Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2017 All I Need Is the Air I Breathe: Music, Media, and the Practice of Collegiate A Cappella Drew Blake Griffin Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC ALL I NEED IS THE AIR I BREATHE: MUSIC, MEDIA, AND THE PRACTICE OF COLLEGIATE A CAPPELLA By DREW BLAKE GRIFFIN A Thesis submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music 2017 Drew Blake Griffin defended this thesis on April 13, 2017. The members of the supervisory committee were: Margaret R. Jackson Professor Directing Thesis Frank D. Gunderson Committee Member Charles E. Brewer Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii For my father, who taught me that any story worth remembering is a story worth sharing. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am so grateful to the members of All-Night Yahtzee, without whom this project would not have been possible. They not only allowed a stranger access to their community, but did so with gracious honesty, trust, and friendship. I owe each of you my sincerest gratitude. #DiceOrDie The professors in the Musicology faculty at Florida State University have been instrumental in helping to shape this project from conception to completion. Their constant willingness to share their knowledge challenges me daily to seek deeper, calmer, and clearer understandings of new and exciting topics. I am especially grateful to Meg Jackson for her unceasing guidance, support, inspiration, and faith in the value of this project; Frank Gunderson for his constant questioning of the important details; Charles Brewer for his most enlightening "trivial questions;" and to Denise Von Glahn for the now-irrepressible mental voice reminding me that the first goal of any writer or, indeed, any storyteller is to communicate. I am indebted to you all. To my colleagues and friends at Florida State and beyond, particularly Nikki Schommer, Jason Mitchell, Heather Paudler, Rebekah Taylor, and Carrie Danielson, I am grateful to each of you for whatever vestige of sanity I manage to assume daily. Finally, I would like to thank my mother, Julie Griffin, and my sister, Anna Griffin, whose support is boundless. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................... vii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ viii CHAPTER ONE: THE STAGE IS SET: WHO IS THAT, AND WHY ARE THEY SINGING? ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 3 Take Me To… School?: Early A Cappella Development .......................................................... 6 Musical Influences and the “A Cappella Explosion” ................................................................. 9 Collegiate A Cappella in the 21st Century ................................................................................ 10 Digital Negotiation, Aesthetic Expectations, and Style ............................................................ 12 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 15 Overview of Chapters ............................................................................................................... 20 CHAPTER TWO: TALK FROM THE HEART: CRAFTED SPACES AND MUSICAL STYLE ......................................................................................................................................... 22 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 22 A Dog, A Storm, and the Story of All-Night Yahtzee .............................................................. 23 The Basics: Understanding the World of All-Night Yahtzee ................................................... 24 All-Night Yahtzee in Local Contexts ....................................................................................... 27 Aesthetic Considerations: Identity and/as Style ....................................................................... 32 The Audition ............................................................................................................................. 41 CHAPTER THREE: WHO SAYS THE WORLD ISN’T WATCHING?: NETWORKING, THE INTERNET, AND DIGITAL MEDIA ............................................................................ 46 Deke Sharon and the A Cappella Explosion ............................................................................. 47 Collegiate A Cappella Networks .............................................................................................. 50 Collegiate A Cappella and the Early Internet ........................................................................... 52 Sites of Dissemination: YouTube and the Phenomenon of Virality ......................................... 54 Sites of Community Formation: Trolls, Bridges, and Social Media Comments ...................... 57 All-Night Yahtzee in Digital Perspective ................................................................................. 60 Sites of Curation and Critique .................................................................................................. 63 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 66 CHAPTER FOUR: GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROADWAY (OR HOLLYWOOD?): NARRATIVES OF PERFORMANCE AND COMPETITION ............................................. 67 Case Study: The International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella ................................. 67 All-Night Yahtzee’s Set ............................................................................................................ 73 Negotiated Stages ..................................................................................................................... 81 Case Study: Pitch Perfect .......................................................................................................... 85 Style and Scene ......................................................................................................................... 87 All-Night Yahtzee and The Barden Bellas in Cross-Cultural Perspective ............................... 90 The Mad World of Contemporary A Cappella ......................................................................... 91 Network Programs: Contesting Sound, Sight, and Societal Expectation ................................. 93 v CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER QUESTIONS .................................. 95 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 95 Questions for Further Study ...................................................................................................... 97 APPENDIX A: HUMAN SUBJECTS COMMITTEE APPROVAL ..................................... 99 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................... 100 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ................................................................................................... 105 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 – The 2015-2016 All-Night Yahtzee Members ........................................................... 26 Figure 3.1 – Sigmoid curve ........................................................................................................... 55 Figure 3.2 – “Viral” video curve................................................................................................... 55 Figure 4.1 – Blank ICCA judging form ........................................................................................ 70 Figure 4.2 – All-Night Yahtzee 2016 ICCA set opener, “Secrets.” ............................................. 74 Figure 4.3 – Valeria and Mattox showdown during “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” ..... 75 Figure 4.4 – “Because all I need is the air I breathe…” ............................................................... 76 Figure 4.5 – Jordan asks a question during “Say.” ....................................................................... 77 Figure 4.6 – Both of their questions remain unanswered as the song ends. ................................. 77 Figure 4.7 – Katie leads a dramatic rendition of “Levels.” .......................................................... 78 vii ABSTRACT Collegiate a cappella is a communal singing tradition historically localized to universities in the United States. It is a genre whose practitioners explore vocal harmonies and the imitation of instruments solely through use of the human voice and without instrumental accompaniment. In its contemporary manifestation, collegiate a cappella has become a powerful cultural force and is the primary way thousands of students and their diverse audiences engage with