Barbershop

Barbershop is a style of a cappella close-harmony singing for four unaccompanied voices, tenor, lead, baritone and bass, that developed in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its sound rests on dominant seventh "barbershop" chords, tight voicings and overtones reinforced by exact tuning, applied to standards, show tunes and popular songs. Quartets such as *The Buffalo Bills*, *The Suntones* and *Vocal Spectrum* carried the tradition through the SPEBSQSA contest system, documented on albums including "Vocal Spectrum" and "That Old Feeling", while the style expanded to women's and mixed ensembles.