Pop Culture Love: Pentatonix

I have an intensely unhealthy relationship with competitive reality TV. I scoff at the "candid reality" genre, looking down my nose at the Kardashians and The Real Housewives. But if the Kardashians were voting each other off an island or the Real Housewives were in a heated battle over who could walk a Jersey runway best, I would be all over it. I am a sucker for anything with the prefix "Project _________" or "America's Next Top ___________."

But the best reality TV show on television right now is The Sing-Off. The show started in 2009 during the holiday season, showcasing a cappella groups from around the country. I was in from the beginning, mainly because one of the judges is Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men. I have performed enough Boyz II Men songs for talent shows to be called a huge fan. A major fan. A mega-fan. Another piece of entertainment that has me in the palm of its hand is a Spike Lee venture called Do It Acappella, a PBS production from 1990 that featured a cappella groups talking about their craft and performing the heck out of a bunch of songs. My parents taped it when it aired, and we continue to watch it whenever we are all together.

What I am trying to say is, I love a cappella music.

And on The Sing-Off, I love a group called Pentatonix. They are comprised of five singers and perform pop, dubstep, hip-hop, and electronic songs to perfection. When the live voting comes on The Sing-Off, most of my votes will be headed to Pentatonix. There is a vocal jazz group called Afro-Blue who will garner the remainder of my votes, though.

I first fell in love with Pentatonix's version of Ke$ha's "Your Love is My Drug," which can be seen below.




I then ventured back to their first-ever performance on The Sing-Off, which was a mind-blowing version of Katy Perry's "E.T."




But my favorite performance of theirs is Kanye West's "Love Lockdown," because it features a sick performance by their bass Avi Kaplan (who went to Mt. San Antonio College, where I have attended many choir competitions!).



The Sing-Off is in the first two hours of NBC prime time on Monday nights. That would happen to be tonight, wouldn't it? Then this is a perfect excuse for you to check out Pentatonix tonight!