About
One Man Acapella is a type of music video in which a singer records multiple vocal tracks that are subsequently pieced together into one song, in a similar vein to Stop Motion Beatbox videos.
Origin
On December 9th, 2006, YouTuber Patrick van Slee uploaded a one man acapella of the 1986 rock song “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi split into 4 screens (shown below). In the description, van Slee claims the video was made in 2002 and originally spread in Chicago prior to being uploaded on the Internet.
Spread
On October 28th, 2008, YouTuber Del Lazaro uploaded an one man acapella version of the song “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz (shown below, left). In the first five years, the video gained over 3.4 million views and 8,000 comments. On August 19th, 2010, YouTuber pbpproductions uploaded a video featuring singer Mike Tompkins performing a one man acapella of the song “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry (shown below, right). In the next three years, the video accumulated upwards of 22.2 million views and 47,000.
On January 4th, 2013, YouTuber Peter Hollens uploaded an acapella version of the song “Misty Mountains” from the 2012 fantasy film The Hobbit, garnering over 2.35 million views and 8,900 comments in the following seven months. On January 13th, YouTuber Smooth McGroove uploaded an acapella of the song “Zelda’s Lullaby” from the video game The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (shown below, right). In the next six months, McGroove uploaded over 35 more one man acapella versions of video game songs.
Notable Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]Jezebel – One Man Acapella of Thriller Will Blow Your Mind":http://jezebel.com/5992213/one+man-acapella-cover-of-thriller-will-pretty-much-blow-your-mind