A cappella

One of the idiosyncratic pieces of American campus culture is a cappella. Bands are prestigious, professional, and present everywhere. In the intro weeks, bands would walk around campus, stand outside dorms, and give fantastic exhibitions of rhythm, creativity, and harmony. It is not uncommon to overhead a group of students singing together under their breath. Since a fellow GLOBEr is in a group, I went to his fall concert to be supportive and to see what the commotion was all about.

A cappella is music performed without instruments and originated in from religious chants. At UNC the style is always the same: A group of 12-15 stand in a semi-circle, often in two rows, with a soloist in the centre. Most groups perform popular music which is written with instruments, so there is almost always a beatboxer on one flank keeping a beat and emphasizing the musical climaxes.

The concert was presented by the Tar Heel Voices, UNC's oldest co-ed a cappella group. They sang popular songs from the likes of Taylor Swift and Disney, classics such as Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" and Earth, Wind and Fire's "September", but also had couple of unknown songs such as my favourite by miles: Delta Rae's "Morning Comes". There were also performances from the UNC Loreleis, the schools oldest all-female a cappella group, a hearty, collective performance of UNC's Alma Mater with the audience, and small theatrical sketches. It was a great way to spend 2 hours a Saturday evening. 

What I didn't realize was the amount of dedication that being in such a group requires. The group performs semi-annually and have produced several CD's - indeed the proceeds from the concert goes toward a new album in the spring. The amount of band alumni and their interaction with the group during the concert showed just how strong a bond one gets with the group mates once they being part of the fellowship. On the program, new members of the group were proudly titled "NEWB".

It proved to me once again the American culture of assimilating into sub-groups and defining yourself within those groups. In a ethnically homogeneous society such as Denmark, the group encompasses the nation. In America, the huge influx of immigrants and its sheer size makes such a group impossible. Instead, sub-groups have learned to co-exist (impressive if you look at global history), basing its principles of liberty for the individual. College is a microcosm of this trend, with people coming from around the state and being flung into a new social structure. People then chose their groups and significantly commit. This is a general trend, and exceptions naturally exist, but it helps explain both the lack of extremes in Denmark and the huge expectations of the American groups. This also makes social mobility between groups much harder, both in college and in America in general.