The Arts/Music/Marching/Drumcorps category contains general and relevant information to the whole drum corps activity.
Drumcorps, or more accurately Drum and Bugle Corps (D&BC), is an activity based from the early fife and drum and bugle bands of the late 19th and early 20th century. Members of many of these were grown men. Later the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), and other civic organizations created their own auxiliary youth groups or junior corps. Over time, these senior and junior groups changed their venue from marching in parades to performing precision drills for competition. The VFW and American Legion were the de-facto rule makers for this activity.
In the early 1970's, faced with stringent rules imposed on the junior corps by the VFW, and an activity that was dying, several top junior D&BC's formed Drum Corps International (DCI) as an alternate sanctioning organization. DCI was almost immediately successful and allowed greater artistic freedom to the activity that has continued to this day and allowed Junior Drum and Bugle Corps to be the most successful form of this activity. Membership in a Junior Corps is restricted to those 21 and under on the last day of the DCI Final competition each year.
Senior Drum Corps look to a similar organization, Drum Corps Associates, for guidance. Many members in a Senior Corps are those who "aged-out" of a Junior Corps. Many Senior Corps will allow membership below 21 years.
Junior D&BC's should be listed under the Junior Corps category.
Senior D&BC's should be listed under the Senior Corps category.
"Grab Bag, Trivia, and other Artifacts" contains miscellany about drum corps. Personal diaries for instance.
"History and Archives" is for pages devoted to expired corps, information on competition seasons, corps playlists, etc.
The Europe and Asia subcats are for the international scene. These corps do not necessarily follow the age distinction that the American Junior and Senior divisions have. For this reason they are not listed under the Junior or Senior Corps cats.
There are active groups made up of alumni from junior d&B corps which like to perform d&bc type shows. They are not competitive senior corps but do perform and have fun.
Over the years many drum and bugles corps have been started and just as many have stopped operations. This category provides a place for innactive, retired, and folded drum corps web pages.
All Junior Corps and associated activities belong in this category
Junior Drum and Bugle Corps (D&BC or Drum Corps)) is a competitive drum and bugle corps activity consisting of members up to the age of 21. Drum Corps International is the main sanctioning organization for Junior Drum Corps in the world but has most of its activities in the USA and Canada.
Within DCI there are Divisions I, II, and III which are based mostly upon group size.
Many larger Division I Junior Corps also have cadet programs which may compete in Division II or III. These cadet programs are also known as feeder corps.
The Drum Corps activity for people over 21 is Senior Corps. Actually many senior D&BC are open to people age 16 and over.