Dartboard laments the decreasing significance of the encore. At one time a special way for performers to acknowledge exceptional praise from their fans, present-day encores are more like final boarding calls in airports--inevitable and scripted.

A recent slew of a capella concerts on campus illustrates this trend--that encores seem to be nothing more than the last song on a set list, with the added instructions "exit stage, wait 10 seconds, re-emerge" written before it.

In fact, at their recent Juke Jam concert, the Harvard-Radcliffe Opportunes reappeared after their normal set to sing--surprise--"Change in My Life," the emotional gospel tune which many say is their best song. No matter how good the song or the group, it is presumptuous to withhold your best song from the normal set in expectation of being asked for an encore.

The unfortunate result of such planned encores is that bad groups often give encores regardless of mediocre audience response. In some cases, groups whose performances merit more than one encore will give only one, conveniently turning up house lighting to quell audience members mid-clap. How better to tell you fans "Sorry, but we only expected one encore. We didn't plan anything else."

Still, the blame for decreasingly significant encores does not rest entirely with performance groups. It is the job of the audience to afford an amount of praise that is commensurate with the level of performance. Not every performing group is equal, and neither should be the amount of clapping to praise them.

Only once this change in performance philosophy occurs will audiences be able to enjoy a final song that means something. Until then, hold your applause.