Sonos

From my Tumblr:

I’m pissed off at this week’s Sing-Off elimination. Like, PISSED OFF. I knew that they were going home, obviously, because I’d been to tapings following the elimination. But what bugs me is that the groups they were going up against… Well, in my opinion, they were definitely not as good as Sonos.

THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is how “I Want You Back” is supposed to sound like. If your mind isn’t blown, well… Let’s just say that I edited an expletive out of what I’m saying now.

Though, I think AcaGeeks put it perfectly when it was first announced that Sonos would be performing without their effects pedals (and like them, I’m very upset with this elimination):

The Sing-Off is a show that is not for us, but still is at a level that is enough to engage us. Though the “unwashed masses” have been brought up to speed pretty rapidly as far as what contemporary a cappella is, what SONOS is known for within the aca-community is still too far beyond what the general public can embrace. For SONOS, who has followed the opposite development path from most groups, The Sing-Off is a spectacular opportunity to apply their considerable skill into a more traditional aesthetic which will only improve them as a group.

Though now that I think about it, the style of a cappella that Sonos pioneers is interesting because it's either you absolutely love it or you absolutely hate it. It's the same thing with any innovation, and paraphrasing what Tom Anderson said, it seems that Sonos was punished for their innovative and challenging arrangement. Those that love it can understand their innovation, can understand that this song isn't trying to copy the original, can understand that they're being artists and creating something, can understand that they're turning this seemingly upbeat song into something more sinister and creepy. They're making it their own. You hear that, and you think, "Yup, that's Sonos." Can you say that with any other group? Sure, but they're few and far between.

And those that hate it? Well, it seems to me that they're either purists and MJ lovers (not that there's anything wrong with that) or they're uncomfortable with being unable to recognize the song. And through that insecurity of failure of recognition, come personal insecurities. But I'm no psychologist, so I won't go into that. If there's anything I've learned in the past few months, it's that those who have something invested in the current state of things are against innovation. Plato was against the pencil. He argued that by writing things down, the degradation of thought and of the human mind was inevitable. But that didn't stop innovation. You can't stop the future of how things are, or how things should be. It's inevitable, and if you take into consideration Darwin's evolutionary theory, those who learn to adapt will ultimately be the ones to win out. Adapt, or die.

That's a very grim message to leave you with, and I'm definitely not advocating that you completely conform to "the system" and become mindless conformists. It's important to keep a sense of creative individualism alive, but in order to survive and thrive in the system, and to facilitate progress, you've gotta learn how to use and manipulate the new forms of media and innovations that come our way.

This has kinda gone off track, from an angry post about an amazing a cappella group getting eliminated to my personal philosophical theories. But you get my drift.