The Dawn of the A Cappella Era
Over the past few years, a cappella has worked its way slowly-but-surely into pop culture - it's late night talk show fodder for Anne Hathaway, it's in Vince Vaughn/Jennifer Anniston vehicles, it's in Prius commercials. And every time, it's one more victory for a genre begging for mainstream attention.
Some attribute the recent influx of a cappella to the success of Mickey Rapkin's book, Pitch Perfect: the Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory , which has been optioned by Universal Studios. Others give credit to Ben Folds's University A cappella album, which offers a compilation of his own music performed by a cappella groups all over the country, or to Straight No Chaser, who managed to snag a recording contract from Atlantic Records. Maybe kudos should be given to Blake Lewis and Anoop Desai for bringing a cappella to American Idol, and Ball in the House for rockin' the America's Got Talent stage. Perhaps it's simply a perfect storm.
No matter what the reason, a cappella is steadily on the rise in terms of prevalence in pop culture. No longer do a cappella participants have to explain their genre by referencing the theme song to "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" or asking people to recall Lori Trespicio and the Boston College Bostonians, both of whom were featured on "The Real World: Back to New York."
Soon, three new television shows will continue the trend, and in a big way - NBC's The Great American Sing-Off , Fox's Glee , and a third show indicated by MTV's casting call for a cappella groups.
"The Great American Sing-Off" and MTV's mystery project - which is most likely tied to their somewhat controversial involvement in the finals of the International Championship of Collegiate A cappella - appear to be reality-based competitions. While knowledge of the "aca-projects" proposed by MAlTV and NBC is based largely on speculation, audiences have already been shown what they can expect with Glee - and for the most part, they seem happy with what they saw. Some TV reviewers even gave glowing recommendations.
"I can't say enough good things about the episode. It's hilarious, it's really smart, it's heartwarming, it's perfectly cast, and it's one of the best pilots I've ever seen," said Mindy Monez of Television Without Pity . "Even if you don't like musicals, I would still recommend checking it out - the production numbers are fantastic, but I promise the show is a lot more than that."
The pilot episode - and its 12.5 million viewers - gave Fox executives incentive to ask for 13 new episodes to air this fall, beginning on Wednesday, September 16, at 9/8 Central.
Written By Candice Leigh Helfand
