'Pitch Perfect': Drama a cappella

0 Comments | USA TODAY, June, 2008 | by Elysa Gardner

Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory

By Mickey Rapkin

Gotham Books, 271 pp., $26

What do R&B star John Legend, actor James Van Der Beek and Osama bin Laden have in common? It's a sort of team sport practiced at universities, and it won't necessarily make you a big man on campus.

But there are surprising perks to joining a collegiate a cappella group.

In Pitch Perfect, Mickey Rapkin investigates this type of competitive singing -- without instrumental accompaniment, so that vocal arrangements are emphasized -- and finds an underworld of geek chic, whose inhabitants indulge in wild parties, exotic trips and even escapades with groupies.

Groupies are, of course, more a fringe benefit for male...