Take sasquatch-size Bert Laurence, who is standing next to me singing bass harmony. Then Laurence asks me if I'd like to join the club. I'm not sure if the world is ready to endure both my writing and my singing. The Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America boasts 34,000 members in 809 chapters throughout the United States and Canada. Sammonds says that barbershop attracts people from all different walks of life.
Barbershop is a cappella, four-part harmony with a lead, bass, tenor and baritone.
According to the society's literature, American barbershop style first surfaced in black Southern quartets in the 1870s. The society's historians say that barbershop harmony ensemble was indeed sung at barber shops, but those weren't the only places. The popular songs of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with their sentimental lyrics and uncomplicated melodies, lent themselves to the four-part barbershop harmony. The decline of barbershop coincided with the decline of vaudeville. Dance tunes of the 1920s and more complicated melodies played on the radio by professional musicians were not barbershop friendly.