How Pentatonix, ‘Pitch Perfect’ have made a cappella mainstream
Updated February 13, 2015 2:53 PM
By GLENN GAMBOA glenn.gamboa@newsday.com
(L-R) Singers Mitch Grassi, Scott Hoying, Avi Kaplan, Kirstie Maldonado, and Kevin Olusola of Pentatonix, winners of Best Arrangement, Instrumental or a Cappella for ‘Daft Punk,’ pose in the press room during The 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards at the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 8, 2015. Photo Credit: Getty Images/ Frazer Harrison
Deke Sharon laughs at the idea that the current a cappella boom could somehow have been planned.
“Look at this from the perspective of someone in the music industry,” says Sharon, who not only produced the a cappella competition “The Sing-Off,” but was also vocal producer on the movie “Pitch Perfect” and its upcoming sequel. “They’re thinking they need to get this current pop song and thinking about singles from albums and what songs from the movie are really going to hit.”
Instead, it was “Cups.” It was Anna Kendrick’s song from “Pitch Perfect” that became a massive pop hit that busted down the doors to the mainstream for this new wave of a cappella music.
“The idea that a solo, lone a cappella performance, with the sound of a little cup banging in the background, of a folkie 1934 bluegrass song would become the biggest song from a music movie in the past five years, until ‘Let It Go,’ is preposterous,” Sharon says. “Find me something that’s more ridiculous than that song becoming quadruple platinum . . . It was the culmination of all of the fun, the good vibes that went into the movie.”
Those good vibes are expected to multiply now, as a cappella gets ready to move to the next level. “Pitch Perfect 2” is set to open in theaters in May, with a huge marketing push behind it that included an ad during the Super Bowl. “The Sing-Off” concert tour, which stops at the Best Buy Theater Thursday and NYCB Theatre at Westbury on Feb. 25, is playing to packed venues across the country. And Pentatonix, the a cappella phenomenon that had 2014’s fourth-biggest album with “That’s Christmas to Me,” won its first Grammy last week.
In some ways, Pentatonix’s success magnifies what attracts music fans to a cappella. “We recorded this in a bedroom closet, filmed it in the kitchen, and now we’re winning a Grammy,” Pentatonix’s Scott Hoying said, accepting the award for best arrangement for its song “Daft Punk.” “It just goes to show that anything is possible.”
For Brooklyn-based Traces, which appeared on last year’s “Sing-Off” special and will open the New York date on the tour, their love of a cappella music started initially as a financial concern.
“We used to play with a five-piece band,” says Traces’ Gbianka Kotee. “But musicians are expensive.”
After getting some advice to try a cappella performance, Traces found that they enjoyed the singing experience even more. “It’s difficult,” Kotee says. “A band can cover up so many mistakes. But this way, you can really interpret a song.”
And as an African-American group that started in the church, Traces knows they are breaking new ground. “Most African-American music, including gospel, is so drum-driven,” Kotee says. “What we do is so different.”
Sharon says more and more music fans are embracing a cappella because it is so different from so much of pop music today.
“There’s a bit of a backlash against all the technology in music,” Sharon says. “The human element is the most important part of music. The human voice is the only thing that can make you laugh or cry in two seconds.”
He says that now, modern a cappella groups have added more rhythmic sounds to their arrangements to match the more beat-heavy hits that are all over pop radio. The addition of drum-and-bass sounds makes modern a cappella sound more current to fans than barber shop quartets or doo wop groups.
“I think people realize the real is better than the artificial,” Sharon says. “You see that in food and in art and in singing . . . It’s something special, something you’re not going to see on a major pop tour.”
Bringing that experience to people is why Sharon wanted to keep “The Sing-Off” tour going, even if the show’s future on NBC is uncertain. “I’ve always known a cappella is better live,” he says. “Nothing compares to being in the room and hearing it.”
He says that energy helps feed his other passion: Getting people to sing. “It used to be part of our culture that people would sing,” Sharon says. “Now people don’t sing because they can’t sing like a star. Why compare yourself to the greatest voices of all time? Just make music. There are so many people in your area that you can sing with.”
One success of getting people to enjoy music and stepping outside their comfort zone will be seen in “Pitch Perfect 2,” when members of the Green Bay Packers compete in a sing-off with the movie’s stars.
“They had a blast,” Sharon says, adding that the football players rehearsed on their own and then only had two days to record and film their parts. “I’m so excited about people seeing that . . . A cappella has always been with us, but we might just be in a time where it is particularly powerful again.”
WHAT “The Sing-Off Live”
WHEN | WHERE 8 p.m. Thursday, Best Buy Theater, 1515 Broadway, Manhattan; and 8 p.m. Feb. 25, NYCB Theatre at Westbury, 960 Brush Hollow Rd., Westbury
INFO $39.50-$69.50; 516-334-0800, livenation.com
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Rising stars of a cappella
A cappella’s move into the mainstream goes well beyond the chart-topping “Pitch Perfect” and the omnipresent “Cups.” Here’s a look at some of a cappella’s biggest stars:
PENTATONIX
GENRE Pop
STORY The quintet from Arlington, Texas, won the third season of “The Sing-Off” in 2011, but it may be their ongoing series of YouTube videos and innovative a cappella takes on pop hits that really built their following. Last year, they had two Top 5 albums and a theater tour that included a sold-out stop at the Beacon Theatre.
BIGGEST HIT “That’s Christmas to Me” (No. 2, 2014)
BENEDICTINES OF MARY, QUEEN OF APOSTLES
GENRE Classical
STORY The Catholic nuns started selling CDs of them singing Gregorian chants and a cappella traditional Christmas songs to raise money to pay for their new priory north of Kansas City, Missouri. They soon drew the attention of Decca Records, who released their albums.
BIGGEST HIT “Angels and Saints at Ephesus” (No. 1, classical chart, 13 weeks, 2013)
HOME FREE
GENRE Country
STORY The quintet from Minnesota honed their country style at state fairs for years before entering and winning “The Sing-Off” in 2013 with a combination of a cappella versions of country classics and countrified versions of pop hits.
BIGGEST HIT “Crazy Life,” (No. 8 country, 2014)