![]() ![]() SIMON: Let me ask you about University of Virginia, the a capella scene, because as you've noted, it's very rich. I mean, the front rows at these shows are freshmen girls screaming, just huge, huge reactions. RAPKIN: Yeah, I mean, that's I think the funniest part about collegiate a capella is maybe if you just hear about it in your mind, you think oh, it's going to be glee clubs, and it's going to, I don't know, really quiet and conservative, and it's nothing like that at all. SIMON: These guys, when they go on tour, can be real sex symbols. Unidentified Men (Singers, The Beelzebubs): (Singing) Domo arigato, Mr. SIMON: Let's listen to the Bubs for a moment. ![]() A few years ago, they recorded this album called "Code Red" that was so imitative and so - basically so worked on in the studio and so produced that their a capella recording sounded indistinguishable from the original tunes, and that sort of marked a shift in the recording community in a capella.Īnd now, they'll spend $30,000 recording an album, phenomenal sums of money for a collegiate group, especially - I mean, there are Indie bands that couldn't come close to spending 30 grand on an album. RAPKIN: Everyone in the country sort of looks of them to set the agenda for recording. SIMON: Would I be wrong to compare them to the Yankees a little bit? I mean, they are considered kind of the preeminent group. I mean, they just have this incredible, rich history, and actually a really rich history of their recordings changing the shape of collegiate a capella. Their founder actually went on to fight in the Vietnam War, and he told this amazing story about how when he left campus, he was on the USS Taluga off the South China Seas, and he was waiting to heard word from campus to see his group that he started still existed, and one day, he gets this manila envelope on the deck of the USS Taluga, and it's a reel-to-reel tape that the group recorded to let him know that he's still around. The Tufts Beelzebubs were founded 45 years ago. SIMON: Let me get you to talk about the Bubs now, if we could. I mean, really unbelievable amounts of money floating around these groups. The Hullabahoos did a big gig at the 2004 Republican National Convention, and they made $13,000 in three days. I mean, groups like the Krokodiloes from Harvard could make $300,000 in a school year. SIMON: And to make this review of the a capella landscape really interesting, there's money to be made, isn't there? They would throw out the top score and the bottom score so that no one judge could affect the outcome again like that. RAPKIN: Yeah, there was this - basically, everyone in the audience thought Divisi had run away with it, which what a shock that was for a female a capella group singing "Yeah" on stage at Lincoln Center, like they'd walked away with it, and the judging comes back, and they'd gotten second place, and they couldn't believe it, and they were devastated, and they were looking at the score sheets, and they were basically blackballed by the one female judge, of all things, from Julliard, who didn't say anything very specific in her comments about the performance but was the only judge who didn't place them first.īasically, everyone - she placed them fourth, and after that year, the people running the ICCA changed the rules so they would - basically like the Olympics. SIMON: There was a controversy over the judging, too. RAPKIN: I think it was just Divisi comes out on stage at Lincoln Center, and they're an all-female a capella group, and all of a sudden they're singing Usher's "Yeah," and they're dancing, and they're sounding great and looking great, and it was just this thing you hadn't seen before about a female a capella group who could really rock out like that and really make an R&B song their own, and people just sort of stood up at attention, and it just changed the way people looked at what you could do in competition. SIMON: What was it about that song that shook up the a capella world? MICKEY RAPKIN (Author, "Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory"): Thanks for having me. ![]() Rapkin joins us from our studios in New York. ![]() The book weaves together the stories of three a capella groups during the 2006-2007 academic year and takes us toward the ICCA competition, where Divisi tries to claim the title. It's just one of many dramas that play out in the new book "Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory" by Mickey Rapkin. Many felt they were robbed of that year's International Championship for Collegiate A Cappella, ICCA if you please. They wowed a crowd at Lincoln Center with this performance in 2005. It's Usher's "Yeah," and it was sung on stage by Divisi, the women's a capella group from the University of Oregon. ![]()
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