The Sing Off’s Big Question

For those of you who haven’t heard, the Sing Off is an a cappella competition airing on NBC beginning tonight, December 14th at 8PM and continuing at 8PM on the 15th and 16th, with the finale happening on Dec. 21st. Looks like everybody votes for the winner on the night of the 16th. The Sing Off is the biggest deal in the a cappella world, well, basically ever. Why? Because all kinds of regular people - the school janitor, the babysitter, your mom - is going to have a cappella music shoved in their grill for 2 hours by one of the big four networks.

Simply put, The Sing Off is going to provide the best answer ever to the Big Question that, for anyone who’s ever loved a cappella, has always lurked in the back of your mind. If mainstream Americans get a taste of contemporary a cappella, will they think it’s as cool is we think it is? To put that another way, is lack of exposure the only reason a cappella hasn’t gotten huge, blown up, hit the big time, tipped , etc? One of the themes I (Joey) have repeated on this show over and over again is that A cappella has a good 12-18 months in it as a national fad. If that’s ever going to happen, I think it’s going to be in 2010.

Now Acappella U is all about Collegiate A Cappella, and there are four collegiate groups in the competition, the Tuft’s Beelzebubs, USC SoCal VoCals (sort of), BYU NoteWorthy, and Lee University’s Voices of Lee, (never heard of them, but there are lots of great groups I’ve never heard of). Here’s my take on each of the college groups.

The SoCals, an eight member recent-alumni version of the SoCal VoCals, have the best chance on paper. Why? Because they’re a smaller group, and smaller groups just seem to do better in competitions. They’re a little older, better looking and more from Southern California than the rest of the groups. Seriously, there’s NO ONE from NYC in this competition which seems very bizarre, and so the SoCals are going have all of, well, socal, the second largest population center in the country, voting for them by default.

Noteworthy looks GREAT judging by the previews, the girl who looks lie Pink is just fabulous. Also, HUGE kudos to Deke Sharon for the incredible arrangement of Under Pressure you’ll hear the entire cast perform as the opener. To me, the all-female thing will be huge OR they’ll flop big time. Probably the former because they’re gorgeous and VERY good.

Voices of Lee I’ve never heard of, which makes me nervous that the only reason they’re on this show is for the religious right red-state demographic. One of the things I DON’T like about the show is how contrived some of the casting seems. That’s unavoidable to an extent. When I was pitching the TV version of Acappella U, I remember this coming up early and often - stuff like ‘there are black groups and latino groups, too, right?’ And you kind of want to be honest and say, well, yes, sort of, but that’s not why these groups aren’t usually formed along racial and cultural lines, and a lot of the best stuff out there tends to be done by mostly white groups from Ivy-league-ish schools. There are minorities in great a cappella groups, to be sure - Mouth Off’s Christpher Diaz is an incredible talent and one of the pillars of the a cappella community, but amongst tthe ICCA high-achievers and repeat CARA winners, there’s not the broad demographic spread you see in American Idol Finalists. Television networks are very good at tweaking reality to serve their own creative purposes, and all things considered I think that’s fine if it serves the greater good.

Now, if that being said, Voices of Lee is my on-paper Dark Horse provided they’re decent on stage. Those bible-belt people know how to VOTE on shows like this. I mean, they managed to bring down Adam Lambert, the greatest contestant in AI history. Let’s all hope Voices of Lee is in there because they’re a huge talent, not just the best Christian group that came out.

That bring us to the Bubs, the quintessential Alpha Males of recorded collegiate a cappella, who I’d have to guess have more CARAs, BOCA selections and screaming female fans than anybody (can I get a fact check?). I sincerely hope I feel like a fool 24 hours from now for saying this, but I’m a little concerned after seeing the preview clip NBC threw up. I think there are four questions for the Bubs:

1) Will they show up, i.e. are they really all that good? To quote our facebook status, will the Bubs we see tonight be like Tony Stark without the Iron Man suit- a wealthy, super-smart guy completely dependent on technology for his competitive prowess, or more like Bruce Wayne sans Batgear - an incredible natural competitor whose reputation is aided by, but not founded upon, toys & gadgets, i.e. post-production.

2) If the answer to number 1) is yes, then, will it all translate through the TV medium? Will seeing a big group like the Bubs on TV be as good as seeing them live (it isn’t for Hockey)? Micing and mixing big groups is always tough, and there are so many faces and voices to learn.

3) Will it percolate the musical taste buds of John Q Public? This is the aforementioned Big Question.

4) Then there’s the kicker. Even if all those questions are answered with a ‘Yes’ and the Bubs look and sound the best, can America root for the group of rich white kids? I say group because on an individual basis we have no problem rooting for them as long as the national media digs up at least one humanizing attribute (volunteers at a soup kitchen) or heartbreaking storyline (little sister in a wheelchair) to make us feel like they’re OK. But when you have a BUNCH of RWKs, things get a lot tougher. Then you’ve got Cobra Kai, the Eden Hall Academy Varisty Hockey Team, or the heel in every other sports movie in history. When we see a team in a competition who has all the advantages, especially money, we’ve been trained to root against them. NBC has already done a little legwork to counteract this inclination by pointing out on the Sing Off website that the Bubs are actively involved in charity work in the Boston Public Schools, and hope there are liberal doses of that on the actual show.

The Bubs are the toughest test for the contemporary collegiate style - no pretty girls (and though a good looking bunch, they’re not Abercrombie models), no compelling rags-to-riches storyline, no built - in demographic - I guarantee that 4 out of 5 people in the northeast haven’t ever heard of Tufts, let alone know where it is. The Bubs just have (presumably) great singing, incredibly intricate arrangements, vp, etc., and the best, most technically gifted a cappella minds in the competition. We here at Acappella U are hoping against hope that the Bubs take this competition by storm, because in the same way that Pavorotti got the masses into Opera, the Bubs get folks hooked on college a cappella better than anyone else. To some extent this will be true regardless of who wins, but if the Bubs in particular do well on the show and John Q Public goes looking for more of their music, he’ll be blown away by what he finds. The world, my dear students, will then be your oyster.

A Fantastic Trip to Penn. . .

Steve-O and I had a fantastic time at U Penn Off The Beat’s fall show, especially the part where we got a copy of the new CD they released! There were a ton of alumni there so we got to see some old friends and make some new ones, as well as check out the 09-10 group. Our personal fave was Alex Friedlander (a.k.a. the white guy with dreds) as Bono.

After the show we went out for a few drinks, such that drinking for fun is possible at Penn, and were delighted to find that our (read:my) car had been locked into the parking garage where it was napping.

Fortunately, my car’s CD player works! I thought it might have broken due to irrelevance and neglect. We rocked out to Evitative, OTB’s latest joint, while we waited for the Penn Police (no, seriously) to let us out of the car cage, then headed back to the Residence Inn and got crackin’ on the pictures and video we got. Half a bottle of Maker’s and an episode of Mad Men later, it was 2:47 and time for bed.

Thanks to OTB for having us down, and congrats on the BOCA nod guys!!! Video coming soon. . . .

Boston U Interview

Joey was recently interview by a Boston University student for a newspaper there. Here’s the transcript for anyone who cares!

Q: Why is collegiate acappella so popular?

A: Well, you have to separate that into two questions: Why do so many people want to SING in groups and why do are so many non-singers fans of collegiate a cappella.

For singers, that’s sort of like asking why people eat ice cream - it’s awesome by its very nature! I think a lot if a cappella singers are drawn to the music because of the way it FEELS to sing as a part of a group and to harmonize with one another - it’s very pleasurable. I watched a surfing movie the other day and one of the guys they interviewed talked about going through the ‘tube’ of the wave. He said it was the greatest experience in his life, a visceral thrill and ecstasy that he couldn’t match anywhere else. That’s a cappella singing to a lot of us. There’s also those who revel in being a rock star without having to be able to play an instrument. In fact, I have it on good authority that a large percentage of male singers do it for the chicks. Continue reading Boston U Interview…

ICCA Catch Up

The International Championhsip of Collegiate A Cappella results have been pouring in fast and furious, and we’re going to try keeping you up to date here on the Acappella U main page. Of course, you can always head over to the Varsity Vocals Website for more detailed results.

South Region - Quarterfinal 1

1st Place -University of North Carolina-Greensboro Spartones

2nd Place - JMU Madison Project

Midwest Region - Quarterfinal 1

1st Place - University Illinois Xtension Chords

2nd Place - Michigan Gimble 

West Region - Quarterfinal 1

1st Place - USC SoCal VoCals

2nd Place - Fullerton and Citrus These Guys

 

Northest Region - Quarterfinal 1

1st Place - Brown Jabberwocks

2nd Place - Tufts sQ!

Good old a cappella

Hey there Acappella U fans! My name is Mel Voytovich. Joey is starting a new feature on the website - having guest bloggers post their opinions on various a cappella issues. I have the honors of the first post so read up!

As I sit here staring at the blank page on my computer screen wondering what to write for a first blog entry for Acappella U, my mind is filled with a slew of ideas but there is only one thing I can make myself write about, or maybe I should say rant about. As I go through my a cappella collection on my iTunes list, all but three songs I have rated as five stars have unbelievably perfect pitch and rhythm, and is so produced you sit there thinking “there’s no way they sound this much like a guitar.”

Continue reading Good old a cappella…