Military TV, Television - Military Times

A cappella voices carry a growing trend to mainstream

Pop audiences, TV programmers and YouTube browsers are getting hooked on a stripped-down sound that’s harmonious with these back-to-basics times.

A cappella, a centuries-old, church-born music style that showcases voices without instrumental backing, is poised to command a national platform after building a booming base on college campuses:

• NBC is considering a reality show called “The Great American Sing-Off,” in which groups would compete against one another “American Idol”-style and the winner would receive a recording contract. No air date is set, but a casting call has just gone out via MySpace. The concept seems a natural; a cappella groups have served as launching pads for some American Idol contestants, including Anoop Desai, former president of the University of North Carolina’s Clef Hangers, who finished sixth this season.

• Ben Folds, whose complex, offbeat songs have become staples of the collegiate a cappella repertoire, recently released “Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella!”, a collection of his songs featuring 15 groups that auditioned for him via YouTube.

• A crew from MTV filmed the finals of the International Championship of Collegiate a Cappella in New York in April for use in a pilot for a potential series. This year’s winner: Fermata Nowhere of Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif.

• On June 30, Atlantic Records will release the EP “Six Pack: by Straight No Chaser, whose “Holiday Spirits” album became an out-of-the-blue hit last year, selling 110,000 copies. The group, which formed at Indiana University a dozen years ago, covers songs ranging from “Rehab” to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

• The 2008 behind-the-scenes book “Perfect Pitch: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory,” by Mickey Rapkin, has been optioned by Universal Pictures.

Though some professional acts, such as Boyz II Men, have landed on the charts, the genre has mostly thrived on college campuses, where there are more than 1,200 groups, up from 300 two decades ago.

The most successful acts embrace elements of doo-wop, gospel and barbershop harmonies, sophomoric humor and showmanship and apply them to contemporary pop hits. That combination, displayed in hundreds of online video clips, has landed some groups recording contracts and world tours.

It also has made them the butt of running gags on sitcoms such as “Scrubs” (where the music was described as “ear rape”) and “The Office” (where a group rep peddled a $9,000 wedding processional performance of Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al”).

“People writing for these shows now were in college 10 years ago,” Rapkin says. “They saw firsthand how ridiculous it is for 15 guys in sequined vests to be singing Michael Jackson songs without instruments.”

But for Folds, a cappella is an art form, and no laughing matter. “It’s the essence of music, period,” he says.

“People love to hate stuff because that’s how you determine if you’re cooler than someone else.”