#barbershop music

[deep-hearts-core]

The Competitive Barbershop Music Explainer, and Why More of Tumblr Should Be Obsessed With It.

I've been threatening this for now almost a year, so here it is. You probably have an idea in your head of what a barbershop quartet is: maybe you’ve seen The Music Man, or possibly the Louie Zong Hatsune Miku song. But barbershop exists as a hobby these days, too, and there are parts of it that are deeply cool and nerdy. Some of you--gasp--might actually enjoy it. 

What the hell is barbershop music?

Barbershop music got its name from the Black barbershop social space out of which it evolved. In the early 20th century, groups of guys would get together and harmonize as a way to pass the time. The style later got appropriated into white culture (I’m going to come back to this, keep reading) and evolved into what most people think of when they hear the phrase “barbershop quartet”. 

Barbershop got a lot less popular after the 1960s or so, but it’s not gone! Today, it’s overseen primarily by the Barbershop Harmony Society (formerly the Society and Preservation for Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, but… that’s long…), which organizes contests and codifies the “rules” of what barbershop is and how it’s different from other a cappella. Those rules are mostly music theory stuff, which I won’t go into here for fear of boring people, but if anyone is curious my askbox is open :D 

It’s not just quartets, either. There are also choruses that sing in the same four-part style, following the same music rules as the quartets, and they compete too. This is how I got involved.

Why is Tumblr supposed to enjoy this?

Reason #1: The competition. I’ve been on Tumblr for several years, and do you know what we love? Ranking things, picking favorites, and watching talented people do their thing. It’s actually kind of similar to Eurovision--there’s a jury and a points system, and people get mad about it every year; there’s a qualifying round and a nerve-wracking calloff; it’s even international! BHS operates in the US and Canada, and most competing groups are from here, but there are sizable scenes in the UK, Sweden, Australia, and Aotearoa, as well as smaller organizations across Western Europe and beyond. The Japanese organization held its first ever competition this year! Regional contests happen all over once or twice a year, culminating in the international competition the first week of July, where quartets and choruses battle it out to be the best of the best. People have favorite groups and try to guess where people are going to place each year. If you’re me, you can even do the Eurovision fan thing and overanalyze the running order. 

Reason #2: The talent. Listen, many of these people are incredibly talented singers. Take The Clementones from Denmark, for example, who delivered amazing Addams Family character work this year. Or Smoke Ring, the New York City-based quartet trying to singlehandedly make barbershop sexy again. I could give you so many examples of singers who can hold long notes forever and ever, but I’ll show restraint and only link two: Vocal Spectrum and Midtown. And of course I have to link this fucking amazing Hunchback of Notre Dame medley. Many singers also arrange songs specifically for their own groups. If you’re a music nerd in any way, this is for you.

Also, if you enjoy niche subcultures or #hobbydrama, there’s so much to rotate in your brain. This is part of what hooked me initially. 

But it's racist/culturally appropriated!

Well, you’re not wrong… but so are a lot of things. Bear with me for a second. I'm not going to come out and blindly defend the history and say oh there's nothing wrong with the organization we can't blame them. The organization was segregated for a long time. Women were only allowed to join as full members in 2018. The Black origins of barbershop singing were actively obscured by SPEBSQSA for decades and have only recently become well-known to most members. Hell, when the BHS went co-ed a splinter organization formed to try and keep the hobby all-male. There is bad history.

BUT. People are trying. There's a sizable contingent of young queer people who do well and become well-connected within BHS--including Smoke Ring, who I linked above. They’re causing a nonzero amount of controversy and are visibly queer and something new and unapologetic about that. More and more nonwhite people are joining and finding success competitively. Academics on the subject actively spread the history that barbershop is a Black genre, and this is increasingly common knowledge especially among young barbershoppers. The most successful barbershoppers in Aotearoa (BHNZ) are predominantly Māori and Pasifika. The BHS board, while they do not have any real understanding about how to execute this at all, does at least want to reckon with the history and is, in theory, trying. For all its many, many faults, there are good people here who are making change.

Ok fine, you've got me. Now what?

Go click on all the links in this post and then let the YouTube algorithm do its work. Also, send me asks! I can go on about this shit forever and ever.

Here are some more suggestions for you:

the chorus performance that first got me interested

Panic! at the Disco but it’s barbershop

these guys also do Spiderman! 

girls who will step on you and you will like it

the air raid warden song from that one tumblr post

air raid warden guys sing about ducks

totally not never gonna give you up. what? what are you talking about?

the first ssaa group to medal in bhs have since changed their lineup but this performance reigns eternal

And if you like to sing, see if there's a chorus (click here for SSAA only) or chapter nearby. I won't get preachy and say you'll have a great experience no matter what. Sometimes people suck; I have the luck to live in a major city on the East Coast and I can say with reasonable confidence that not everyone is going to be as chill as my people are. However, this is such a small space that everyone will be excited about a new person coming in and will likely give you a little leeway. 

I've only been doing this for a year and a half, but I can easily say that I love it and it's changed me. So, even if you scrolled to the bottom of this post rolling your eyes because I should just shut up about this already, thanks for listening. <3

[alliterative-endlessknot]

It’s #BarbershopMusicAppreciationDay! Check out this video to learn about its connection to Rock and Roll

[help-help-i-need-an-adult]

I directed a chorus today. Like, at a performance the chorus was getting paid to perform at.

I don’t usually direct a chorus.

I did direct a (very small) school chorus when I was in high school and college. That was roughly a decade ago.

I haven’t had ANY formal training in music ensemble conducting, but I did learn some things by being in choirs (like, really good ones) as a kid. I also learned a little by being the “lab rat” for a choir director’s workshop that my childhood director ran and taught every year.

But again, nothing where I was the intended student.

Despite all that, today went really well. And I was really nervous about it.

Yay small wins!

[texaschainsawmascara]

Eve, 2000s

The term wife-beater reportedly became synonymous for an undershirt after a 1947 criminal case where a Detroit man was arrested for beating his wife to death, and newspapers printed a photo of the "wife beater" wearing a stained undershirt.

[queenoffists]

Hii,

Still kickin ass & taking names behind the chair. 🫧🤍✨️🔮✂️

[bruce-morrow]

Jheri Curls, St. Louis, MO, 1980s

[reality-detective]

(Unmute) They sound good to me!

[pseuddamntired]

It’s that time of year again. Barbershop parodies at barbershop conference performances.

[gameraboy2]

Barbershop Ballads - The World Famous Sportsmen Quartet

[vaporwave]

[dumbkiwi]

I know only a limited few care about the Barbershop Harmony Society or its associated drama (for good reason lol) but Smoke Ring is so good and queer and hot and I'm still mad the BHS docked points for being distasteful during their performance of Air Conditioner (read: had some cleavage, visibly queer gender presentation, and a few wink-and-nod dick jokes) but EVEN SO they made 9th so yay :D

[deep-hearts-core]

Highlights from fall contest:

One of the singing judges basically said that I'm doing amazing and he had no notes for me

My friends' quartet did both Welcome to the Black Parade and Creep. Black Parade shops a lot better than you think it does. I don't have videos but please believe me I want to show you.

Another group did Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. Again, I want to show you videos so bad it was so cute and fun and the song has been stuck in my head all day.

I DO however have video for the straightforwardly-titled "I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones" because this group performed it previously. It's so fucking funny oh my god.

A member of the 2023 Int'l champion group (they did the Spiderman song linked on my explainer post) remembered me from meeting me last year? Said I was talented and that he wanted to sing with me? (We did not get to do this I think we went to different afterparties but listen there's always next year)

I DID however sing with the tenor of Smoke Ring (also linked in the explainer post) and she's incredible and she made the rest of us sound incredible just by singing with her. I want to be in a high-quality quartet so bad...

The Air Raid Warden/Duck Song guys (Secret Best Friends) (also from the explainer post) won the championship and it was SO deserved

Got to see this live and a bunch of my friends were in it and they're so cool!!

Got to hear this through the wall of the warmup room space bc they were on right before us

AND MOST EXCITINGLY MY CHORUS QUALIFIED FOR THE BIG SUMMER CONTEST NEXT YEAR DENVER I WILL BE IN YOU (if I can find the money because #expensive)!!!!!!!!!!!

[alliterative-endlessknot]

It’s #BarbershopMusicAppreciationDay! Check out this video to learn about its connection to Rock and Roll

[cartoonybus]

doodles of danny's ex-wife and ex-stepson i really liked

[queenoffists]

Just being a lil barber baddie. ✨️🌸✂️🔪