Metro是一个国际化的演唱团体，起源于美国，近十年来演出足迹遍布世界各地。成员包括Eric，Kevin，Cody，Sean，他们利用自己过人的才华将世界最流行的歌曲重新进行独特的编排，呈现给听众一种充满活力的，自然清新的音乐。

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The classic 'a cappella' singing style isn't typically so main stream in Asia, but these four American guys have aimed to change that. Metro Vocal Group has taken the vocal soul from their American roots and has extended it to China, Japan and Korea.

What's more, these aren't even American boys of Chinese or even Asian decent. Obviously, you'd notice this when you look at Eric, Kevin, Sean and Michael. That's why it might surprise you even more to hear them singing 'a cappella' in Mandarin and Cantonese, Japanese and Korean.

Kevin Thornton from Franklin, Kentucky explains exactly how this style of music they created came about.

"Right now, we take already existing songs, popular songs, songs that are meaningful to people in China. Songs that we like and we arrange them in our own style. We take a song, probably 2 or 3 weeks, four weeks or so, and put it to Metro style; we call it "Metro-fying-it."

Metro Vocal Group started out singing on cruise ships but has called Hong Kong their base since 2008. Last year, they performed at the Miss Hong Kong Pageant and this year they have signed with Sony Music. Coming up in February, they'll be singing on the internet spring festival gala of CCTV called, "Downloading Happiness."

Lead vocalist Sean Oliver from Cincinnati, Ohio says their interest in Chinese started with Canto-pop while living in Hong Kong.

"What we're trying to do is give respect to the Asian culture because we love it so much. We've been in Asia since 2002; we started three years in Tokyo, in Japan. And then we moved to Hong Kong. We've immersed ourselves in the culture, the food, the people, the traditions and a lot of different things. We took what we do best, which is singing, and tried to give a little bit back. We haven't really tackled any of our own music yet, which is what we want to do. We want to bring in some lyricists and to bring some Cantonese and Mandarin to the albums."

Eric Monson is from Iowa City, Iowa and points out that 'a cappella' may be new to Asia, but not to anyone in the group.

"'A cappella' has all been in our history. In my family, my dad would go out and sing 'a cappella' quartet even before I was born. As a little kid, I would go out and watch my dad sing it in his group. Mike, when he was in the university where my dad was teaching, he started up his own 'a cappella' group. Now that's becoming more famous in the Midwest. Sean started singing 'a cappella' at a much younger age, I think thirteen. Kevin, he sang with some different doo-wop,' a cappella' type groups."

Because 'a cappella' is not so main stream, Michael Lance from Lincoln, Nebraska says it is not well understood.

"People think of' a cappella' as a genre whereas a genre is rock, pop, R & B style. 'A cappella' is a style wherein we can take any genre and do what we want. Not really doo-wop, it's a funky, R & B style. But like I said, we've got this classic rock style. It's not that we really generalize it as a style but we can do with it what we want and probably in the mix of it, we're going to come up with our own genre."

This has created an impressive range of songs that can be sung without the help of instruments and is truly astounding. Sean Oliver says the more familiar they became with Asia, the more possibilities they found in the markets.

"We started singing in Cantonese first, which is more difficult than Mandarin-nine tones instead of four. Then everyone was saying we should do Mandarin songs as well, so we started researching the music. We had no idea, these are markets we didn't know about, Korea and China. It was difficult at first; it would take us about a month. Now, we've got it down to a science, it takes about a week. It's funny; we can't speak very well because you really have to focus on the tones when you speak, whereas when you sing, the melody is providing the tones."

Their most popular song is a tribute to famous Hong Kong rock band, 'Beyond' and the lead singer Wong Ka Kui.

Eric Monson says that the group took the opportunity to sing 'Hoi fut tin hong' for the 17th anniversary of his death.

"He really believed that music was international and that it had no boundaries, which is a great theme for Metro, we believe in that as well. He tragically passed away at a younger age. It's the rock anthem of Hong Kong. It was something, for arranging, you really want to do a good tribute to it. It's sung so many times by so many people and there have been so many covers but there hasn't been any band to redo it. And now, it's probably the most requested song that we do.

The response Asia has been amazing, they say, and the group is excited about their upcoming album release at the end of they year that will not be sung in English. After all, what Chinese or Korean fan wouldn't be impressed with some Caucasian American guys singing Chinese or Korean?

With so many styles of music exhausted these days and fans needing something new, this group of incredibly talented Americans guys may be exactly what Asia never knew it was waiting for.

For CRI, I'm Andrea Hunt.

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