Gleeks

It was first seen in high schools across the nation during September of 2009. It would be seen on shirts and in speech, and it would be alien to anyone who did not watch TV. Then, slowly but surely, it would make its way into the magazines, into the words of talk show hosts, and into the common tongue of those who knew anyone about pop culture. It sounded like a sort of alien in a children’s book, or perhaps an imaginary disease. This word is “gleek,” and slowly, surely, it is sweeping across the nation.

FOX's popular TV show "Glee" airs Wednesdays at 9 PM EST

The “Gleeks,” a portmanteau of the word “Glee” and “geek,” are gaining in number every week with each new episode of the admittedly adorable FOX television show “Glee,” which is, contrary to what the title suggests, NOT about a glee club; the ensemble portrayed on the show is closer to a show choir, with its choreographed dances and contemporary repertoire. In this show, a motley crew of diverse teenagers from every background comes together over song and dance while learning about themselves, love, and life. Even the teachers join in the fun, with one particular moment being the club’s leader performing Sisqo’s “The Thong Song.” (Said performance all turned out to be a hallucination in the end, but that hallucination was the product of another teacher’s mind.) Football players and cheerleaders go through hard times for being in the glee club, which is considered “uncool.” or it could be very cool for them; in one episode, a football player gets a Slushee in the face for supposedly abandoning the team.

Real life choirs have varied opinions on “Glee”; one Bergen County choir director deplores the show, while one choir in Bethel, Connecticut has even gone so far as to purchase and perform the show’s arrangement of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.” According to choir students from all across the country, there are concentrations of “Gleeks” in their choirs, who love to discuss the show on Thursdays before their directors call them to get into their seats. However, the faction that seems to be mostly obsessed with Glee are the ones that are not in choir. Every Wednesday night, “Glee”-related statuses pop up on my Facebook news feed about the latest song performed or about what couple should get together, and most of these are from people who probably don’t know where the choir room is.

Membership in choirs has not increased due to the show’s popularity; the membership in all choirs of the students interviewed for this article has remained constant. One student predicts that the amount of students in the school’s musical will increase this year, but I disagree; when a musical TV movie geared towards a younger audience was popular, many people did sign up for my middle school’s musical and promptly left when it was revealed that the commitment would not be an hour and a half, but three months. Even more left when they did not get the lead role as desired.

Despite the show popularizing choral music, being in a school choir still carries a social stigma of sorts in the American high school. It may not be as blatant as having a Slushee thrown in the face at the turn of every corner, but the choir students interviewed all stated that there was some degree of isolation from the greater population of the school. “We’re a cult,” was the general consensus. And it is a bit cult-like; music rooms are generally separate from the general education classrooms as not to disturb teaching, and choral singing requires a little bit of vocal talent and a high degree of commitment and discipline. Could it be that the “Gleeks” that are not in choir and have no desire to be in choir lack one or more of these attributes? Or is it only that it feels good to feel the camaraderie of choir without ever having to sing a silly warm-up, practice the same four measures over and over again, or sightread in 12/8 time? Whatever the reason, it seems that the choir kids have risen, but only on one side of the television screen.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinsji/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

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