Pop Music ≠ Bad Technique

"There can be nothing exclusive about substantial art. It comes directly out of the heart of the experience of life and thinking about life and living life."
                                                                                           -Charles Ives


Perhaps you've seen a middle school choir dance. You've probably heard a middle school choir sing.

What is more rare, however, is a 6th grade choir singing a pop song from the radio in a beautiful, light head voice with perfectly blended vowels and exquisite technique - each performer totally engaged in the song and dance moves.

Andrea Squires from Desert Canyon Middle School is doing it right with her 6th grade chorus - so much so that after their concert, their performance video went viral. In this news clip, Ms. Squires states that prior to singing the arrangement of the popular Silentó song, her choir performed an aria from a Handel opera. Her students, obviously well rounded in their education and singing technique, performed "Watch Me" complete with dance moves - which sparked conversation between choral educators and conductors nationwide on social media and in forums. We've decided to take this opportunity to discuss the benefits of performing pop music with healthy choral technique.

https://www.facebook.com/FOX10Phoenix/videos/1037333936315153/

Modern pop music offers an unprecedented array of musical challenges. Complex syncopated rhythms, dramatic register shifts and close harmonies are just a few of the difficult aspects inherent in this repertoire. As choral conductors, we need to be fluent in a variety of musical styles: everything from 16th century madrigals to 19th century church anthems, to gospel, 21st century minimalism and beyond. Ideally, we have respect for all of this repertoire, bringing the same healthy technique and professionalism to everything that we perform. Many of us will find ourselves serving as Chorus Master for a Symphonic Pops program, prepping a choir for a film score, or leading a gospel anthem at church. It's essential for us to have proficiency in all areas of the repertoire, so that we can convincingly "sell" it to our choristers with solid, healthy vocal technique (regardless of our individual areas of specialty).

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KIRSTEN: In the 2014-2015 school year I was working at two different high schools with their respective choral groups - one during the day, and the other after school. It was quickly evident in the fall that each group had very specific and unique strengths. My after school group was comprised of excellent readers and sight singers, eager to rehearse challenging classical repertoire and expand their knowledge of music theory. My in-school show choir was comprised of students with outstanding natural talent and intuitive musicality. The show choir was always ready to perform, and several of them could make up interesting harmonies on the spot.

Each choir, regardless of their strength, also had to learn a piece that challenged them in their weakness. I taught my after school choir pop arrangements despite their resistance, in order to challenge them in rhythmic and stylistic aspects. For the same reason, my show choir learned important pieces of classical repertoire, and participated in classical choral festivals. Regardless of their strengths, I also needed to ensure that their education was well rounded, and give them a taste of a new style to broaden their technique and overall understanding of music.


KRISHAN: When I started SACRA/PROFANA in 2009, I knew that pop music would be a small but important part of our repertoire. Because so much of the group's repertoire is incredibly esoteric and challenging (Ligeti, Schoenberg, etc.), I felt that it would be important to balance that with music that is fun and bright, and keeps the vibe of the group fresh and down-to-earth (I talk about that duality at length in this interview).  So from the very beginning, about 10% of our repertoire was comprised of pop arrangements. In creating these arrangements, it has always been my goal to infuse the original pop song with as much thick choral texture as possible.

A great example of this is the video that we shot last summer, an arrangement of Madonna's hit "Into the Groove" from 1984. I wanted the opening of the arrangement to feel like a piece by Steve Reich or Philip Glass- something outside the vocabulary of 80s pop music. So even though the arrangement is fun, even goofy at times, putting a strict "choral" frame around it ensured that it would be sung with the same rigor and technique that SACRA/PROFANA brings to all of the music that they perform.

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We live in a society of eclectic tastes. The replacement of the CD by the iPod and by services like Spotify has radically changed the way that people listen to music. It's not uncommon to find opera, hip-hop, heavy metal and country music all on the same electronic device. Today's pop music itself is incredibly diverse- so much so that one might be intimidated by the sheer breadth of it all. But pop music represents a contemporary vernacular idiom, one that we as conductors need to be familiar with. While this music may ultimately represent only a small portion of what we perform, we should nevertheless be capable of performing it well.