The First Time You Hear a Song After You’ve Heard It A Cappella
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 #131: The First Time You Hear a Song After You’ve Heard It A Cappella
It’s no secret that one of the coolest parts of attending an a cappella show—particularly at the collegiate level, is walking away having been exposed to new music you may not have come across in your everyday life. The intersection of college students and people who love music is prime territory to be exposed to something off beat, on the cusp of becoming cool, or otherwise off the mainstream radar, but nonetheless awesome.
We’ve all heard songs translated from conventional instrumentation into a cappella—sometimes it’s great, sometimes it doesn’t work out so well. It’s pretty fantastic to hear a song performed (artfully) a cappella first, though, and then go back to discover the source material, reverse-engineering the process of the arrangement and elements performance to see how they link back to the original song, not to mention walking away with a new artist or album to explore.
I love it!