By Camille Kelly | Reporter
Baylor Men’s Choir has been recognized by millions on social media for their creative, humor-filled videos, gaining millions of views on Instagram and growing their account from around 1,500 followers to 150,000 followers in the past three years.
By the end of March, the men’s choir account surpassed Baylor football in followers on Instagram, soon after passing Baylor Athletics last summer.
According to men’s choir social media manager, Irvine, Calif., junior Luke Reinkensmeyer, a recent video from Valentine’s Day of the men’s choir serenading the women’s choir with Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You” increased their following. The video reached 15 million views between Instagram and Facebook.
“We know it was just numbers, but we definitely were happy that we are continuing to grow and are thankful for continued faithful fan base,” Reinkensmeyer said. “It’s a great community. I think that’s kind of part of the reason we’re able to have a good social media is we just have a lot of fun and we keep a lot of traditions alive.”
Last year, the choir posted a video of their own take on the LeBron James song edits, a video that overnight was viewed by millions. That April, a video was posted of LeBron James mentioning the choir’s viral hit in a postgame interview.
“In the past, maybe the first time you would hear about Baylor is because of a national championship in basketball or a really good football team, but maybe now you might hear about Baylor because they sang a song about LeBron, which is just fun, and it’s definitely very different,” Reinkensmeyer said.
Reinkensmeyer also said that the social media follow has helped highlight choir culture.
“Usually, the choir guys are not at the front, they’re on the side,” Reinkensmeyer said. “But it’s kind of funny that because of Instagram and social media, choir guys are kind of in the spotlight now, and all their quirks are shining through.”
Internal vice president of men’s choir, Louisville, Ky., senior August Rothpletz, was the choir’s social media manager for the past two years, which included the time the LeBron song video went viral.
According to Rothpletz, his goal when he first started two years ago was to create one video that got 10,000 views. At the time, the choir had around 1,500 followers, and Rothpletz never would have believed that one day a video would get 18 million views.
“Our goal with our social media has been and continues to be to show what it’s like to be a part of the men’s choir and make fun videos that spread positivity and the joy of music,” Rothpletz said. “We want to be part of the positive impact that men involved with singing can have on the world.”
