Blog: Texas group Pentatonix impresses as an a capella team

An a cappella group currently has one of the top selling albums in the country, and it is a Christmas album at that.

The group Pentatonix’s album, This is Christmas to Me, with covers of traditional holiday favorites, was at one point able to briefly surpass what many consider the album of the year in Taylor Swift’s 1989 as the number one top seller among albums on iTunes, on which it currently sits at number five on the charts.

So who exactly is Pentatonix? The name comes from the pentatonic scale. They are a quintet group whose members are named Avi Kaplan, Kevin Olusola, Kirstie Maldonado, Scott Hoying and Mitch Grassi. Their initial success came from winning the singing competition show The Sing-Off.

One of the more popular covers on the Christmas album is Mary, Did You Know, which is currently ranked 38 with a peak position of 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs. There is also a cover of the popular song “Let It Go” from the movie Frozen.

The group’s Christmas album from last year, “PTXmas,” is still number 18 on the Billboard album charts. The group has also released 3 EPs with covers of current and older hits.

Even though their music has not been played on the radio, their viral YouTube success has propelled them. Currently their mashup of Daft Punk songs in the song by the same name has over 100 million views.

Other viral hits include covers of Lorde’s “Royals” at around 45 million views and Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know” at nearly 35 million views. According to the group’s website, the videos on their channel have a viewing total of about 650 million.

A distinctive element of the band’s sound is that most of their songs do not use instruments, hence their a capella association. They use their vocals to imitate the sounds of instruments. Their cover of Imagine Dragons “Radioactive” was an exception as it featured violinist Lindsey Stirling, who actually has outdone Pentatonix with 675 million views on YouTube according to her website.

The Pentatonix “Radioactive” cover can be heard on Stirling’s YouTube channel, and it has nearly 90 million views.