Splitting ICCA
In Measure for Measure, A Cappella Blog contributor takes a look at both sides of a controversial issue in collegiate a cappella. Please note that the views expressed by columnists do not necessarily represent those of The ACB as an organization, nor do they necessarily represent the view of individual columnists. The purpose of this piece is to explore issues and further civil, intellectual debate.
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Given the wide range of styles and foci of collegiate a cappella groups today, ICCA should split to have competitions geared more toward groups that focus on musical precision, and more toward groups focused on entertaining an audience.
True: There are a cappella groups chock full of gifted musicians, with out-of-this-world blend, perfect harmonies, and unbeatable percussion. There are groups who can combine fine musicality with absolutely brilliant choreography. There are groups that can perform their sox off, drawing more laughs than most stand up comedians with their quirky song choices, movements, or performance decisions. There is some overlap between these different brands of performance. The fact remains, however, that the best of the best in each area deserve different, unique brands of praise. It is not fair for the best musicians to fall short in competition, because they aren’t dancers. It wouldn’t be much fun for the best performers to give up movement and good humor in favor of optimizing their musical performance, when they might not be able to measure up in that area. Trying to have such stylistically divergent groups compete for the same prizes makes little sense, and demands arbitrary judging. The solution? Split these groups up. Let groups pick their priorities and shoot for the moon.
False: Musicality and showmanship are not mutually exclusive, and it’s insulting to many top groups to insinuate that they are. In the modern scene of competitive collegiate a cappella, the best groups are able to make great music the key component of a great performance. The ICCA has this issue well in check with its system for judging, assigning precisely defined point values for each component of a performance, accounting for visual and vocal performance, not to mention a subjective scoring component to give judges the chance to recognize overall excellence. The system works as is.