- Barbershop music is a style of unaccompanied, or a cappella singing characterised by four part harmonies.
- The word a cappella means "in the manner of the church/chapel" in Italian, because the style was first used for religious music, such as Gregorian chant.
- A barbershop quartet has four voices - the lead, who sings the tune, and the tenor, base and baritone, who harmonise with him...
- ... or her. Female barbershop quartets are sometimes referred to as Sweet Adelines quartets after Sweet Adelines International, one of the world's largest singing organisations for women.
- As well as quartets, there are barbershop choruses, which have more members and resemble choirs.
- As to where the genre first originated, opinions differ. 17th century diarist Samuel Pepys described a type of Music called "barber's music". In his time, the barber's shop was a meeting place, and barbers were often musicians as well. However, English barber's music tended to include instruments. Another explanation is that is started in the 1880s among young African American men, who, at the time, were excluded from theatres and concert halls and would gather to make their own entertainment.
- The genre was especially popular in the early 20th century; it faded from popularity for a while and experienced a revival in the 1940s. Because its heyday was in the Vaudeville era, modern barbershop quartets tend to wear brightly coloured Vaudeville style outfits with boaters and vertically striped vests.
- Traditional songs sung by barbershop quartets include Down by the Old Mill Stream, Let Me Call You Sweetheart, My Wild Irish Rose and Sweet Adeline (You're The Flower Of My Heart) (from which the Sweet Adelines get their name.) Over the years, the repertoire has expanded to include classics such as Over The Rainbow, Alexander's Ragtime Band, Come Fly with Me, and Yes Sir, That's My Baby.
- However, most music can be arranged into the style. Show tunes, pop and rock music can be adapted for performance by a barbershop quartet, and often is, to attract younger audiences and singers.
- Well known quartets and choruses include The Dapper Dans of Disneyland, who appear at Disney World; The Singing Senators, a quartet of U.S. Senators; The Buffalo Bills, active in the 1950s, and the Suntones in the 1960s.
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