 hypocritical writer sings
“Bum bim, bum bim, bum, bum, bum…”
Uh oh.
Sure enough, she breathily intones, “How can you see into my eyes, like open doors?” ("Chsh Chsh, Chsh Chsh", goes the vocal percussion). Ah yes, you just got sucked into listening to YET ANOTHER cappella rendition of “Bring Me to Life”.
This is just one of many over-done songs in the a cappella community. And mainly, “Bring Me to Life” is a co-ed offense, just like “The Remedy”, “Killing Me Softly”, and the recent favorite, “Let Go”.
Oh no, all-male and all-female groups are certainly not immune to this phenomenon either, before you get all excited.
All-male groups tend to drift uncontrollably towards Guster songs, the very-not-private collection of Billy Joel’s music, and that damned “Africa” song (poor Toto, you’re really not in Kansas anymore, but in the current/retired/just plain tired repertoire of all-male groups from coast to coast). And leave “Stacy’s Mom” alone. That poor woman has been flying all over the country to seduce the young male soloists of every all-male ensemble from NJ to CA. Let the lady have a rest.
And all-female groups…don’t think I forgot about the 57345987349057 renditions of “Lady Marmalade”, “Never Gonna Get It”, “Sweet Dreams”, and the near-constant stream of Madonna songs (never mind that I arranged the first two myself in SSAA style… I was young).
And everyone, male, female, and any mix of the two (hey, I’m not asking), needs to set down “Songs about Jane” (Maroon 5’s album) and back away slowly.
There is not one person in the a cappella community who has escaped the fate of the over-done song. But why do groups insist upon rehashing the same songs over and over? I know I’ve succumbed to arranging some of them myself, as well as singing lead for some of the others (see my hypocrisy as I sing “Bring Me to Life” in the photo… yeah, I did that).
Well, when I started the talk about this in the RARB forum, a few different reasons were discussed…
1) When you see something that works, why not run with it? Some songs just translate so well to a cappella, that it’s hard to resist the temptation to try it out yourself.
2) It depends on where you’re from. Example; “Turn the Radio Up” seems to be more of a west-coast epidemic, while we on the east coast we tend towards the basic, 101-level overdone songs , as well as the general practice of mixing in the hook/bridge of one song into another song.
3) Just to put this out there…I’ve heard more than a few people rationalize the selection of a played-out song by saying that they do it better than everyone else.
But to me, none of that seems to add up to a good, valid reason. In an art form that essentially focuses on covering songs (because let’s face it, there aren’t a HUGE amount of original a cappella pieces out there, though we’re starting to see more, which is awesome), there should be a constant pressure to be more original, either in how you arrange your pieces, or in the songs you select for your group. It should be almost paramount to make sure that we keep a sense of originality and an all-your-own style. A part of me understands the rationale, especially since I have, admittedly, fallen into the same trap. But no matter how funny it is to make fun of the problem, the fact remains that it kind of is, well, a problem, and one that should be dealt with in some way.
I think “The Remedy” here is to just “Let Go” of these songs.
Yes, I waited the whole article just to say that.
Candice Helfand is a Rutgers alumna with a degree in Journalism & Media Studies. She currently directs a new, awesome all-female a cappella group at Rutgers (ShockWave), for which she also arranges, percusses, and manages their website (http://www.rushockwave.com).
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