For the uninitiated, it can be difficult to understand why people love a cappella. Heck, even for those of us who do actively enjoy it, it can be difficult to put into words why we enjoy this art form so. While we’ll never have a truly comprehensive list of everything cool about a cappella, 200 Reasons to Love A Cappella is our best attempt at assembling a list of what makes it great.

Reason #9: Killer Samples

As an art form that has its roots and its core in live performance, a cappella has the unique opportunity for its performers to sample other songs amidst the ones they are performing.

We’ve all seen it. Sometimes it just sounds right melodically—the bevy of groups performed Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls” a couple years ago, and threw back a sample to “Stand By Me,” or Rochester’s Midnight Ramblers sampling “Ode to Joy” toward the end of “Mr. Brightside.” Sometimes there’s a thematic connection—there’s a time I saw group sample Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” in the middle of Ben Folds’s “Annie Waits,” making it a song of empowerment for Annie.

Sampling is a fantastic way of individualizing a song—while a cappella arrangements are, by their nature different, this ups the stakes, creating a mini-medley of sorts, giving the audience the sense its seeing something genuinely unique and special. Furthermore, it keeps the audience on its toes—taking it out of the safe realm of a familiar song, and experimenting with something new. Not every sample works, but when the do, they can really elevate a performance.

I love it!

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Trying to find a group? Search or sort The ACB Group Directory–the most comprehensive and up to date directory of collegiate a cappella groups anywhere on the Internet!

For the uninitiated, it can be difficult to understand why people love a cappella. Heck, even for those of us who do actively enjoy it, it can be difficult to put into words why we enjoy this art form so. While we’ll never have a truly comprehensive list of everything cool about a cappella, 200 Reasons to Love A Cappella is our best attempt at assembling a list of what makes it great.

Reason #8: Body Percussion

When most of us think of a cappella, we think of human voices carrying the melody, harmonizing with one another, synthesizing the sounds of instruments. Carrying that a step further, there’s vocal percussion–multi-piece drum kits, delivered through the human mouth and its interaction with a microphone. Taking things one step further, you have the clap of hands, the snap of fingers, other traditional pieces of a cappella.

There’s a way to take this all a step further, though. There’s a stomp of the feet. A slap of your chest, or your thigh. All of this, without the benefit of instruments, or synthesizing sounds, can create an organic, raw and powerful sound that rouses audiences, with a truly different technique. Carried out at just the right time, with perfect synchronization, this is the kind of performance techniques that draws goosebumps.

I love it!

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Want to write for The A Cappella Blog? Want to have your photos posted on the site? Want to join The ACB team in another capacity? You’re in luck because we are looking for new staff! Go to our contact page and write to us about what you would like to do.

For the uninitiated, it can be difficult to understand why people love a cappella. Heck, even for those of us who do actively enjoy it, it can be difficult to put into words why we enjoy this art form so. While we’ll never have a truly comprehensive list of everything cool about a cappella, 200 Reasons to Love A Cappella is our best attempt at assembling a list of what makes it great.

Reason #7: Hip Hop Performances

Ask the average joe about his perception of a cappella and you’ll probably a description of an a cappella choir, or a barbershop quartet. Best case scenario, the person will have some semblance of an understanding of a contemporary a cappella, and have a vision of some singers an arc, singing “The Longest Time” or “Stand By Me.”

This is a part of what makes a cappella hip hop so cool. A hip hop performance takes traditionalist audience expectations and turns them on their heads, instead, turning in a performance that is fast, fun, cool and maybe even sexy. Whether it’s UNC Clef Hanger and American Idol alum Anoop Desai breaking down the solo on “Kiss-Kiss,” Glee’s Acafellas raising eyebrows with “Poison,” The University of Michigan GMen performing “Thank You” (as shown below) or any of the hundreds of other seemingly goody-two-shoe, white bread musicians busting out with such tunes each year, this spectacle never fails to entertain.

I love it!

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For the uninitiated, it can be difficult to understand why people love a cappella. Heck, even for those of us who do actively enjoy it, it can be difficult to put into words why we enjoy this art form so. While we’ll never have a truly comprehensive list of everything cool about a cappella, 200 Reasons to Love A Cappella is our best attempt at assembling a list of what makes it great.

Reason #6: Stomp Routines

A group is rocking the stage, singing their hearts out, hitting the notes, putting on a visual display to remember. You can’t help thinking they’ve done everything they possible can to entertain the crowd, and have your hands poised to give them the standing ovation.

But wait, there’s more.

The melody falls out for a moment, falling into pure rhythm. Then there’s a synchronized stomp. Then another. Then hand clapping, complicating the rhythm, growing more complex more difficult. Another stomp.

Yes, what you’ve just witnessed is a stomp routine in the midst of an a cappella song. Some people knock such displays, suggesting that they have nothing to do with the music, and don’t have a place in an a cappella performance. While stomp routines are not, by any means, representative of a cappella in its purest form, neither are they necessarily detrimental to a performance. If a group is doing everything else right, such a display is like dressing—it’s not what brought them to the dance, but is the tuxedo to make the group look all the sharper while its there. What’s more, a stomp routine is, by its nature, a complementary mode of performance—creating rhythm without instrumentation, taking body perc to the next level.

I love it!

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Trying to find a group? Search or sort The ACB Group Directory–the most comprehensive and up to date directory of collegiate a cappella groups anywhere on the Internet!

For the uninitiated, it can be difficult to understand why people love a cappella. Heck, even for those of us who do actively enjoy it, it can be difficult to put into words why we enjoy this art form so. While we’ll never have a truly comprehensive list of everything cool about a cappella, 200 Reasons to Love A Cappella is our best attempt at assembling a list of what makes it great.

Reason #5: Hot Dudes

While my door does not swing this way, I could not justify posting Reason #4 without also acknowledging that a cappella appeals to many, many of its enthusiasts for the attractive men who grace stages across the country. I’ve heard it said that men are most appealing when they’re doing some they’re good at, or something they love. It should come as no surprise, then, that that soloist who makes you swoon, that beatboxer who’s in a class all his own, that guy who isn’t afraid of laughing at himself to get a roar from the crowd is also going to garner some amour. What’s more there’s the Top Gun appeal—who isn’t won over by a serenade?

I love it!

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Want to write for The A Cappella Blog? Want to have your photos posted on the site? Want to join The ACB team in another capacity? You’re in luck because we are looking for new staff! Go to our contact page and write to us about what you would like to do.