Last night (Wednesday, December 17, 2014), we were treated to a two-hour spectacular Season Opener / Series run / Finale of The Sing-Off, a group a cappella singing competition show. It was Season 5, all compressed into a teeny tiny compact little two-hour time slot on primetime television on NBC.
Six well-chosen extraordinary groups heralding colorful matching uniforms performed amazing vocal acrobatics as they competed for a $50,000 Sony Music Recording Contract.
I felt as if I had been flicking channels and stumbled upon the yearly NCAA Cheerleading
competition, coming in at the end and having no clue what had already transpired in order for these particular groups to arrive at the finals. I had no idea who they were. I wasn't given the
luxury of getting to know the teams over the course of the season, not even a
short one. I felt as if I had been
cheated, as if I'd walked in at the end of an amazing movie, and hoping to find
it on Netflix so that I could rewatch it from the beginning, sadly realized that
it was not available. I wanted to get to know the team stars and hear their heart
wrenching stories of trials and tribulation; find out how they formed their
groups and trained for countless exhaustive hours; and watch as they grew as
artists over the course of the season in response to the judges' constructive
criticisms.
I missed host Nick Lachey's dorky banter with the judges,
who each had little time to say much of anything. Though Jewel and Dr. Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men returned, Ben Folds was off on tour somewhere and
had to be replaced by Fall Out Boy's lead singer Patrick Stump. Poor Stump
didn't even get his photo featured on the NBC website and is shown as a sad
looking gray silhouette avatar: http://www.nbc.com/the-sing-off/about/bio/patrick-stump
I missed Ben Folds. I missed his dictionary-cracking
vocabulary and insightful and intellectually complicated
redneck-geek-charm-filled critiques.
Dr. Folds should be happy to hear that he finally got a win
for a collegiate a cappella group. He's been rooting for this since Season 1 in
2009 when he helped launch the show with Deke Sharon, Mark Burnett, and Dr. Stockman after
recording a college a cappella album. The black and gold Melodores of
Vanderbilt University, formed right there in Dr. Folds own back yard of
Nashville, Tennessee in 2009 (the same year the Sing-Off debuted), pulled out a
win, beating out five exemplary groups.
I would not be at all surprised to see Folds work with the Melodores in
the studio or on tour.
My fear that the show would sink into the
over-commercialized world of electronic dance music and auto-tuned vocal bands
was dissuaded when the majority of the competing groups happily rejected the
use of aids and stuck to the purist form of a cappella: meaning "in the
manner of the church," without musical accompaniment. Only one group, a.squared, took advantage
of the newer relaxed restrictions and used a loop machine with a dedicated
operator to create a musical backdrop.
In the end, it was all for naught, for they did not advance to the
finals. In my opinion, the Sing-Off should return to the previous strict
requirements. There's no need to muddy the playing field.
I hope that like college cheerleading, a cappella
competition returns to television next year in some format, perhaps aired on
one of NBC's lesser sister networks over the summer, or even under a different
name and with a new producer and record company sponsor. The Sing-Off may have
lived out its life. However, a cappella will never die.
Jodi Walker wrote a nice recap of the season
opener/finale/special for Entertainment Weekly, a la TVgrrrrl style, listing
each act and the songs they performed.
Season 5 Competitors
a.squared
New Haven, CT
5 member male group, formed from Yale University students,
using an electronic loop machine.
The Exchange
Myrtle Beach, SC
5 member male group, formed from various members of other
teams who met on the Sing-Off show while competing.
Melodores
Nashville, TN
14 member male collegiate singing group formed at Vanderbilt University
SanFran6
San Francisco, CA
6 member diverse group, formed to compete on the show.
Timothy's Gift
Nashville, TN
6 member female group, formed as a Christian faith based
ministry to perform in prisons.
Traces
New York, NY
5 member female group, performing jazz and soul music.
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