Crowd Clap
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 #88: Crowd Clap
Music has a unique capacity to move people. We catch ourselves humming along to a melody. When we catch the lyrics, we sing along. We bob our heads or tap our feet to the beat. Then, in a phenomenon reserved for live music, we’re moved to clap.
If there’s one element of performance that a cappella has picked up and perhaps even bettered over live concerts with instrumentation, it’s the capacity for drawing audience participation. At the end of a long show or the emotional roller coaster of a twelve-minute competition set, if an a cappella group has done it’s job, the audience is likely aching to applaud. By going for the clap-along on a rabble-rousing finishing song the group gives the crowd that chance to both applaud and add into the bodily instrumentation by clapping right along with the performers on stage. The result a positively sublime experience wherein everyone making a sound in the auditorium has a legitimate stake to be making a part of the music.
I love it!