What Style of Music are A Cappella Groups Performing?

In the fall of 2010, The A Cappella Blog invited every collegiate a cappella group we could find to participate in a survey. Our objective was to develop a better understanding of current trends in a cappella—what groups are or are not doing and to what degree.

Over 300 groups from across the US and abroad responded to the survey. Throughout our 2010 publication season, we will review results from this survey and talk about what our findings mean. We welcome and encourage groups to look over the information to learn, to benchmark and to satisfy their own curiosity.

This edition’s question: What title would most accurately describe your group?

Of the groups surveyed, and overwhelming 85 percent self-identified as contemporary a cappella groups. This is particularly interesting because the days of collegiate groups performing Top 40 music counting as a novelty act may have more or less passed. Contemporary adaptations are increasingly the norm, leaving the classical, barbershop, and religious acts more to niche, fringe ensembles.

There are a number of reasons we may suggest for this finding, but one of the most prominent is the cool factor. A cappella has wriggled its way into the mainstream with its focus on hit songs—music that the everyday listener actively wants to hear over and over again, and actively wants to hear converted to new mediums such as a cappella. While the musical merit of the religious, classical and barbershop styles are no less valid (and, in many cases, are much more so) they’re generally just not as palatable to a mainstream audience.

Of course, out of the contemporary style, still more are emerging with plenty of groups espousing hard rock, rap, or other, more specific genres that don’t seem like natural fits for a cappella, and are therefore all the more surprisingly enjoyable when they succeed. My personal favorite step in this movement may be the work of George Washington University Emocappella—devoted, of course, to the sounds of emo.