Choir is Cool

If you haven't noticed, choir is cool these days. I don't mean just for those of us that have always known; I mean it is cool everywhere. Have you noticed the number of television commercials using choral sounds, the choral medium, or large groups of people to demonstrate the power of community? Sure, it isn't Poulenc or Britten cool, but it does approach Bobby McFerrin cool.

Notice the Intel folks with their choral rendition of their 4-note signature jingle, or the Subway commercials with all sorts of small ensembles singing their 4-note, 2-chord jingle about "five dollar footlongs (http://www.subwayfreshbuzz.com/auditions/index.asp?rdr=Viral:EDVAuditions:W3:2009/#/videos/7). How about those cute Dell notebooks and the factory workers celebrating chorally their "lollipop, lollipop" laptop colors in song, or those groups not yet breaking into song from the Verizon "network", or the Best Buy stadium nerds ready to answer our questions. I love it.

Do I even have to mention "The Sing Off", "The Big Sing", or the Wednesday night, ready-to-break-out-into-the-next-production Glee? The choir not only presents the message, but the bigger point is that the choir IS the message as a community in harmony.