The YouTube Catalog
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 #48: The YouTube Catalog
These days, when someone first gets into a cappella music, it’s not unusual to hop on the Internet and start looking up a cappella versions of all his favorite songs, or to look up every song ever recorded by her particular group of choice. Every video leads to dozens of related videos, providing an outlet through which a fan can easily burn through hours of time.
It’s often been said that the Internet makes the world a smaller place, and particularly in the case of a cappella, the Internet affords groups unprecedented opportunities to share their work. No longer do groups limit themselves to striving for campus celebrity status. The guys of Oregon’s On the Rocks cultivated a national, if not international fan base with their take on “Bad Romance.” And what of UW Redefined’s medley of Nintendo songs, put on YouTube in 2006 and pushing 3 million views at the time of this writing? How about one man a cappella bands like Mike Tompkins or Sam Tsui? I’m just scraping the surface here—rest assured, there’s a world’s worth of incredible material out there.
I love it!