A cappella group performing on stage
The A Cappella Blog

The Remix to Ignition

200 Reasons To Love A Cappella

Reason #118: The Remix to Ignition

One of the joys of being a contemporary a cappella fan over the last decade has been, year after year, watching groups take on songs I never thought they would. Long gone are the days of groups strictly adhering to barbershop or doo-wop (though, even within such sub-genres, groups are experimenting with the boundaries of conventional song choices).

Whether it’s The Syracuse University Mandarins bring The Darkness’s “I Believe In a Thing Called Love” at ICCA Finals in 2004, Rutgers University Casual Harmony espousing material from Muse and System of a Down in 2005, or Reverb mashing up “This Is How We Do It” and “Beat It” with their distinct brand of nerdy pop sensibility in 2013, more and more, the a cappella form is proving limitless.

One of my simplest, borderline guilty pleasures in this vein is watching The Potsdam Pointercounts in 2007—the first year The A Cappella Blog posted even reviews—and seeing the guys take on R. Kelly’s “Remix to Ignition” as the encore to their ICCA quarterfinal win. with a near flawless combination of slick vocals and tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating humor, the song presented a moment in time for college a cappella, defying tradition and embracing the creative latitudes distinctive to this art form.

I love it!

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