Cancelled

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand here’s where I get cancelled.

I’m not going to have a political discussion here, so if you’re looking for a monologue that you can use as fodder for your deepfake video, you’re not gonna get it. (Nyah, nyah)

 

However, I should probably state my own personal opinion, so you at least have a basis for the what comes next. (Begin cancellation in 10…9…)

 

If I lose readers, I lose readers. Although, I don’t have any readers, so this shouldn’t worry me too much.

 

I am a proud ally for the LGBTQ+ community. I believe:

 

Love is love.

Black Lives Matter.

Science is real.

Feminism is for everyone.

No human is illegal.

Kindness is everything.

 

There you go. It’s not everything, but it’s enough to make you understand where I’m coming from. 

 

Ahh, I can almost hear those website-closing-clicks now…

 

This past weekend, 7 million people who agree with me took to the streets in a protest against authoritarian rule. I could not attend because 1) I’m allergic to big crowds of people, 2) My kids had stuff to do and I’m their chauffeur, and 3) It was my birthday so shut up.

 

Okay, the real reason I don’t go to protest marches is because I don’t believe they do anything. (Sorry, HERE’S where I get cancelled)

 

It’s not that I’m against protests or believe that the act of protesting should be illegal. Far from it. I just don’t understand what practical benefits a protest can bring. I mean, it seems to me like people gather together, walk some distance, and then leave. What gets accomplished besides everyone getting exercise?

 

I’ve felt this way for years. I’m a practical guy-I believe the “how” something gets done is far more important than the “why” something gets done. (Don’t even get me started on philosophy…)

 

On Saturday, I began to understand the purpose of protest marching. Honestly, seeing that many people protest actually gave me hope for the future. It told me I wasn’t alone (which I felt like I was) and that my fears are not unwarranted. (which I thought they were)

 

I swear I’m getting to a cappella music…

But the practical side of me doesn’t see any change happening. I believe that if you want to change something, you do something about it or you vote. Protests, I thought, did not accomplish either of those things. (Nope, HERE’S where I get cancelled)

 

Here’s my point (this is where the a cappella comes in). If you want the change to happen, if you feel helpless in the face of uncertainty, you have the power to do something about it. 

 

Music has been at the center of every major protest since the 60’s. (That’s a guess, I’m sure it’s earlier than that) A good earworm stays in the brain much longer than a famous quote. Music stirs the soul much more than a good speech.

 

We are living in a divided, hostile, somewhat precarious time and many people feel powerless to do anything about it. They hide their head in the sand like an ostrich and wait for everything to blow over.

 

But…staying silent is letting them win.

 

Are you telling me your group can’t sing a protest song in the staircase of your college building?

Are you telling me your group can’t record a single and release it on Spotify?

Are you telling me your group has NOTHING to say about our current climate?

 

I get it. Believe me I get it. You don’t want to ruffle any feathers, you don’t want to piss anyone off, you don’t want to be targeted by someone who disagrees with you.

 

Release the song anonymously. It’s better than doing nothing.

 

I stayed politically neutral for years. I felt like if I stay out of the discussion, then everyone can enjoy my music and I could grow my fanbase from anywhere.

 

But it’s been 8 years and I don’t have any fans. I guess I have nothing to lose.

 

And if you’re reading this blog (all 10 of you), I’m guessing you’re not a member of Pentatonix, so it’s probably safe to say that your fanbase is about as big as mine. That means you have nothing to lose.

 

Music can change the world. We sing music. Ergo, we can change the world.

 

Am I cancelled yet?

 

Marc Silverberg

Marcesilverberg.com

Instagram.com/Docacappella

Facebook.com/Docacappella 

Momma, look at me! I'm a star!

This post is about self-promotion.

I hate self-promotion.

When I see people promote themselves on social media, I go throw up in a wastebasket. And if there’s no wastebasket around, I’ll find one, bring it downstairs to my desk, make sure it’s in exactly the right place…empty it out if anything smelly is in there…maybe take a nap…and then I’ll throw up in it.

 I have never been comfortable bragging about myself. 

 I mean, I suck. What is there to brag about? 

 “Hey everyone! I didn’t let my restless leg syndrome keep me up until 3 in the morning! Yay!”

 See what I did there? Now you know I have restless leg syndrome. And that I’m usually awake at 3 in the morning.

 That’s the only kind of self-promotion I’m comfortable with: Self-deprecating, minimizing the accomplishments, and informing the reader through sneaky, underhanded methods.

 But if I don’t promote myself, how will you know what I’m working on? And how do I tow that fine line between helpful promotion and annoying infomercial? And where the hell am I going with all of this?

 My fears stem from the following:

- I am 99% sure no one cares what I’m working on.

- I am 99% sure that there’s people just like me who will throw up in a wastebasket every time they see a self-promotion.

- I am 99% sure that people will think I’m either egotistical or desperate.

Now, let’s take my friend…ummm…I need an alias so he doesn’t know I’m talking about him…C Arthur. No, that’s too obvious. Charlie A. Perfect.

 Charlie A has had enormous success in the a cappella market because he is not afraid to self-promote. I dare say, he’s currently living the life I wish I had:

 -He’s often called upon to sub in for multiple professional groups

-He’s currently in a long-distance group

-He’s in high demand as a judge, collaborator, and presenter

 

Now let’s compare his life with mine:

 -I have never been called upon to sub in for multiple groups. In fact, I once got the chance to sing a solo with Backtrack and I sounded like someone had put a kazoo inside a dying bagpipe, shoved that inside a vacuum cleaner, and then asked the vacuum to belt “Defying Gravity.”

-I am not in a long-distance group. I tried starting one once. It failed for multiple reasons.

-I am not in high demand as anything. Sure, I MC a bunch of shows, but I’m pretty sure the directors are letting me do it out of pity. 

 Let us also pause and take into account how ridiculously talented Charlie A is. He’s not getting these opportunities out of luck, he’s earning them.

 Sorry. This was not supposed to be a pity party. I don’t want your pity. I want to be confident and strong enough to self-promote without feeling like I’m annoying you.

 So, to all of you who feel the way I do…

To everyone who doubts their talent and wishes they could have more opportunities…

To the masses who worry about cluttering up the A cappella NOW Facebook group…

 I say this: Suck it up and self-promote.

 It’s like the lottery. Sure, there’s no way in hell you’re going to win, but you can’t have a shot if you don’t buy the ticket.

 In the spirit of “sucking it up,” I’m going to self-promote.

 

Hello friends! Did you know Marc is available for sub-in singing work? It’s true!

 

-He learns music really, really fast.

-He’s the world greatest sight reader. (I can sight-read ANYTHING)

-He has NO desire to steal anyone’s solo- you can TOTALLY give away all of his supposed solos and he will be perfectly happy with that!

-He will spend every waking minute of his life obsessing about your set and getting it right because he wants to please you so very, very badly! (This could be a good thing or a bad thing…your choice)

-He has spent his life perfecting the art of “not sticking out.”

-He has lots of experience singing incredibly difficult harmonies! (I sang the baritone part of the Real Group’s arrangement of “It Don’t Mean A Thing.” BY. MY. SELF.)

-He’s super good with technology!

 

[Author’s note: I’m going to write a whole blog about my singing voice…just you wait…]

 Now see…I just re-read this last part and I feel stupid. I feel like you’re judging me because it looks like I’m desperate, when in fact I’m just curious.

 

THIS is the problem with self-promotion. 

 Now I’m going to go throw up in a wastebasket.

 

Marc Silverberg

Marcesilverberg.com

Instagram.com/docacappella

I'm old! Gimme, gimme, gimme!

 I’m old. Gimme, gimme, gimme! – Abraham Simpson

Thank you for all the wonderful discussions and feedback I got from my soft reboot post. I would like to address a couple of comments:

1) No. I will not, as you so eloquently put it, “cut off my hands with a chainsaw so you don’t have to be subjected to this garbage.” 

2) I assure you I’m not “delusional, deranged, and smelly.” Just because I write these posts sitting in the basement of my mother’s house with all of the lights turned off does not mean I’m a conspiracy theorist.

 

With that out of the way…

This post is going to address two main things, both related to the growth and development of a cappella. 

 

When I started this blog thirteen (13!) years ago, I was a fresh-faced 29-about-to-turn-30-year-old. I felt like a million bucks. I felt all clean and new, bursting with can-do spirit and a desire to prove myself. The world was my burrito.

 

I’m about to be 43. Everything hurts. I nap as frequently as Garfield. I now have to accept the fact that I’m a member of the “old guard,” and not the up and coming “new guard.” All my a cappella friends have abandoned me for real jobs. No one in the a cappella community will hire me because I look like a homeless man wandering the halls of a convention. 

 

Okay. This is depressing. 

 

I look back at all of the things I wanted to learn, the experiences I’ve had, the knowledge I’ve acquired. Those were the best years of my life, and I was extremely fortunate that so many people opened up their brains and let me root around inside their consciousness. 

 

But now I look at the new, younger, prettier class of a cappella stars. They have advanced so quickly and so completely that they put my thirteen years of slow, steady work to shame. They’re getting the jobs, making the arrangements, acquiring the notoriety. 

 

I hate them. 

I hate them and their stupid faces. 

I hate how clever and smart they are. 

I hate the way they post long diatribes in the comments section. 

I hate how many clients they have. 

I hate their constant, upbeat, smiles. 

I hate that they have a PhD in “being swell” and a masters in “Everybody loves me!” 

I HATE THEM, I HATE THEM, I HATE THEM!!!

 

[We here at Quest for the A cappella Major would like to apologize for the recent hurtful rants and ravings of a lunatic. Marc’s personal views do not reflect this company, and rest assured we have fed him so he is no longer hangry.]

 

Whew! Sorry about that. Man, things got REAL there for a second.

Hey younger a cappella stars! I certainly don’t hate you. In fact, I’ve offered advice to many of you and will continue to do so whenever asked. The fact is, I’m jealous. Not specifically of you, but of all the knowledge and opportunities you have laid out before you. None of these books, or articles, or social media posts, or private lessons, or online classes were available to me when I was your age. 

 

Resources like these:

 

Books: A cappella pop, The Heart of Vocal Harmony, A cappella Warm-ups, A cappella, A cappella Arranging, A cappella Arranging 2, Powerful Voices, Pitch Perfect, A cappella 101, So You Want To Sing A cappella, Teaching Music Through Performance in Contemporary A cappella

 

Websites: A cappella Masterclass, A cappella Educators Association, CASA, Barbershop Harmony Society, RARB, Varsity Vocals

 

Media: Pitch Perfect 1, Pitch Perfect 2, Pitch Perfect 3, Pentatonix: On My Way Home, Just Sing, Counterpoint, Talkappella

 

Education: Competitive Workshop, Arranger Roundtable, ACDA Fusion Choir, Find Your Next Level, Private Voice Studios from A cappella Singers, Viridian Productions, Sing Toronto

 

I’m definitely forgetting a lot more, but you get the idea.

Oh. And don't forget that you can LEGALLY PURCHASE A CAPPELLA ARRANGEMENTS ONLINE!! This was a thing we did not have 13 years ago.

 

But I have to remember that it was us, the old guard, who created such things. We created such things so that you could shine like we never could. The happiest moment of a teacher’s career is seeing their student succeed beyond their wildest dreams. And I am genuinely proud to be one of those “teachers.”

 

Welp, I hope you enjoyed that last bit. Because it’s all downhill from here…

 

Let’s talk about money. 

 

Several comments from the last diatribe made the argument that the root of this problem may in fact be economical. 

 

I probably should have paid more attention in economics class…

 

Now I’m not a professional performer and I’m not a member of a professional performing group, so I can’t directly address the specific needs of performing groups; And of course, every group is different and has different priorities. If you want specifics, you’re going to have to ask them. Or, you know, go here: https://www.acappellamasterclass.com

 

The bit that worries me is how difficult it must be for these group members, many of which I call friends. I want them to succeed. I want them to be able to perform full time and live their dreams. But they’re fighting for stage space like every other musician out there, and they have what seems to be a disadvantage, because they’re a niche group.

 

It’s this last sentence that really makes my point. I hypothesize that in the last decade, when a cappella was at its peak, it was actually an advantage to be an a cappella group, riding the coattails of Pitch Perfect and Pentatonix. But now it seems like this advantage has turned into a disadvantage, and I wonder why. Of course, this is an educated guess. 

 

For these groups, I offer this, which I blogged about in 2017. 

 

Of course, a cappella is growing rapidly in the scholastic market. Schools are not businesses (suck it David Pickler!) and money is (mostly) available. This can only be good for the community as a whole, but what happens to those a cappella junkies who want to sing a cappella full time when they get out of school? And what happens if the market gets too overcrowded? Again, go here. 

So how do these two topics relate to each other? The answer is “mid-life crisis.”

 

Take my earlier paragraph about being part of the “old guard.”(which, in this metaphor, are the professional adults) In a way, this is a metaphor for what groups are facing right now. It feels like a cappella is getting old (even though it isn’t), and the monetary value of such groups has gone down. Yet, the “young guard” (which in this metaphor represents scholastic expansion) are flourishing, backed by the (mostly) rock solid structure that a school music program can provide. (Do NOT make me go into how that’s disappearing as well. This post is long enough, and I’m already depressed.)

 

When I asked the question “Is a cappella dead,” I was more referring to the stagnation of our community. It feels like we’re going through a mid-life crisis, just as I am now.

 

Sorry this has been an overall dour post. To make up for it, here’s a video of someone feeding a baby penguin.

 

Marc Silverberg

Marcesilverberg.com

Instagram.com/Docacappella

Is A cappella Dead?

 Is A cappella Dead?

 

It’s over ladies and gentlemen. The fad of singing pop songs together in a group has run its course. We are no longer the hottest fad sweeping the nation. We’ve been replaced…

 

By Labubus.

 

Okay I’m kidding. I mean, I’m not kidding, Labubus are everywhere and there’s no logical reason why these demon-bunny-like-creatures-who-are-obviously-a-copyright-infringement-of-Where-The-Wild-Things-Are should permeate the hearts and minds of our young children. But they do, and we have to live with it. 

 

Let’s hope this dies out quicker than Beanie Babies. Or at least, Pogs.

 

Sorry, tangent over. Hi! If you’re reading this blog for the first time, you’re probably horribly confused and possibly a little gassy. 

 

See, I got my start by writing about a cappella. I chronicled the development of my doctoral dissertation where I created a four-year college interdisciplinary curriculum for contemporary a cappella.

 

No one read it.

 

So I started comparing a cappella advice to pop culture phenomena. 

 

Ten people read it.

 

Then one day, I got really really really really really fed up with people misunderstanding the definitions of “medley” and “mash-up,” and I wrote a post that cleared the whole thing up.

 

Lots of people read it. Way too many people. 

 

I wrote blog posts for about 8 years. I covered as many topics as I could, from reviewing festivals to complaining about the members of my a cappella group not listening to a word I said. Then 2020 happened and the blog died. 

 

I’ve decided to bring it back as a response to my own question, kind of like what would happen if you called the fire department to report a fire, then actually lit the fire to make sure they had something to save.

 

Is a cappella as we know it dead?

 

Short answer: No.

 

Long answer: Kind of.

 

Answer I should write so Deke doesn’t call me on the phone and yell at me: Of course not! A cappella can never die!

 

A cappella had a phenomenal decade from 2009-2019. The Sing-Off gave every group hope that they could be a star. Pitch Perfect brought the ICCA and riff-off’s into the cultural zeitgeist. In Transit brought a cappella singing to Broadway. The A cappella Education Association brought teachers together. At one point, CASA had 6 (SIX!) yearly festivals running. It was a great time to be an a cappella fan.

 

Then 2020 and the pandemic killed off a lot of groups. One of my favorite groups, Canadian group Cadence, retired. Another one of my favorite groups, Fermata Town, kind of faded into the background. Hell, even my group dissipated. 

 

So where do we go from here? Well, to circle back to the original question “Is A cappella Dead?” my suggestion is evolution. Here’s the problem we’re facing:

 

1) Festivals are booking the same groups over and over again, or they’re booking acts that aren’t even a cappella

2) A cappella is no longer prominent in the media. (Let’s face it…we’re not getting Pitch Perfect 4)

3) It feels like groups are churning out tracks at a record rate, but very few of these tracks have anything new to say.

 

I am sorry if this opinion rattles your cage a little bit. That was kind of the idea. Make no mistake, I’m a die hard, a cappella true-believer. But even I’m getting bored and find myself drifting slowly away from the thing I love more than my own children more than my Labubu collection. 

 

Let’s look at brighter sides. What is helping us currently evolve?

 

1)    GAIA- Formed by Matt Goldstein, this company (Collective? Group? Pack?) has found success hosting nightly circle singing workshops and one-day choirs. This year, they’ve expanded their reach beyond Brooklyn and they have taken their act on the road both nationally and internationally. You can find out more about there here: https://www.facebook.com/gaiamusiccollective/

2)    BGAC- Broadway Goes A cappella- Formed by Andrew Kim, Evan Feist, and Charlie Arthur, this twice-a-year concert has penetrated the Broadway community and even lured in some true Broadway stars to sing solos. https://www.facebook.com/broadwaygoesacappella

3)    Grammys- Thanks mostly to Pentatonix, pop a cappella has been recognized as part of a GRAMMY-eligible category. Not only that, but there are more than a few a cappella superstars like Kevin Child and Mel Daneke who have been accepted onto the GRAMMY voting board.

4)    Education- Rob Dietz, if you didn’t know, is the chair of repertoire and standards for contemporary a cappella in ACDA. Thanks to big pushes from him and educational leaders, ACDA is starting to form pop a cappella honors choirs and pop a cappella has become a popular topic at national festivals. I myself presented at the 2023 national convention about contemporary a cappella. (See that? That was an explanabrag.) 

5)    Counterpoint- The popular podcast by Rob and Deke Sharon has been brought back, and now they’re tackling more than just arranging questions. https://www.facebook.com/counterptpod

6)    The NY Collective- Grammy-award-winning Ben Bram has moved to New York (ha ha take THAT California!) and formed a pop a cappella choir with rotating auditions and singers.

7)    AAVF- Though not really new(ish), the AAVF (Aarhus Vocal Festival) has been campaigning for more collaboration, more improvisation, and more diversity. Just watch their final concert of the festival (I forget the name…). You’ll see ten a cappella groups, working and performing together, all with lights, scenery, and staging. I caught the 2024 performance and let me tell you…This performance ALONE was worth the price of admission. https://aavf.dk/

 

Let’s get real for a second. Of course, any type of group singing is positive. Just because you’re churning out arrangement after arrangement does not mean you’re doing anything bad. And for the 90% of a cappella groups/choirs/barbershop quartets/vocal jazz groups, evolution is not on their minds, and that’s great. Keep singing, keep making the world a more harmonious place.

 

For the 10% of us who want to push the boundaries of a cappella and show the world something new…we have to step it up.

 

Is a cappella dead? Of course not. Vocal music was the very first kind of music and will undoubtedly be the very last kind of music (Suck it Oboes!). But honestly, and this is just my opinion, we’ve hit a plateau and we need to climb.

 

Marc Silverberg

Marcesilverberg.com

@docacappella on Instagram