Singing Their Hearts Out for a Good Cause

On November 6, 2009 the University of Virginia presented an all acapella benefit concert called Rigabamboo. The money towards the concert went to Camp Kesem, which is a student run organization that provides a free week of summer camp to children whose parents have cancer. The purpose of the camp, is not to be used as a therapeutic session to tackle issues at home, but rather it is a time for the children to forget about at worries, have fun and just be a kid. Camp Kesem also provides support for these families at other times throughout the year as well. Besides the cause, what made this concert a great one was that it was an all acapella concert. According to the Fine Arts Dictionary, Acapella is defined a choral singing that is performed with no instruments. It means “in chapel style” in Italian because long ago, religious music that was made to be sung in chapels used their voices only and unlike large churches, the chapels did not have organs to coincide with the singing.


The concert provided a great variety as it featured four acapella groups out of the University, each offering its own different style and flair. First up were The New Dominions, who gave listeners a good sense of harmony and had much emphasis on the beat boxing. They played fresh feet-tapping hits like Adele’s “Right As Rain” and played around with polyphonic layers, which is having several melodic parts simultaneously (opposed to a homophonic harmony).
Remix offered a different taste by performing as a hip hop acapella group. They were very diverse in their group make up, in terms of race and gender. They used two people to emphasize on the beat boxing in the musical undertone and sung songs from Musiq Soulchild, Mary J. Blige, and Keri Hilson. They rapped parts from City High and Kanye West which correlates to the basic use and roots of rap music. Rap and hip hop evolved in an area where there were not enough finances to pay for advanced musical programs in schools of areas in New York. From this, its music lovers had to develop transformative ways to make accompanying instrument sounds to complement their rap sessions, just as the rapping and beat boxing here may have reminded some listeners.


Furthermore Rigabamboo had performances by AVP (The Academical Village People) and Hoos in Treble. These two groups are unique in terms of gender because they were either all male or all female, respectively. AVP, the all male group really connected with the male gender persona. They were hyperactive, funny, doing slides on the floor and crooning the ladies by holding their hands in the audience. While Hoos in Treble, the all female group were collective and ladylike, keeping their composure and singing songs about love and female empowerment- like Miranda Lambert’s, “Gunpowder and Lead”. Overall this concert was an entertaining experience, gave listeners a variety of music and the pure talent that U.Va has to offer, all being combined with the unselfish and humble task of helping out others for a better cause.

RIGABAMBOO: AN A CAPPELLA CONCERT

Recently, I was able to sample a select few of UVa’s a cappella groups at Rigabamboo: An A cappella Concert, which benefited Camp Kasem at UVa, a student organization that runs a free week of summer camp for kids whose parents have cancer. The A cappella groups on grounds that performed were New Dominions, Remix, Hoos in Treble, and the Academical Village People.

The first group to perform was the New Dominions, the University’s oldest co-ed a cappella group; they consisted of equal parts men and women. Overall, their performance lacked audience participation; in fact they made no effort to engage the audience. The clothing choice of the group related to this lack of audience enthusiasm, for the women were dressed in cocktail dresses, and the men in shirts and ties, just as their dress the performance was very uptight and formal. Their appearance called a lot of attention to the imminent gender dichotomy within the group. The only other stimulation coming from this performance besides auditory from the singing, was the bobbing of the gentlemen, up and down to the beat of the song, and the sensual hip sway of the ladies, which emphasized their already apparent femininity.

This a cappella group is distinct from the rest of the a cappella groups that performed because it was the only group with a female beat-boxer, in which an individual emulates drum beats, rhythm and musical sound with their mouth, tongues, lips, and voice. It is a common misconception that beat-boxing is a male vocal effect, and that females will not be able to produce the necessary sounds, but the female beat-boxer of New Dominions does a great job carrying the percussion of the groups singing arrangement. This is the only instance in which New Dominions challenges the male/ female gender dichotomy by blurring gender boundaries of what is misconceived as a masculine activity.

The next a cappella group was Remix, the University’s first hip hop a cappella group on grounds. There was a member of each major ethic category represented in Remix, from Asian, to East Indian, to Caucasian, to West Indian, and to African American. This is significant because most individuals believe that hip hop is tailored to an Black audience, but like discussed in class, the major consumers of hip hop are not Blacks, but Caucasian individuals which shows the diversity within hip hop to cross genres and ethnicities. This is seen in the diversity of song selection by remix, who performed a mix of pop, reggae, and old school hip hop songs. Just like hip-hop, this group was focused on hybridization, pouring their own touch of hip-hop into different genres.

Remix performed City High’s hit record, “What Would You Do?”, a song about the culture of poverty, and how it leads female teenagers into the realm of prostitution in order to survive. The audience involvement and the mood created as we all sang along to the lyrics, reminded me of Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” that pushed for social change just as the lyrics and tone of City High’s song does. Also, the audience participation was most interactive during the Remix performance, the group asked the audience to clap, and sing along, wanting them to be more involved in the performance than the other a cappella groups. Remix also used the call and response technique to get the audience more involved in songs that were recognizable, similar to the call and response used in African American gospel music.

After Remix, there was Hoos in Treble, the youngest all female a cappella group on grounds. The Hoos in Treble sing all of their song selections in the treble clef, which is the highest singing voice in a musical composition, a clef gendered feminine. Most of the song selections of Hoos in Treble, were soft and devoted the feminine quest to find love. The last song of their set however, the one that received the most enthusiasm from the crowd, told the story of a women who broke free from the confines of femininity. As the soloist belted out the strongest female vocal performance of the night, she sang: “I'm goin' home, gonna load my shotgun/Wait by the door and light a cigarette/ If he wants a fight well now he's got one/ And he ain't seen me crazy yet/ He slap my face and he shook me like a rag doll/ Don't that sound like a real man/ I'm going to show him what a little girls made of/ Gunpowder and lead”. The lyrics, along with the bravado in her vocal performance, challenged the feminine values placed upon women.

Following Hoos in Treble, was the Academical Village People, a group of young men of the University. The male singers of this group sang in a higher key than the gentlemen of both Remix and New Dominions, which struck me as a play on the gender barriers that the Village People group discussed in class also seek to cross. The Academical Village People also wanted audience participation, but most of this was directed toward female audience members, who they sang to and held hands with. Consistent with the Disco era that the Village People stemmed from, the Academical Village People performed an Earth, Wind, and Fire song compilation as the last song of the concert. The compilations started off slow with their hit, “Boogie Wonderland”, and ended with the upbeat falsetto “September”. Overall, I felt that AVP played with the similarities between themselves and the Village People, and attacked gender performance in many different ways.

Concert Report 2

RIGABAMBOO?!?!

“RIGABAMBOO: An A Capella Concert” was a fundraiser event for Camp Kesem, a CIO that plans a week of summer camp for kids whose parents have cancer. There were four a capella groups performing: The New Dominions, The Academical Village People (AVP), ReMiX, and Hoos in Treble. Of these groups, I was only familir with ReMiX so this was something different for me and I was not sure what to expect from the other three groups.

A capella is an all vocal performance without instrumental accompaniment. This means you only see a group of people singing, with one or two people providing the backbeat and also a lot of harmonizing which brings a different texture to the performance in place of the instruments. Anything can be performed a capella, from rock to hip hop so I expected to see varying musical genres at the concert. There was one group that was especially interesting, the New Dominions. New Dominions is the oldest a capella at UVA, predominantly white and female. In terms of appearance, the New Dominions was coordinated like the other groups, wearing black and blue colors, but more formally, as girls wore dresses and skirts while the guys wore slacks and ties. Though I did not expect classical music or such from the group, I felt as though I would not be familiar with the artists or songs they would perform. The songs performed sounded very pop to me but I was not familiar with them. I actually had to write bits of the lyrics and come home to look them up. They performed “Melody” from Kate Earl, “Right as Rain” from Adele, “Almost Honest” from Josh Kelley, and “Devils and Angels” from Toby Lightman. What really struck me about the performance was the difference in performance styles between 2 female lead singers. The first performed “Melody” and throughout the performance I kept thinking she looked shy and a bit uneasy. Her voice was really soft and I could barely hear her but I chalked it up to her being nervous. Then another girl performed “Right as Rain” and it was completely different; she seemed confident, had some attitude, and at times it seemed she played up her sexuality. This could have been due to individual differences but, “Right as Rain” is a pop song with a heavy soul influence with power behind it and when looking at women in soul, it can be associated with confidence, sex appeal, and attitude. “Melody” on the other hand, sounds fresh and happy, with a bit of innocence that “Right as Rain” lacks. It seems both girls were playing two sides of female sexuality that the songs seem to carry: the silent and understated and the bold and assured. Not only did their mannerisms play to these qualities, so did their appearance. The first girl wore a blue tank top, black skirt and black opaque tights while the second girl wore a black cocktail dress with a low neckline. It made me wonder if the girls were performing these qualities to associate with the songs or if those are their actual personalities? If the first girl is normally a timid person and the other girl normally exudes confidence, did they select those songs to play to their strengths? Why did the first girl not perform “Right as Rain” instead? It causes you to wonder if the song molds the person or if the person is the song.

The audience at the concert was predominantly white females. Most of the a capella performed pop songs except ReMiX and AVP. ReMiX is UVA’s only hip-hop capella group so it performed mostly hip-hop and R&B songs. AVP on the other hand did not stick to one genre; it performed songs from rock to R&B. This may be why the audience responded to AVP more than any of the other groups. But aside from their variety in genre choices, they had a lot of interaction with the audience and their antics during the performance gave them a certain charm. They kept the performance very informal and the audience engaged. Girls were laughing and singing along with them while cheering. If the audience had been predominantly male or to a lesser extent, a minority race, you wonder if they would responded the same way. If AVP had performed strictly pop songs how would the audience have responded?

I went to the concert not knowing what I would have to discuss for this report but now it raises may questions about gender and race and how it shapes or is shaped by the music. But I also wonder if I would have this question if issues like race did not arise in the bigger setting of UVA. Would I have so much or something different to discuss if the concert was at a relatively diverse school like Rutgers University or predominantly black school such as Howard University?

http://www.avpmusic.com/

http://www.newdominions.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IbXdsmU_6U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrMVJuDMBM4

Camp Kesem A Cappella Concert

On November 6, 2009, Camp Kesem, a student organization at UVA that provides a free week of summer camp for children whose parents have cancer, hosted a fundraising concert featuring four of the university’s best a cappella groups. The featured groups were the New Dominions, the Academical Village People (AVP), Hoos in Treble, and Remix (however, for sake of space, I will only address the first three groups). Because each one of the featured groups was so different regarding gender composition and genre preference, the concert provided a unique framework for the study of gender performance in popular music. The gender performance of these very diverse groups is apparent through their body movements, dress, and song choice.

The New Dominions are a co-ed a capella group with varied musical tastes as expressed on their website: “No genre is too wild if you can pull it off.” Although I was not familiar with any of the songs that the group performed, gender was clearly expressed through the group’s body movements and dress. For example, men and women of the New Dominions had differing body movements. While the girls swayed from side to side as they sang, the boys energetically bounced up and down. These differences suggest that gender can be performed through body movements as the movements seemed to coincide with societal norms. For example, because femininity is often associated with gracefulness, swaying would be more gender appropriate for women than bouncing up and down. Similarly, masculinity is often associated with activeness. Thus, bouncing up and down would be considered more appropriate for men in our society. Gender was also performed through the group’s choice of attire. While the girls were all dressed in beautiful black cocktail dresses, many with accents of royal blue; the boys wore dress pants and button down shirts. Perhaps because the group was mixed-sex, they chose to make gender distinctions clearer by sticking to traditional formal attire rather than wearing jeans and tees which would make gender less obvious.

Hoos in Treble is an all female a capella group whose body movements, dress, and song choice reflect the group’s gender composition. Regarding song selection, the four songs the group chose to sing for the Camp Kesem concert were all about love and girl power. The group sang Evanescence’s “Wake Me Up Inside,” Maroon 5’s “Secret,” Taylor Swift’s “You Belong with Me,” and Miranda Lambert’s “Gunpowder and Lead.” While the first three focused on love, a topic with which girls are often obsessed, “Gunpowder and Lead” is an anthem for women who have been abused. The song is about a woman who has been abused by her husband and has decided that she is “gonna show him what little girls are made of/Gunpowder and lead.” The song also attacks aggressive masculinity. For example, the song states: “He slapped my face and he shook me like a rag doll/Don't that sound like a real man?” I enjoyed seeing a group of young women not only address love, but also domestic violence. The group also performed gender through their attire and body movements. While they wore matching tees and jeans, they expressed their femininity by adding accents of hot pink and swaying side to side rather than bouncing up and down.

The Academical Village People (AVP) is an all male a capella group that “combines top-class singing and bumping vocal percussion with rock-star performance technique and endless enthusiasm” as noted on their website. They sang all styles of music ranging from “Sing a Song” to “Never Say Never” to “Tears in Heaven.” However, no matter what song the group sang, their energy was undeniable. The group ran to the stage, jumped consistently throughout the performance, and interacted with both the audience and each other. The group’s energetic performance can be associated with the physical ability of men. However, when singing The Fray’s “Never Say Never,” the group exhibited a more androgynous gender performance. For example, although the lead vocalist exhibited heterosexual masculinity by holding the hand of a female audience member when singing, his male group members suggested a more androgynous gender performance by dancing like ballerinas, grasping for the lead singers hands, and putting their arms over his shoulders during the performance. The lead vocalist also sang very high notes often associated with the feminine range. Thus, AVP was not afraid to perform their gender in various ways and never failed to have fun doing so.

The varied gender compositions of these three groups created a unique opportunity to examine gender performance in popular music. Each group performed gender differently. These differences were most visible through the examination of body movement, dress, and song choice.

RIGABAMBOO!!!!

On November 6, 2009, Camp Kesem, a student run philanthropic organization, held a fundraising a cappella Concert called Rigambamboo.  This concert featured 4 of UVa’s A Cappella groups that all graced us with very different performances.  It displayed various racial and gender dynamics within these groups, but also within the greater University of Virginia community. 

The concert began with the New Dominions.  This group is the oldest co-ed a cappella group on grounds and offered a relatively conservative performance.  Their dress code was the most formal of all groups as they wore evening attire.  They consisted of almost completely Caucasian males and females.  The female soloists all tapped in to their femininity by singing with very low tones, lots of facial expressions, and movement in their hips.  One female also enforced this male/female dichotomy with a slightly androgynous appearance in comparison to the other females in the group.  She was the only girl involved in percussion as she beat-boxed during a male solo.  This guy exemplified a command over the audience that the females in his group did not.  While they simply did their part, interacted with each other, and was relatively detached from the audience, the male soloist was playful and comical.  This female, however, broke this androgynous mold as she sang the final solo of this group.  Her facial expressions and increase body movement affirmed her womanhood but she also exemplified the power her male counterparts expressed with their audience interactions.

The second group that took the stage was ReMix, UVa’s only Hip-Hop and R&B a cappella group.  This group offered the most diverse group of students and the most diverse music.  I believe this is a result of the nature of the genres they represent.  Hip-Hop and R&B being some of the newer genres have evolved as a result of influence from many other forms of music.  This diversity in the music translated to diversity in the group.  Breaking the mold of Asian Americans, this group featured an Asian beat-boxer and contrary to the typical African American rapper, this group featured only Caucasian rappers.  The gender difference was also not as strong in this group as both male and females wore jeans and t-shirts, both males and females were involved in keeping the beat through percussion like sounds, and both males and females sang and rapped.  The dynamics of both song and rap was featured in the piece “What Would You Do” by the American R&B/Hip-Hop group City High.  This song got the audience involved as it rallied them around a social problem, which is a theme of the entire genre of Hip-Hop.  All members of this group sang and rapped this song together.  It didn’t matter whether they were black, white, Asian, or spanish, the audience came together as if everyone could relate to an issue that warranted social change.  The lyrics of the chorus spoke to a mother doing whatever is necessary to feed her child.

 “What would you do, if your son was at home crying all alone on the bedroom floor, cuz he's hungry and the only way to feed him is ta sleep wit a man for a little bit of money, and his daddy's gone somewhere smokin' rock now, in and out of lock down, I aint gotta job now, so for you this is just a good time but for me this is what I call life."

The third group to perform was AVP, Academical Village People.  They charged the stage in a wild, rambunctious manner.  This all male group was confident in their entrance and their entire performance.  They were not timid with the audience in song or speech.  If the song they were performing called for low tones, or slow melodies indicative of feminine qualities, they would off-set it with comical relief, somewhat making a mockery of these female emotions.  This was seen in their piece “Don’t Let Me Go” in which the background singers acted as ballerinas and jokingly pulled and tugged on the lead singer, sending the audience into continued laughter.  They wore blue-collard shirts with jeans, adding to their ability to relate with the audience.  They were sure to play with members of the audience by singing to them or urging them to sing or clap along.  They ended their performance just as confident and bold as they began with an Earth Wind & Fire Melody calling on one member to bellow when necessary and the others to keep the tempo and liveliness high in the auditorium.

The last a cappella group to perform was Hoo’s in Treble, an all female group.  This group also wore jeans and t-shirts.  However, they were sure to embrace their feminine power by adding hot pink in their attire and offering songs that speak to various female personalities.  Once again, the beat-boxer of the group was the most androgynous of them all, which reinforces the idea that drums, percussions, etc. is a male-dominated area of music.  They first performed the song “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence, which speaks to the dependency of the female on this male, as he is the only one that can save her from the nothing she’s become.  But this song was then totally contradicted as they performed the female empowering song “Gunpowder and Lead” by Miranda Lambert.  The soloist of this song stood confidently as she placed her hands on her hips and belted lyrics that spoke to the hearts of feminist females.  To close out their performance this group appealed to the popular music culture with the song “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift!  The all female group used their members to both affirm as well as abolish the idea of females in music.

This a cappella concert, featured all male, all female, and co-ed groups.  It was interesting to see they male/female dynamics that transcended in very different ways in each group, as I was simultaneously able to be a part of this fundraiser for Camp Kesem!

Hoos in Treble Concert

On a rainy Saturday night in Charlottesville, there was one place where nothing about the environment was dark and dreary: the Hoos in Treble Concert! Of all types of musical performances, I believe a cappella demonstrates the largest amount of raw talent and perfected vocal skills. As a result of this natural talent found in groups like Hoos in Treble, it is absolutely amazing to attend an a cappella concert.

One part of the concert that stood out was the way the group fulfilled the concept of gender performance. As an all girl group, Hoos in Treble had no problem displaying their feminine side. All the girls were wearing black dresses and many wore high heel shoes. Each group member displayed their uniqueness by adding a splash of pink to their outfit in various ways including pink shoes, pink jewelry, and pink headbands. In our society and culture, there is nothing that shouts “girl” more than dresses, high heels, and the color pink. However, there were a few minor exceptions in their performance of gender. As stated, not all girls wore high heel and instead a few rocked stylish sneakers. Also, when performing a song about fraternities, the group completely ditched their feminine side and stepped on stage dressed completely in clothes considered to be the “typical” male attire at the University of Virginia: khaki pants, polo shirts, boat shoes, minimal jewelry, etc. This cross-dressing performance further supports the idea that gender is a social construction in which people develop definitions used to categorize things as feminine or masculine.

Another part of the concert that was interesting to me was the musical performances themselves. First, it is amazing that one or two people sing while the rest of the group makes the background music and with the combination of the two parts, the music sounds remarkable. Being able to beat-box and harmonize as a group is just as important as singing the solo of a song. If any part was missing, the performance would not be as good. Second, it was great how Hoos in Treble performed songs from a variety of artists and genres. The performance of Taylor Swifts’ “You Belong With Me” brought a little country pop to the concert and Maroon 5’s “Secret” added some pop rock. In addition to country pop and pop rock, R&B was represented in the performance of Beyonce’s “Halo”. To end the night of great music, the encore performance was a mixture of Michael Jackson hits. Ending the evening with songs by the “King of Pop” was an excellent and memorable way to conclude the concert.

This a cappella concert was truly an awesome experience and there was never a dull moment. Each and every performance by Hoos in Treble was wonderful and entertaining and including music from a variety of artists and genres only contributed to greatness of the concert. There is no doubt that this is one talented group of girls!