Fall Extravaganza of the Arts

On September 18, I attended the Fall Extravaganza of the Arts Benefit Show at the Student Activities Building on the University of Virginia campus. The program featured performances by the following student performing arts groups: REMIX, Academical Village People, Oluponya Records, Step It Up, Mahogany Dance Troupe, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Black Expression and Thought Society (BEATS) and Amuse-Bouche. REMIX, Academical Village, and Oluponya Records are three of the many singing groups at UVa, the first two being acapella groups and the last being the only student record label on grounds.

Academical Village was the first acapella group to perform. This group was all male. The majority were Caucasian, so it surprised me when they performed hip hop selections. Their energy was very high. While performing each song, every member of the group connected with the audience by swaying from side to side and initiating periods of clapping during fast selections. At times it was hard to hear the soloist because this group chose not to use a microphone; however the background harmony was clear. They sang their selections with straight tones, or without the use of vibrato. Their voices were surprisingly light for males, but the resulting sound was amazing and bone-chilling.

The second acappella group to perform was REMIX. REMIX is known as the only “hip-hopcapella” group on grounds. This group is racially and gender-wise more diverse than the Academical Village. REMIX performed two songs. The first selection was “Love In This Club” by Usher. Traditionally a man sings the solo, but in this case a female took over. The soloist used the microphone to help project her voice. Her tone was strong with the use of a lot of vibrato. The background harmony was just as strong as the soloist, but without the use of microphones. During the verses the background remained steady and quiet. As the soloist transitioned from the verse to the chorus, the background harmony swelled. The second selection was the traditional REMIX medley which consists of R&B songs from the 1990s. Once again, a female soloist performed a song that was originally performed by a male.

The last musical group to perform that night was the Oluponya Record Label. There were three separate performances from students from the record label; however the selection I particularly enjoyed was a diverse group of young men (Asian and African-American) who fused hip hop with rock. Two of the young men rapped lyrics about being the best and “alpha dogs” of their group (a theme often seen in rap lyrics) while the other young men accompanied them with the keyboard and the electric guitar. It reminded me of the current trend in music fusion that has been developing over the past few years. An example of a similar fusion of hip hop and rock are Jay-Z and Linkin Park’s song “Encore/Numb”. The group of four young men kept the audiences attention by waving their hands in the air and “working” the stage. They made sure their lyrics were clear and appropriate for the audience.

All three musical groups were diverse and different in their performances. Each group tended to break the status quo and perform in their own manner. Some small cases of gender bending, or gender equality in Remix, music fusion in Oluponya, and Academical village went against the stereotypical “white boy band” approach and performed Hip Hop selections. Overall, the entire show was an excellent way of learning about the diverse performing arts groups on the university grounds. Did I mention it was free?

Concert Report 1 - Priscilla Quaye

Priscilla Quaye

Concert Report 1

Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives the description of a concert as “a public performance (as of music or dancing)” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary). However, a concert is not simply a concert; there are many surrounding social issues connected to the music and performer that makes the attendee’s experience more than simply just watching a performer display his or her craft. When a concert is meticulously analyzed, the several underlying issues connecting with music and society are exemplified. This concept held true when viewing and further analyzing the “Fall Extravaganza of the Arts” presented by the Black Student Alliance (BSA) on the Grounds of the University of Virginia. The relation and connection of the ideas of authenticity and gender roles to the performances within the “Fall Extravaganza” were illuminated after further analyzing the audience, the atmosphere, and the individuals within each group of performers.

The “Fall Extravaganza” was presented by a student organization designed to stimulate cultural and educational awareness among the black student body at UVA and establish a better union among other groups in the community. Most of the students that attend BSA events are black students; the concert did not deviate from this normality. The majority of the audience was black (an estimate of around 80%) and the minority of the audience included whites, Asians, and very few other races. The “Extravaganza” was held in the Student Activities Building, about the size of a small auditorium; a stage was brought in. There was a total of eight different performing groups including singing groups, dancers, steppers, improvisation groups, and more.

One of the performance groups that the audience seemed excited to view was Remix; they are advertized as a hip-hop a capella singing group. The group consisted of 3 men and 5 women. The most noticeable aspect about Remix is that the group contained a white male; he was the only white performer within the all black group. Remix’s performance consisted of a medley of current and old hip-hop/pop songs. The performance reached a rap segment during which the white, male member was chosen to perform this solo. Immediately, there were hushed whispers and slight snickering and chuckling noticeably heard around the room. When deliberately scanning the room to study people’s faces, actual looks of doubt and small smirks were observed. All these distractions brought on by the audience in the end took away from the performer’s solo rap performance. When investigating the cause of the audience’s behavior, the theme of authenticity is the theme that I believe relates to the situation. I believe the audience’s laughter and doubt arose from the fact that they did not believe the rapper’s performance was “authentic” enough. The term authentic has an ambiguous meaning and can be different for each person that comes across the term. The way in which it will be used here is to address the question of whether the performer’s act is thought of as being “believable” and “convincing” by the audience. Considering the audience’s reactions, facial expressions of doubt, and audible whispers, they did not view the white male performer rapping as authentic. However, if any of the other black males in Remix had pursued the rap solo, the doubt of authenticity would most likely have not existed; in fact, the audience may have even enjoyed the performance. Another fact to consider is if the solo performer was a woman; she may have received the same stigmatized reactions the white male received. The ever-present existing stereotypes that exist between race, gender, and music and the fact that different races and genders do not always get treated equally can be assumed the cause of the phenomenon observed at the “Extravaganza.”

SWAG Asia Johnson

Concert Report

A couple of weeks ago The Black Student Alliance at the University of Virginia put together a benefit concert for the local youth in Charlottesville. I decided to attend the concert and too my surprise the audience was more diverse than I thought. I expected the audience to be almost 100% black but the audience was unexpectedly diverse even though the majority of it was black.

The first group to perform was the all male acapella group AVP. They started out with the smooth soft-rock stylings of The Fray’s “Never Say Never”. This was a good performance but it did not get a big reaction from the crowd because it was not geared to the right demographic of students. I don’t think the audience was very familiar with The Fray. The next song they preformed was John Legend’s “Green Light”. This song was a hit and the audience instantly began to sing along. The crowd began to scream when one of the white members of AVP came to the forefront and began to thrust his pelvis in front of the black girls in the front row. The girls were embarrassed but they realized it was all in fun and they couldn’t resist laughing. The fact that the “white boy” had a little bit of rhythm was fascinating to them. The group finally climaxed with their last performance of “Ignition” by R. Kelly. Once again, the crowd went crazy and the “white boy” began to gyrate again.

The next group to perform was Remix. Their group was a mixture of races and genders. They continued to build on the momentum that AVP had built with a performance of “ Love in this Club” They mixed it up by having a female solo artist instead of a male artist perform it. The higher vocal range almost gave the song a different meaning. It didn’t seem as sexual in this rendition. All of the songs they preformed were from the Hip-Hop or R&B genre.

In between, the other singing groups were dance troupes and step teams. There was an all black fraternity that stepped, a mixed gender and race step team, and a mixed gender Hip- Hop group. A common thread that I noticed in all the performances was that the minority members in each group garnered the most applause. Since the showcase was geared toward black students the minority members were usually white and sometimes Asian. For example, the hip-hop dance group that preformed had one white male in it. Although he was doing the same movements as the other members of the group he was the minority of the group so he stood out. I could hear people yelling, “get it,” from the audience. Yet, no one was yelling at the black girl in the front row who was obviously the captain of the team.

Week 4 of our syllabus focused on blackface minstrelsy and “ love and theft”. I was surprised that the same concepts of love and theft were portrayed at the concert. Whenever a white person preformed a song or dance that was traditionally black they received a huge applause. Why are we so enthralled by white entertainers that perform traditionally black acts? For example, when one of the white performers of remix did a solo performance of a black R&B song the crowd went crazy. He even tried to engage the audience by acting in a seductive manor. These same principles of “Love and Theft” also applied to the dance performances. All of the non-black performers in the step show received rave reviews. I could her people in the audience shouting their names. Are the non-black members of the audience infatuated with black culture? It’s so interesting that when a white artist can sing or dance like a black person it means they can really dance or sing, but if a black person does the same thing it is not received in quite the same manor. Different aspects of the black culture have been stolen so many times throughout history, and black artists rarely get credit for being the originators of these performances. I’m curious to see if this trend will ever change.