The closest thing this University has to rock stars is the gentlemen of a cappella. If you've been living in a hole (or just the Alderman stacks), a cappella is basically music sung without instruments. Here's the thing: how joining one of these groups suddenly catapults your sex appeal, I have no idea. But it does, and these men are demigods in the eyes of most university women, and definitely in the eyes of about 95 percent of the first-year ladies. Guys, I definitely suggest you try your damndest to make it in one. AVP wasn't kidding when they said "Get women, join AVP."
(I haven't seen any panty-throwing at their concerts, but I'm just waiting for it, and I'm going to assume the guys of the groups are anxiously awaiting this moment as well.)
I am a total culprit of this obsession, truth be told. I'm going to pretend it's because I was in chorus in high school and know how hard a cappella can be, but that's really not it. Nope. My obsession actually dates back to my chorus days when a former Hullabahoo came back to pay homage to his old chorus teacher, who was my chorus teacher at the time. He was hot. I was a freshman in high school. He was in college. I thought to myself, "Holy mother of God, he can sing AND he's hot?!" I think I might've drooled a little.
Let me explain what happens if you haven't already caught onto this sequence of events. When you move into dorms first year, you start seeing fliers for these "dorm sing" things, and because you're a typical U.Va. overachiever and are trying to over-involve yourself and do everything the University has to offer, you check one out. Or maybe some older girl told you to go see one of the groups because she already had a cappella fever. However you saw your first show or wherever it was, from that moment on, you were hooked. So then you become a groupie for that one group and go to all their events. But at the Rotunda Sing you see some other groups. First, maybe you just had a crush on the guys of AVP, but then you get a little taste of the Virginia Gentlemen and the Hullabahoos, and you suddenly are committed to three groups.
You start penciling all their concerts into your planner and have a slight heart attack when you realize they have overlapping Parents Weekend concert times. Then you've got to make a decision: Who do you like best? Everyone's got opinions on who's the best. We'll just say that I've only ever missed one Hullabahoos concert in the history of my University career (that's three years). I prefer the term "superfan" here.
Back to the progression of the disease... You clearly have to download these groups' music onto your computer. And at the concerts you have to buy their CDs (you definitely want to support their hard work and effort in the studio). So you start amassing this huge collection of music without instruments. Your friends from home hate riding in your car over breaks because you refuse to listen to the real version of Gavin Degraw's "I Don't Wanna Be."
Back at school, you go to concerts all the time. You see them when they sing outside of Newcomb, you see them when they sing in the Bookstore, you see them when they do group concerts with the female groups.
Note here: The girls' groups are awesome and of god-like status for guys. But the girls who can't sing want to be in the female groups purely because they get to mix with the male groups. Extreme jealousy from non-a cappella girls ensues when they hear of these a cappella parties. They even have their own a cappella ball!
You start spending a lot of money for the sake of a cappella and fuelling your unhealthy love for Morgan Sword of the Hullabahoos and Josh Hailey of AVP. Back when I was a first year, my unrequited love was for Frankie in AVP. (He's long since graduated and hopefully no longer reads the Cav Daily. Otherwise, I'm going to be highly embarrassed.)
But the best part of the concerts is always the part where they announce they're having an after-party and everyone is welcome to attend. You could go; you don't have to know them. It suddenly becomes your goal to look fiercely attractive and compete for your a cappella love at this party. You and at least three of your friends get decked out and roll up to these parties in hopes that you will get some attention from whatever guy you pine for.
And then you get there, and he has a girlfriend. You move onto a different member of one of these groups and formulate a new love. Repeat cycle.
Most likely you know one of the guys in any of the groups. Maybe he was in your dorm, maybe he was in one of your classes, maybe your roommate unabashedly threw herself at him and you know him through association. But you know one of these, shall I say, celebrities. And you probably have a crush on him.
There really is no explanation for why when these guys get up on stage and start singing that their sex appeal skyrockets. It just does. They are suddenly the hottest guys you've ever seen. Every single one of my girlfriends has an a cappella crush. Most of them are all on the same guy.
So, to you guys who are in a cappella groups, you hit the jackpot. You are the University of Virginia's own 98 Degrees, 'NSync, Backstreet Boys and Hanson. And if any of you fellows ever need a date to the a cappella ball, I'm available.
Lindsay can be reached at McCook@Cavalierdaily.com
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