Jin jo no din do no
Pennchants. Quaker Notes. PennYo. You see all of these names chalked under your feet; in the quad, on Locust, you can’t get past the huge a cappella following at Penn.
This year alone, the groups recognized by the Performing Arts Council had a wide range of auditioners. For Atma, (the all-female South Asian fusion (?) a cappella group), less than ten people auditioned, while the Penny Loafers (the group that I belong to; co-ed rock/pop a cappella) saw a total of 120 auditions.
Acceptance rates vary as well. For Off the Beat, that meant accepting 3% of their prospects, while Chord on Blues took about 50%.
A cappella groups are NO joke. Judging from the number of auditioners, these groups obviously hold some type of collegiate appeal. Perhaps it is the sweet, melodic syllables they use, or singing with some girl from The Real World.
For many others, just the thought of a cappella causes them to punch small children. My dearest friend and alumnus Sam Cohn (C’08), last year’s a cappella chairman says, “I like it a lot less now that I’m not involved.” Perhaps those who hate upon a cappella are simply jealous that they cannot take part in the jovial renditions of popular radio hits. Perhaps they have a strong love of musical instruments.
But whether you’re a hater or a lover, the rigor and talent of these groups often goes overlooked.
Many a cappella group at Penn arrange their own music. This means that an individual listens to a certain song, writes out the score, separates it by parts based on what notes certain people can sing, and then provides fitting syllables for those notes. Syllables like jin, jo, jen, din, no, whoa, ho, fo sho, etc.
Or perhaps you knew that some groups are highly acclaimed in the a cappella world. A female soloist from Off the Beat won best collegiate female solo last year. According to RARB, Off the Beat and the Penny Loafers received a 5/5 and a 4.7/5, respectively, for their soloists on their latest albums (note: I am not featured on this album, so I’m not trying to hint that I am a good soloist).
I salute you, a cappella groups. I don’t hate you, no matter how many of my friends do.
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October 9th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Will this kid quit pimping out Penny Loafers?
First of all, mentioning Penny Loafers and Off the Beat in the same sentence is blatant Penny Loafers trolling. Half of his posts are like Penny Loafer advertisements. You suck! Penny Loafers sucks! You are not Off the Beat, don’t act like you are.
There is no point of this post other than for this kid to point out that Penny Loafers had 150 auditioners while Chord on Blues accepted 50%.
Look, I’m sure the kids enjoy being in these groups because it’s self indulgent (look at the number of people who audition vs. their audience–at best its like 1 auditioner for every 3-4 audience members).
Acapella is stupid and no one enjoys it. It’s just an excuse for everyone to watch one person do a solo, but you need to have a group to get an audience (of the groups’ friends)–so everyone shouts jibberjabber while they take turns singing solo.
I’m sorry, I usually try to refrain from ranting on here but this is at least the second time he’s played up how cool the pennchants are on this site, and he opened the door to criticism when he used his forum to more or less imply how much better they are than Atma and Chord on Blues.