A few months back, we relayed to you one of our deepest and most vile of hatreds: A Cappella music, the only art form more embarrassing than bad college improv (Ed. Note: I was on my college improv team. We all make mistakes.) Let us remember those initial anti-cappella statements:
Ahhh…. cappella. Perhaps no other form of organized performance gets my bile flap in a tizzy like a cappella, the finger-snapping, musical college equivalent of an IRS audit. The college I went to had a slew of singing groups to choose from, and it seemed that even though I never attended any of their concerts by choice, I was still subjected to their harmonizing ways at various events. There I would be, lured into our student center by a table of free snacks, and just as my arms were as laden with as many Entenmann’s as a lady could handle, I would hear it: A small Asian girl in the opening throes of “No More ‘I Love You’s’â€; or a group of Christian singers dealing Jesus perhaps the most sinful of blows: A slightly flat version of “Your Love Is Liftin’ Me Higher.†Within seconds, there was a powdered sugar outline where my body once stood as my legs road-runnered it to the door (pastries in hand, of course).
Half a year later, our opinion remains mostly the same. But America? America is a different story. Because, thanks to the new Fox musical comedy series Glee, about a high school glee club, the following news has broken:
A “DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’” A CAPPELLA COVER IS THE NUMBER 2 SELLING SONG ON ITUNES. Now, to be fair, this isn’t authentic a cappella — it starts of unpromising enough, but the Fox producers couldn’t help but throw a little drum/violining combo in towards the middle. But still, we have to wonder… does this signal a resurgence of a cappella popularity? Because not since Billy Joel sang all 14 parts to “For The Longest Time” has this country responded so positively to the ‘cappella.
Friends swear that Glee will be the best part of our Fall of 09. But as this video is all I have to go off of, I’m not sure if I can bring myself to sit through an hour of beaming high school hopefuls… even if they are 34 year old actors. So sure, maybe my heart beats tar… and yes, chances are 100 percent likely that I’ll fall in love with Glee once the summer is over. But for now, the only thing I won’t stop believin’ is that a cappella is the most dreadful of all musical genres.
Listen to the #2 Song on Itunes ahead, and judge for yourself.
