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Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory
Pitch Perfect is a behind-the-scenes look at the bizarre, often inspiring world of collegiate a cappella groups.The first collegiate a cappella group, the Yale Whiffenpoofs, was founded by Cole Porter back in 1909. But what had been largely an Ivy League phenomenon has, in the past fifteen years, exploded. And it's not what you think. There are now more than 1,200 a cappella groups at colleges across the country. The very best of these collegiate groups square off in the annual International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella showdown marked by wrenching close calls and exhilarating triumphs. And, really, where else can you hear Michael Jackson's Bad in four-part harmony? In Pitch Perfect, GQ editor Mickey Rapkin follows a season in a cappella through all its twists and turns, covering the breathtaking displays of vocal talent, the groupies (yes, a cappella singers have groupies), the rockstar partying (and run-ins with the law), and all the bitter rivalries. Along the way are encounters with boldfaced names such as President George W. Bush, Prince, David Letterman, Barack Obama, Barbra Streisand, Hillary Clinton, Marisa Tomei, Amanda Bynes, Nick Lachey, Merv Griffin, Jim Carrey, Microsoft's Paul Allen, John Legend, and Jessica Biel. At the heart of the narrative are three a cappella groups whose interactions are anything but harmonious: the historic Tufts Beelzebubs, founded more than forty years ago with 40,000 albums sold since, and struggling to record a new album that lives up to the hype; Divisi of the University of Oregon, a relatively new, all-female group attempting to overcome a loss in the 2005 championship; and the University of Virginia Hullabahoos, the so-called bad boys of collegiate a cappella, who will attempt to compete on a higher level this year while retaining their casual soul. Bringing a lively new twist to America's fascination with talent showdowns and peerless performers, Pitch Perfect is sure to strike a chord with readers.
275 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2008
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4705 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 242 reviews
August 14, 2017
This book was acca-awesome! When I discovered that Pitch Perfect the movie came from this book I just knew I had to read it! I love a good non-fiction book that reads like fiction. If you love to know "behind-the-scenes" details then this is a great book for you. Not only did I love how it was told, each group (UVA's Hullabahoos, U of Oregon's Divisi and Tuft's Beelzebubs) got a chapter that related to their part of the shared journey. I read a review that said it was hard to follow, but if you're reading it consistently you can clearly keep up with the storyline. And on top of that, a lot of the writing was quite comical. Who knew the A Cappella world was so intricate. I've always had a love for this genre and that love has only grown after reading this book. I do wish that we could've learned more about the thought process for the song selection for each group, but not knowing keeps me wondering and amazed at the final products. Definitely worth a read.
August 12, 2023
But collegiate a cappella includes the drama kids and the jocks; it drives young women crazy, and some young men to violence. A cappella is a choice college students make, a choice to stand up and sing, to perform, to compete, to serenade, to profit, to hide, to seek truth, to find answers, and to commemorate. The experience is more surreal—more rewarding, more visceral—than one could imagine. And, as it turns out, painfully hard to give up. For every kid who can walk away at graduation, there are others destined to live in the past, wishing they were still up onstage snapping (likely to something by Journey). You can’t really blame them. After all, no one applauds you for showing up to the Monday-morning meeting at Goldman Sachs.
Fellow Goodreads readers, please allow me to give you a small window into my life. My wife and I both have public-sector jobs that were made far busier and stressful by the pandemic. After a while, we developed a routine. One night a week, we have a drink (or three) and watch happy movies, at least one of which must involve a lot of music that we can sing along to. I’d say every two or three weeks for the last two-and-a-half years, we have watched the movie Pitch Perfect on these movie nights. It is fun and funny, great to sing along with, and we get to endlessly argue about which of us is Beca and which of us is Jesse (I’m Jesse, for the record). So I decided to read Pitch Perfect—the non-fiction book that was the inspiration for, if not my favorite movie, the movie I’ve watched more than any other this decade.
Pitch Perfect covers the history of a cappella music globally and in pop culture, but it focuses on the collegiate a cappella scene. Specifically, the author embedded with three groups during the 2006-07 school year. One group is the legendary Tufts Beelzebubs, who have always been at the forefront of a cappella recording. They are looking to record a new album following up on their game-changing 2003 album, Code Red, but are struggling with the direction they should take and with the weight of their group’s legacy. There is no Beelzebubs-inspired group in the movie.
The second group is the University of Virginia Hullabahoos, a group that makes an appearance in the movie (they’re the ones who are singing The Final Countdown onstage at the end of the ICCA Finals montage). They are the laid back, bad boys of the collegiate a cappella scene who perform in their signature bathrobes (“robed for your pleasure”—puns are a big thing in a cappella). They live in their own frat house and select members for personality over raw singing talent (listen quietly and you can hear Jesse sadly whisper, “no Benji?”). But they are also struggling with whether they should strive for a more professional vibe like the Beelzebubs, or whether that sacrifice would not be worth it. So yes, they’re the Treblemakers, except the Hullabahoos don’t try to compete in the ICCAs (at least not in 2006-07).
Finally, there is Divisi, an all-female group from the University of Oregon. They had been heavily favored to win the 2005 ICCAs but lost after getting screwed by a judging decision. In 2006, two returning members (not actually named Aubrey and Chloe, but they might as well be) are leading an otherwise all-new team to finish what the 2005 team had started. Divisi has a signature “sexy stewardess” look, lots of internal division and drama, and a new freshman with lots of ideas and a goth vibe. Obviously, they are our heroes, the Barden Bellas.
Mr. Rapkin was in an a cappella group in college, and you can tell he wrote Pitch Perfect from a place of love not mockery. The book takes an informal, conversational tone, and there’s a fair amount of innuendo because (unsurprisingly) that’s how these college kids roll, and that’s all good. The book alternates between chapters about each of the three teams, which is less good. The rhythm is constantly being interrupted, and there’s a repetitiveness between chapters, and sometimes even within them, as if this were a compiled series of magazine articles rather than a singular book. And while this is obviously highly subjective, I thought the chapters about the Beelzebubs recording an album were much less interesting and entertaining than the drama with Divisi or hijinks of the Hullabahoos.
The book Pitch Perfect has some good stories, and it’s interesting in places, but it’s a bit repetitive and sometimes drags. However, its legacy is secure, as it provided a rich vein of source material for a fictional underdog story about an eclectic group of women trying to sing and choreograph their way to an a cappella championship. The book Pitch Perfect is just okay. The movie Pitch Perfect is endlessly rewatchable and aca-awesome.
Buddy read with Kathy.
August 8, 2012
I wanted to like this so much more than I actually did.
As someone who sang a cappella in college, and who's been a fan of collegiate a cappella since being introduced to it at around the age of ten, I was easily caught up in the book's first several chapters, which introduce the featured groups and delve a bit into the history and cultural relevance of collegiate a cappella.
Ultimately, though, the book didn't sustain my interest. I found Rapkin's authorial voice to be inappropriately sly and smug at times, and there's no real narrative thread to the book--the focus bounces erratically among the three groups, with rather dull side trips into the professional side of collegiate a cappella, but the groups' stories never really coalesce into anything meaningful, and the book ends in such a way that it almost seems as if Rapkin simply ran out of steam.
I'd probably rate this book closer to two or two-and-a-half stars, except that I so enjoyed getting to revisit the a cappella world, even in such a small way, that it made me feel a tad bit more generous than usual in assigning stars.
As someone who sang a cappella in college, and who's been a fan of collegiate a cappella since being introduced to it at around the age of ten, I was easily caught up in the book's first several chapters, which introduce the featured groups and delve a bit into the history and cultural relevance of collegiate a cappella.
Ultimately, though, the book didn't sustain my interest. I found Rapkin's authorial voice to be inappropriately sly and smug at times, and there's no real narrative thread to the book--the focus bounces erratically among the three groups, with rather dull side trips into the professional side of collegiate a cappella, but the groups' stories never really coalesce into anything meaningful, and the book ends in such a way that it almost seems as if Rapkin simply ran out of steam.
I'd probably rate this book closer to two or two-and-a-half stars, except that I so enjoyed getting to revisit the a cappella world, even in such a small way, that it made me feel a tad bit more generous than usual in assigning stars.
February 21, 2013
Ugh. So wanted this to be good. It has all the ingredients for a cracking non-fiction read, but the author's voice ruined the experience. Strange tense shifts mid-chapter, a snide, smug tone, and the most jarring and inappropriate remarks and asides (for example: "he was handsome - the kind of guy even your dad would want to sleep with." I mean what???!?). If it was written better I would have finished this.
May 15, 2025
Thought it would be similar to the movie was disappointed
July 16, 2008
Didn't like it. Its a subject sadly I know oh, too intimately and this book does not capture the experience. In essence, too journalistic. Too much of an extended magazine article that does not capture the charm, comradarie, desperation, eccentricities of the collegiate a cappella experience... in fact the expression "collegiate a cappella" immediately destroys the subject. No. No. No.
October 21, 2012
Movie was much better than the book
January 30, 2015
First, if this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z39fIm...
is being too focused on business, I can only imagine what the lighthearted side of a cappella is like!
I loved this book – not because of the actual text, though that was entertaining, but because I had had no idea that a cappella had changed so much since I was in college!
Sure, I remember the khakis and navy jackets, but, barely 15 years after my school went co-ed (ridiculously late!), the women’s group was already far better than the men’s. I particularly remember a cute version of “I Think I Love You” – cute, because this was the 80s and they were clearly NOT going for sexy.
I also love the Whiffenpoofs, partially because I listened to them as a kid and partially because my brother-in-law’s excitement about their Fall 2013 concert was so infectious. Seriously, that year’s version of “Down by the Salley Gardens” makes me cry every time.
So, wow – have things ever changed! Thank you, Mickey Rapkin, for showing me how fabulous a cappella has become. And thank you YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes for clarifying the situation.
One of the difficulties in reading this book is that real life doesn’t give you the satisfying conclusions that fiction can, so Pitch Perfect the movie is always going to eclipse Pitch Perfect the book in terms of story arc. Or if the book were a novel, the three groups would meet in some epic a cappella showdown, Divisi would win by a hair, singers from different groups would fall in love at an amazing Hullabahoo party, and everyone would live happily ever after, forever young and envied by their detractors. But back to non-fiction. If you can get beyond all that and read the book for what it actually is, you’re in for a whole lot of fun.
I’ve read the criticism below about the book, and while I have to say that I agree with most, I’m cutting Rapkin some slack. I’m not sure it’s possible to write coherently and smoothly about 45 kids during one academic year while resisting the impulse to make anyone too much of a stand-out.
That said, there were certainly some hilarious mistakes that any good copy editor should have caught. Maybe the book was slapped together too quickly after a positive response to the original article? And why was the music director who quit school an entirely different person in the book than the guy mentioned in one of the articles? This only matters to me insofar as I start to question more of the details. But I still liked it! So a 3 for the writing, and a 5 for the subject - subject wins.
Divisi’s story was the most compelling, the one that had the most potential for a story arc if life were to imitate fiction. I really liked these women; my only real complaint was that I wanted to hear more about them. And that song has got to be the best arrangement ever! “Yeah” was the first a cappella song I bought on YouTube, simply because I couldn’t stop listening to it on Spotify. The other non-religious songs Divisi has there are a lot of fun, too (like Pink Martini’s “Hey Eugene”).
I was left a little cold by the Hullabahoos’ story. Seriously? You get the chance to sing at a Lakers’ game and you don’t plan for traffic? What seemed inexplicable to me was how much Rapkin loved them. Yeah, it’s UVA, so that’s always going to be cool. But if he was looking for a new-ish group from the South to compare to Divisi and the Beelzebubs, all he had to do was look at the Sil’hooettes – who are also from UVA, who were founded the year after the Hullabahoos, and who sound amazing.
I finally concluded that the Hullabahoos’ greatest strength isn’t so much their singing as it is their political abilities. More than party animals – and they clearly have a blast doing what they do – they’re political animals who took Rapkin on a wild ride and gave him a taste of being back in college himself. Now that’s a brilliant move!
Okay, maybe it’s an issue of song selection – I don’t much care for soft pop or power ballads, so a lot of the Hullabahoos’ repertoire (or, at least, what I found on Spotify) leaves me cold. I will agree that the harmony on “One” is gorgeous, but there’s a weariness and a darkness in the original song that’s lacking in this version. Maybe that sounds unfair since these are college students, but the Hullabahoos do get that weird sense of cheerful menace right in “Pumped Up Kicks,” so they’re more than capable of adapting to a song.
Actually, it really is an issue of song selection plus arrangement. And that’s what makes “Yeah” and just about everything done by the Beelzebubs so fabulous. Put on headphones and listen to “Yeah” and try to pick out all the different parts. You’ve got to marvel at how Evynne Smith turned the original Usher song into all of that! Or try the same thing with the Beelzebubs’ “All the Love in the World” or "Epiphany" or “Agnus Dei” or “Sexy Buttons” (link above, since it’s only on YouTube). And I would never have listened to "Hey Juliet" if it weren't for this arrangement.
If I take away just one thing from Pitch Perfect, it’s that I now love the Beelzebubs. I wasn’t involved in a cappella in college at all (instrumentalist bias), never watched The Sing-Off or Glee, so I hadn’t heard of them. Nor had my husband who, despite growing up in and around Boston, also went to school in the 80s, well before a cappella became radically less dorky.
I mean, where do I begin? Sure, Code Red is a cool album, especially "The Way You Look Tonight" and "Hot in Herre," but I like others even better.
When I wanted to show a friend (a Straight No Chaser and Muse fan) why I was listening to the Beelzebubs, I started with “Vehicle” and "Madness" and “Bills, Bills, Bills” (honestly, just hearing that guy sing the word “cellphone” is worth the price of the song all by itself). Then I moved on to “Imma Be Rocking That Body” (totally addicted to it), “Debra” (Beck – how awesome is that?), "When I Get You Alone," "Come Sail Away" (which I used to hate), and "Kings and Queens." If this is what the Beelzebubs can accomplish when they’re all uptight about their legacy, then I say bring on the anxiety!
On a side note, who knows if Andrew Savini was really enough of a pain in the ass to deserve all that grief - it certainly couldn’t have been his voice because everything that boy sings is amazing. But even more important, why did his mother get slammed in the book? His mother! Seriously, Rapkin, you just don't do that to someone's mother. Aside from that weirdness, though, she should be very proud of her son. She just shouldn’t listen to “Pony.” Ever. The thought of someday hearing my son even whistle that fabulously nasty song makes me cringe and start humming “The Star-Spangled Banner” just to get the thought out of my head. Still, she should be proud.
One of the cool things about a cappella is hearing people with good voices interpret all sorts of songs. Let’s face it, while Bob Dylan is one of the great songwriters of the past half century, his voice is crap. So the Beelzebub’s version of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” is wonderful because the arrangement is good and the singer’s voice is beautiful. Same thing goes for Florence and the Machine's "Shake It Out," both of the Rufus Wainwright songs, Keane’s “A Bad Dream” (love the original song, hate the breathing),and so on. Just gorgeous.
Whew. If you’ve read this far and haven’t tried the book yet, do. Just do. And make sure to check out YouTube for these groups (so you can see the terrific choreography for "Yeah" and clips from The Sing-Off) and so many others – the Whiffenpoofs and the Dartmouth Aires and the Loreleis and On the Rocks and the Melodores (especially “Strange Fruit”) and all the groups at Duke and . . . !
is being too focused on business, I can only imagine what the lighthearted side of a cappella is like!
I loved this book – not because of the actual text, though that was entertaining, but because I had had no idea that a cappella had changed so much since I was in college!
Sure, I remember the khakis and navy jackets, but, barely 15 years after my school went co-ed (ridiculously late!), the women’s group was already far better than the men’s. I particularly remember a cute version of “I Think I Love You” – cute, because this was the 80s and they were clearly NOT going for sexy.
I also love the Whiffenpoofs, partially because I listened to them as a kid and partially because my brother-in-law’s excitement about their Fall 2013 concert was so infectious. Seriously, that year’s version of “Down by the Salley Gardens” makes me cry every time.
So, wow – have things ever changed! Thank you, Mickey Rapkin, for showing me how fabulous a cappella has become. And thank you YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes for clarifying the situation.
One of the difficulties in reading this book is that real life doesn’t give you the satisfying conclusions that fiction can, so Pitch Perfect the movie is always going to eclipse Pitch Perfect the book in terms of story arc. Or if the book were a novel, the three groups would meet in some epic a cappella showdown, Divisi would win by a hair, singers from different groups would fall in love at an amazing Hullabahoo party, and everyone would live happily ever after, forever young and envied by their detractors. But back to non-fiction. If you can get beyond all that and read the book for what it actually is, you’re in for a whole lot of fun.
I’ve read the criticism below about the book, and while I have to say that I agree with most, I’m cutting Rapkin some slack. I’m not sure it’s possible to write coherently and smoothly about 45 kids during one academic year while resisting the impulse to make anyone too much of a stand-out.
That said, there were certainly some hilarious mistakes that any good copy editor should have caught. Maybe the book was slapped together too quickly after a positive response to the original article? And why was the music director who quit school an entirely different person in the book than the guy mentioned in one of the articles? This only matters to me insofar as I start to question more of the details. But I still liked it! So a 3 for the writing, and a 5 for the subject - subject wins.
Divisi’s story was the most compelling, the one that had the most potential for a story arc if life were to imitate fiction. I really liked these women; my only real complaint was that I wanted to hear more about them. And that song has got to be the best arrangement ever! “Yeah” was the first a cappella song I bought on YouTube, simply because I couldn’t stop listening to it on Spotify. The other non-religious songs Divisi has there are a lot of fun, too (like Pink Martini’s “Hey Eugene”).
I was left a little cold by the Hullabahoos’ story. Seriously? You get the chance to sing at a Lakers’ game and you don’t plan for traffic? What seemed inexplicable to me was how much Rapkin loved them. Yeah, it’s UVA, so that’s always going to be cool. But if he was looking for a new-ish group from the South to compare to Divisi and the Beelzebubs, all he had to do was look at the Sil’hooettes – who are also from UVA, who were founded the year after the Hullabahoos, and who sound amazing.
I finally concluded that the Hullabahoos’ greatest strength isn’t so much their singing as it is their political abilities. More than party animals – and they clearly have a blast doing what they do – they’re political animals who took Rapkin on a wild ride and gave him a taste of being back in college himself. Now that’s a brilliant move!
Okay, maybe it’s an issue of song selection – I don’t much care for soft pop or power ballads, so a lot of the Hullabahoos’ repertoire (or, at least, what I found on Spotify) leaves me cold. I will agree that the harmony on “One” is gorgeous, but there’s a weariness and a darkness in the original song that’s lacking in this version. Maybe that sounds unfair since these are college students, but the Hullabahoos do get that weird sense of cheerful menace right in “Pumped Up Kicks,” so they’re more than capable of adapting to a song.
Actually, it really is an issue of song selection plus arrangement. And that’s what makes “Yeah” and just about everything done by the Beelzebubs so fabulous. Put on headphones and listen to “Yeah” and try to pick out all the different parts. You’ve got to marvel at how Evynne Smith turned the original Usher song into all of that! Or try the same thing with the Beelzebubs’ “All the Love in the World” or "Epiphany" or “Agnus Dei” or “Sexy Buttons” (link above, since it’s only on YouTube). And I would never have listened to "Hey Juliet" if it weren't for this arrangement.
If I take away just one thing from Pitch Perfect, it’s that I now love the Beelzebubs. I wasn’t involved in a cappella in college at all (instrumentalist bias), never watched The Sing-Off or Glee, so I hadn’t heard of them. Nor had my husband who, despite growing up in and around Boston, also went to school in the 80s, well before a cappella became radically less dorky.
I mean, where do I begin? Sure, Code Red is a cool album, especially "The Way You Look Tonight" and "Hot in Herre," but I like others even better.
When I wanted to show a friend (a Straight No Chaser and Muse fan) why I was listening to the Beelzebubs, I started with “Vehicle” and "Madness" and “Bills, Bills, Bills” (honestly, just hearing that guy sing the word “cellphone” is worth the price of the song all by itself). Then I moved on to “Imma Be Rocking That Body” (totally addicted to it), “Debra” (Beck – how awesome is that?), "When I Get You Alone," "Come Sail Away" (which I used to hate), and "Kings and Queens." If this is what the Beelzebubs can accomplish when they’re all uptight about their legacy, then I say bring on the anxiety!
On a side note, who knows if Andrew Savini was really enough of a pain in the ass to deserve all that grief - it certainly couldn’t have been his voice because everything that boy sings is amazing. But even more important, why did his mother get slammed in the book? His mother! Seriously, Rapkin, you just don't do that to someone's mother. Aside from that weirdness, though, she should be very proud of her son. She just shouldn’t listen to “Pony.” Ever. The thought of someday hearing my son even whistle that fabulously nasty song makes me cringe and start humming “The Star-Spangled Banner” just to get the thought out of my head. Still, she should be proud.
One of the cool things about a cappella is hearing people with good voices interpret all sorts of songs. Let’s face it, while Bob Dylan is one of the great songwriters of the past half century, his voice is crap. So the Beelzebub’s version of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” is wonderful because the arrangement is good and the singer’s voice is beautiful. Same thing goes for Florence and the Machine's "Shake It Out," both of the Rufus Wainwright songs, Keane’s “A Bad Dream” (love the original song, hate the breathing),and so on. Just gorgeous.
Whew. If you’ve read this far and haven’t tried the book yet, do. Just do. And make sure to check out YouTube for these groups (so you can see the terrific choreography for "Yeah" and clips from The Sing-Off) and so many others – the Whiffenpoofs and the Dartmouth Aires and the Loreleis and On the Rocks and the Melodores (especially “Strange Fruit”) and all the groups at Duke and . . . !
November 26, 2011
The Deal:
Pitch Perfect follows 3 college A Capella groups through one collegiate season as each tries to do... something.
Divisi, an all-female group from the University of Oregon is trying to prove that they belong as one of the nation's elite college groups after a crushing loss in nationals and the exodus of their core singers.
The Hullabahoos, an all male group from University of Virginia, is trying to get drunk (a lot) and sing at a Lakers game.
And the Beelzebubs, an all male group from Tufts University, are trying to record a follow-up to their latest, ground breaking A Capella record.
What Worked: Divisi. Anytime Rapkin focused on Divisi I was enthralled and completely a long for the ride. My heart broke for these girls on several occasions and I got nervous and excited for them every time they went on stage. If the book had just been about Divisi, it would have gotten a much higher ranking.
What Didn't Work: Both male groups just came across as entitled rich boys waiting for a payoff that they never quite seemed to earn. They blended together far too often and I had to look up the book on Amazon to remind myself what their actual names were. There's also a lot of unnecessary insider information about the world of a capella. Basic background information was nice, but I didn't need to know about feuding presidents of feuding A Capella organizations.
Anything Extra Special?: The competition between Divisi and Noteworthy, Brigham Young's all female group, could be an entire novel in itself.
Would I Read It Again: I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, but I'd definitely revisit the chapters on Divisi, maybe read them together and see if they still hold up as one, long narrative.
Pitch Perfect follows 3 college A Capella groups through one collegiate season as each tries to do... something.
Divisi, an all-female group from the University of Oregon is trying to prove that they belong as one of the nation's elite college groups after a crushing loss in nationals and the exodus of their core singers.
The Hullabahoos, an all male group from University of Virginia, is trying to get drunk (a lot) and sing at a Lakers game.
And the Beelzebubs, an all male group from Tufts University, are trying to record a follow-up to their latest, ground breaking A Capella record.
What Worked: Divisi. Anytime Rapkin focused on Divisi I was enthralled and completely a long for the ride. My heart broke for these girls on several occasions and I got nervous and excited for them every time they went on stage. If the book had just been about Divisi, it would have gotten a much higher ranking.
What Didn't Work: Both male groups just came across as entitled rich boys waiting for a payoff that they never quite seemed to earn. They blended together far too often and I had to look up the book on Amazon to remind myself what their actual names were. There's also a lot of unnecessary insider information about the world of a capella. Basic background information was nice, but I didn't need to know about feuding presidents of feuding A Capella organizations.
Anything Extra Special?: The competition between Divisi and Noteworthy, Brigham Young's all female group, could be an entire novel in itself.
Would I Read It Again: I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, but I'd definitely revisit the chapters on Divisi, maybe read them together and see if they still hold up as one, long narrative.
January 2, 2013
It was interesting in parts, but other parts I felt like it went off and didn't make sense. I felt like I learned a lot about collegiate a cappella, and I actually found it fascinating even though I'm not a singer or performer.
I wouldn't recommend this book, but I'm glad I stumbled upon it because now I have a large playlist of a cappella groups that I wouldn't have known about had I not read this book.
Also, the book is nothing like the movie; I didn't read the description before I purchased the book. I don't even know how they say the movie is based off this book...
I wouldn't recommend this book, but I'm glad I stumbled upon it because now I have a large playlist of a cappella groups that I wouldn't have known about had I not read this book.
Also, the book is nothing like the movie; I didn't read the description before I purchased the book. I don't even know how they say the movie is based off this book...
April 13, 2020
Closer to 2.5 stars. I wish this book — the non-fiction basis for the Pitch Perfect movie series — had stuck with one a cappella group and followed them to finals. Or stuck with one group per section, or had stuck with a linear timeline, or something that passed as an organizing principle. It's just this grab bag of names and anecdotes, of people who don't distinguish themselves at all except when they're misbehaving. I lost track of the players quickly — when you're covering decades of college-group history, and people drop in and out every year, the names start to blur quickly, and when so many of the stories are repetitive (arguing over trivia about musical arrangement or group direction or album production; acting out on gigs by drinking too much and acting unprofessional) the lines blur even more. Only a few of the details really stand out at the end, like the group that showed up to a David Letterman taping fully expecting to just walk in and be allowed to perform on his show — and eventually, after intense mocking, getting their wish.
YouTube wound up being a really useful resource as I read this book. There are SO many detailed descriptions of songs and sounds that are pretty meaningless in prose — including a ridiculous number of cases where the author spells out whatever deedle-dee dah dum dum dees or whakkita-chakkitas the group of the moment is singing in the baseline of a given song. But often it's possible to find the group in question performing the song in question, which clears up what Rapkin is talking about. Still, while it's clear that an immense amount of journalistic effort went into writing this book, it's easy to wish for a lot less meaningless name-date-event-songlist-sound detail, and more of a broad and approachable overview. This book is incredibly weedsy, and the repetition gets pretty grinding.
YouTube wound up being a really useful resource as I read this book. There are SO many detailed descriptions of songs and sounds that are pretty meaningless in prose — including a ridiculous number of cases where the author spells out whatever deedle-dee dah dum dum dees or whakkita-chakkitas the group of the moment is singing in the baseline of a given song. But often it's possible to find the group in question performing the song in question, which clears up what Rapkin is talking about. Still, while it's clear that an immense amount of journalistic effort went into writing this book, it's easy to wish for a lot less meaningless name-date-event-songlist-sound detail, and more of a broad and approachable overview. This book is incredibly weedsy, and the repetition gets pretty grinding.
May 11, 2014
I was three quarters of the way through this book when it hit me. I don't have to finish this. I was interested in the subject to begin with but drowning in detail all too quickly. And detail I will never retain. It's not about how this form of music emerged. It's about the various a capella groups in US colleges and their history, something I should have realized from the title. No point was too small to mention and i found the construction of the bood disjointed and unhelpful. Glad I put it aside at last.
March 21, 2020
I feel absolutely awful for giving this such a low rating. But as an advisor fan of the movies, this was definitely not what I was expecting. I had no clue it was non-fiction, and that there were such massive differences between the media’s.
The jumping around and info overload also contributed to me not finding it worthwhile to finish the book. Who knows though? Maybe I’ll try again in the future!
The jumping around and info overload also contributed to me not finding it worthwhile to finish the book. Who knows though? Maybe I’ll try again in the future!
May 13, 2025
Mickey Rapkin is a journalist and a cappella aficionado; his 2008 book Pitch Perfect about the collegiate a cappella scene was apparently was part of the source material for the 2012 film and subsequent franchise of the same name (though I have yet to see any of these films). This book profiles three very different a cappella groups across the 2007 collegiate season:
- the all-female Divisi of Oregon State University (probably the inspiration for the Bellas of Pitch Perfect) - a scrappy, relatively-new group who have hopes of winning that year's national championship after a devastating defeat in a recent season
- the all-male Hullabahoos of the University of Virginia, a bunch of frat boys in robes with stupid antics
- the all-male Beelzebubs of Tufts University, who are too cool for competition (though they later would compete in The Sing Off, an NBC reality competition inspired by the success of the Pitch Perfect movies) and focus on recording albums, heavily funded and controlled by alumni (the group was founded over 60 years ago, in 1962)
This book reads quite similarly to Alexandra Robbins' books profiling college students (see Pledged - Secret Life Of Sororities and Fraternity: An Inside Look at a Year of College Boys Becoming Men), though Rapkin does write with humor and genuine affection for the often sophomoric behavior of many of the students profiled. I was a college student back in 2007, and the photos in the middle of the book definitely transported me back to the fashion faux pas of that era, and also made me wish that my college had funding and infrastructure for this type of cool extracurricular.
My statistics:
Book 146 for 2025
Book 2072 cumulatively
- the all-female Divisi of Oregon State University (probably the inspiration for the Bellas of Pitch Perfect) - a scrappy, relatively-new group who have hopes of winning that year's national championship after a devastating defeat in a recent season
- the all-male Hullabahoos of the University of Virginia, a bunch of frat boys in robes with stupid antics
- the all-male Beelzebubs of Tufts University, who are too cool for competition (though they later would compete in The Sing Off, an NBC reality competition inspired by the success of the Pitch Perfect movies) and focus on recording albums, heavily funded and controlled by alumni (the group was founded over 60 years ago, in 1962)
This book reads quite similarly to Alexandra Robbins' books profiling college students (see Pledged - Secret Life Of Sororities and Fraternity: An Inside Look at a Year of College Boys Becoming Men), though Rapkin does write with humor and genuine affection for the often sophomoric behavior of many of the students profiled. I was a college student back in 2007, and the photos in the middle of the book definitely transported me back to the fashion faux pas of that era, and also made me wish that my college had funding and infrastructure for this type of cool extracurricular.
My statistics:
Book 146 for 2025
Book 2072 cumulatively
July 11, 2017
This book is hard to rate since there isn't really a story or main characters. It's non fiction and about three different a cappella bands. There were a lot of person in the book and I mean A LOT. It was hard to keep up with the names and the places. I liked it but It was missing something.
March 7, 2021
I'm a big fan of the Pitch Perfect movies so I really enjoyed this book 😊 While it's not the book of the movie, it follows 3 reall A cappella groups and shows a little history of A cappella. It was an interesting read.
January 21, 2024
I found this so fun and fascinating. And now it is time to watch the movie for the 100th time…
February 7, 2021
If you watched the movies then decided to read the book, you are going to be disappointed.
September 29, 2018
I slogged through and finished this today. I kept hoping it would get better, but it never did. There was really no point to the book, it was just a series of vignettes, a few were amusing, but college humor can pall pretty quickly. Whoever pulled a movie out of this book deserves the millions those movies have made!
September 25, 2021
Love the movies, decided to read the book on which the first film is based. Enjoyed, especially the first half. Enjoyed seeing some of the inspiration for events/ characters in the first movie. Overall, a fun read that dragged a little in the last section.
December 28, 2023
Yeah it was pretty good. Definitely thought the author took some creative liberties,,, maybe a little too far in some cases. A lot of it didn’t go down the way it’s presented in the book, and I don’t like the way he portrays me, but otherwise it was a decent read. Fun to reminisce on the old days with the gang.
February 14, 2021
I heard an interview with the author probably soon after Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory was published. I was intrigued. It is about college a cappella groups, competition and recording. I finally read it because of a book challenge task that asked to read a book from a list of books titled I Only Watched the Movie. I had no idea the book had inspired a movie. This is one case where the movie has an advantage in that you probably hear some a cappella groups perform.
The writing here is uneven and filled with jargon, college-boy humor, industry gossip, a few humorous tales and a few heart-rending stories. I only would recommend this book to readers who are interested in the history of collegiate a cappella.
The writing here is uneven and filled with jargon, college-boy humor, industry gossip, a few humorous tales and a few heart-rending stories. I only would recommend this book to readers who are interested in the history of collegiate a cappella.
February 4, 2023
A little boring. Not as entertaining as the movie.
August 2, 2020
It took more time than I needed to finish this 300 pages book. I dove too deep into audiobooks and now reading is so boring compared to listening.
Anyways, this book was awesome! It's nothing like the movies; it's real. When I searched youtube for tracks mentioned in the book I felt as if I were sucker-punched. The tracks in the movies are perfect, the ones from 2006-2009 are not.
I listened to "yeah" originally by Usher, preformed by Divise in a really bad quality, but it was charming. (I listen to it by Usher frequently these days, so thank you for that.)
Then "The Magic Mystery Tour" originally by The Beatles, performed by The Beelzebubs, in which I could see the hard work that was put into it. I also listened to Mr Roboto and Signed, sealed, delivered from their albums. I can't wrap my head about the fact of them not using any instruments. They were so good.
And for the Hullabahoos, I listened to everything I could find. They're my favorite. "take me to church", "pumped up kicks", "too good at goodbyes", "love the way you lie"... etc.
They're so good to the point I wasn't interested that none of the songs in the book were on youtube. I loved listening to them. Loved the laid-back attitude and the robes and all that.
I don't think there are a cappella groups in Egypt, so I'll probably never see one live in the near future. It seems so cool and yet so nerdy, I wish there were more about it in books and novels.
I don't understand why this book has many low ratings, I loved it so very much. It reads like a documentary or a podcast. It would've made a great audiobook.
I also need to say this book led me to listen to "Everybody wants to rule the world", an amazing song by Tears for Fears. I'm really sad none of the groups actually performed it.
Anyways, this book was awesome! It's nothing like the movies; it's real. When I searched youtube for tracks mentioned in the book I felt as if I were sucker-punched. The tracks in the movies are perfect, the ones from 2006-2009 are not.
I listened to "yeah" originally by Usher, preformed by Divise in a really bad quality, but it was charming. (I listen to it by Usher frequently these days, so thank you for that.)
Then "The Magic Mystery Tour" originally by The Beatles, performed by The Beelzebubs, in which I could see the hard work that was put into it. I also listened to Mr Roboto and Signed, sealed, delivered from their albums. I can't wrap my head about the fact of them not using any instruments. They were so good.
And for the Hullabahoos, I listened to everything I could find. They're my favorite. "take me to church", "pumped up kicks", "too good at goodbyes", "love the way you lie"... etc.
They're so good to the point I wasn't interested that none of the songs in the book were on youtube. I loved listening to them. Loved the laid-back attitude and the robes and all that.
I don't think there are a cappella groups in Egypt, so I'll probably never see one live in the near future. It seems so cool and yet so nerdy, I wish there were more about it in books and novels.
I don't understand why this book has many low ratings, I loved it so very much. It reads like a documentary or a podcast. It would've made a great audiobook.
I also need to say this book led me to listen to "Everybody wants to rule the world", an amazing song by Tears for Fears. I'm really sad none of the groups actually performed it.
September 24, 2015
This book wasn't exactly biographical, but just examines some aspect about the politics of collegiate a cappella. And no, the book is not written exactly like the movie (which is pretty obvious to anyone who skims through it or reads the book jacket).
It wasn't the most fascinating non-fiction book that I have read, but it was fairly interesting (probably more so for those who have any musical appreciation at all for a capella). I also was a little surprised to read the mentions of my alma mater's a cappella groups (Noteworthy and Vocal Point) in a couple of the chapters. And I enjoyed pinpointing a couple of people that probably inspired some of the characters/groups in the movie. I myself never got into a cappella in college (except for attending a few Vocal Point concerts), but I think that I probably would have had fun with it if I ever did. I thought it was interesting how similar the relatively unknown drama/politics of a cappella can compare with ballroom dance (a sphere that I WAS sucked into in college).
I don't know if I would necessarily promote this book to anyone who has only lukewarm interest in the subject. But for super music geeks and/or fans of the movie who want to know more about the "real world" of a cappella, this might be worth a shot...
It wasn't the most fascinating non-fiction book that I have read, but it was fairly interesting (probably more so for those who have any musical appreciation at all for a capella). I also was a little surprised to read the mentions of my alma mater's a cappella groups (Noteworthy and Vocal Point) in a couple of the chapters. And I enjoyed pinpointing a couple of people that probably inspired some of the characters/groups in the movie. I myself never got into a cappella in college (except for attending a few Vocal Point concerts), but I think that I probably would have had fun with it if I ever did. I thought it was interesting how similar the relatively unknown drama/politics of a cappella can compare with ballroom dance (a sphere that I WAS sucked into in college).
I don't know if I would necessarily promote this book to anyone who has only lukewarm interest in the subject. But for super music geeks and/or fans of the movie who want to know more about the "real world" of a cappella, this might be worth a shot...
December 26, 2017
Who knew there could be just as many dramatic moments in collegiate a capella as there are in its cinematic representations? In all seriousness, this was quite an interesting insight into the reality of a capella in the 2000s and before, and it was even more insightful to read it nearly a decade after its publication. It was pleasantly amusing to read stories about groups like Divisi and the Beelzebubs before they would even encounter the incredible opportunities that have occurred in the past decade (having arrangements being featured on Glee for example!). Also, I enjoyed seeing the snippets of each story that could have inspired a part of the movie adaptation.
I admire Rapkin's dedication into getting this book out there. The fact that a journalist was motivated by his own love of a capella to travel to all these schools, interview their groups, compile all his collected information, and publish it as a successful novel that later inspired a movie is inspiring to me in itself!
I admire Rapkin's dedication into getting this book out there. The fact that a journalist was motivated by his own love of a capella to travel to all these schools, interview their groups, compile all his collected information, and publish it as a successful novel that later inspired a movie is inspiring to me in itself!
January 27, 2022
OK, I love choral music, massed voices singing. Broadway musicals, movie musicals, choral concerts. All good. I enjoyed the movie "Pitch Perfect". So it was a natural extension to read the book the movie was based on. The book did not disappoint. A good non fiction read, "Pitch perfect" follows the fortunes of 3 college a cappella groups in 2006-07. College a cappella is an interesting college pastime. Rapkin does an entertaining job documenting the sub culture. A cappella can be all consuming, but sometimes good music emerges. Sing on!
November 6, 2012
I liked the movie so I was curious about the book... eh. This book was the perfect "right before bed" book because it was interesting enough to want to read, but not so interesting that it kept me up all night wanting to finish it. If you're interested in reading about college a cappella, read this. If you are looking for a book about the movie, this isn't it.
January 17, 2015
I loved the movie so I thought why not give this one a try...
Mmhhmm well lets just say I didn't love it like I did the movie.
Mmhhmm well lets just say I didn't love it like I did the movie.
Want to read
August 3, 2015Okay I definitely did NOT expect Pitch Perfect to be based on a book.
I loved the 2 movies (I just finished watching the 2nd!) and frankly, I'm super excited to read this.
I loved the 2 movies (I just finished watching the 2nd!) and frankly, I'm super excited to read this.
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