Five Favorite Things - Pitch Perfect 2

This post is like, 3 weeks late! I saw the movie the weekend it premiered, wrote part of this post, then "life" (birthdays, graduation activities, parties, out of town visitors, end of school, etc) got in the way.... I also wanted to include little YouTube snippets, but found nothing (probably due to copyright issues). I'm hitting the Publish button now, before even more time passes....

Being a former collegiate a cappella singer (gosh, doesn’t that sound official and even slightly important, even though it’s not!), I’ve been anticipating the sequel to one of my favorite movies covering the a cappella “scene”, and caught Pitch Perfect 2 on its opening weekend. Even though the movie was predictable and borrowed many elements from the first movie (the Riff-Off, a singing competition), I still enjoyed it. The movie featured amazing vocal arrangements, instrument-free performances and funny jokes about the genre.

Here’s my list of Five Things I loved about Pitch Perfect 2:

1. Old School A cappella songs
– like Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. Yup, my college group (a mixed group), sang this classic. When the competition is “upping the game” by going bigger, badder and simply crazy, sometimes it’s best to return to what is simple.

2. Using a song as a metaphor for taking risk and breaking the rules.
In the movie, the Bellas decide to perform an Original Song, a departure from traditional a cappella. This feature song, Flashlight, wins over the crowd and judges. And here is a bit of a cappella trivial – Sara Bareilles’ original song Gravity was performed by her a cappella group, UCLA’s Awaken a Cappella back in 2004.

3. The performances at the World Championship of a cappella – proving that music breaks down barriers. These performances included diverse musicians – The Penn Masala, The Filharmonic, The Singboks and Pentatonix.

4. Seeing the Green Bay Packers sing an a cappella arrangement of Bootylicious during the Riff Off. Who knew Clay Matthews could sing?

5. The chorus of Flashlight, performed with Bella Alumni. This took me by surprise, but is a real tradition in the a cappella community. I still get invitations to sing with my college group (and did so a couple years back at a Graduation ceremony). We are all bound together by the music.

Present and Past
Chorallaries, Past and Present
College a cappella is a wonderful activity to get involved with. I make a point to attend local performances of the University of Illinois groups, like No Comment below
Drama

Shared with Five on Friday

Jeanne  – (June 12, 2015 at 7:40 AM)  

such a fun post this is, and love the last photo with you in it! So cute

Liz  – (June 12, 2015 at 9:03 AM)  

I saw Pitch Perfect 2 a couple of weeks ago. It was a great movie but not as good as the first in my opinion. I loved the final competition with the Bellas Alumni.

Nicki  – (June 12, 2015 at 11:06 AM)  

You ARE the cool mom. I'm going to have to come back and revisit when I can click the links and take a listen. Love cappella.

Amy at love made my home  – (June 12, 2015 at 11:22 AM)  

Wonderful!!! Not much else you can say!!! Really great. Thank you so much for joining in. I hope that you have a great weekend! xx

mamasmercantile  – (June 12, 2015 at 11:55 AM)  

Not a movie I have come across but sounds like fun. Just popped over from the five on Friday with Amy.

Lilly's Mom  – (June 12, 2015 at 8:40 PM)  

This was such a enjoyable blog to read today. I love a cappella. Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

A Colorful World  – (June 12, 2015 at 11:53 PM)  

What a fun post! Great to see these talented singers!

Anonymous –   – (June 13, 2015 at 4:11 AM)  

So glad you enjoyed the movie, lovely group shot with you at the end.

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