, but cut them some slack. The marketing people are most often not the same people who are creating the show.

The bottom line is that building a larger fanbase for the marching arts helps all of the organizations involved. More kids want to participate, more dollars (and volunteers) come in to support these groups, which allows more marching bands, drum corps, indoor drum lines, color guards, and other related organizations to form with a higher chance of being successful. Seems like a big win for everyone.

It was announced yesterday that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will host an exclusive look at the first episode of “Clash of the Corps” on Tuesday, October 4th on his Facebook page. This seems like the perfect opportunity to grab some friends, or family members who aren’t very familiar with drum corps, and have a viewing party. You know we’ll be watching!

The Scouts Honor Team