(This blog is not approved by the IRB, so the use of phenomenological is an approximate term.)
Dua Lipa By Daniel Åhs Karlsson
Mark my words: we’re heading toward a participatory pop summer. Singalongs, group dances, and I think most of all, handclaps.
Here we are. It’s 2021. If you are reading this, you survived 2020, even after a great deal of loss, and I’m sure you did a lot of things you didn’t think you would otherwise be able to do. Give yourself credit for that.
I’m fully vaccinated and past my waiting period, but still only stepping out with trepidation. Stores, yes. Movie theatres, absolutely not. Masks, yes yes yes. Indoor dining, not yet.
As many more folks venture out into the world, we’re going to hear…music…out there. Not the music we’ve selected. I’ll delve into hearing music out in public more later. Maybe it’s because I’ve been listening to Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” too much at home, but it made me think that this will be the summer of the handclaps. For my money, a handclap sound is an easy way for listeners to interact with a song. It’s also a throwback to disco, which “Levitating” owes tremendously to, and a trend that will come back swinging this summer as well.
So I set off on a brief study of handclaps in pop. I had to look up a few lists, because nothing was coming to mind and a year of being mostly homebound has wiped my brain clear of a lot of things. I was embarrassed about the famous handclaps I’d forgotten (including Hall & Oates’s essential “Private Eyes” and one of my probably all-time top 25 songs, Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Cut to the Feeling”).
I made a non-exhaustive playlist, and am going to start by writing about the first 10 songs that come up on shuffle. I’ll identify the song, year it came out, when the handclap is first heard, and the pattern it follows. Here’s a starter list.
Dua Lipa feat. DaBaby — “Levitating” (2020)
Genre: Pop
Peak Chart Performance: #5 on Billboard Hot 100; topped charts in Canada, Bulgaria, and Malta
Handclaps First Heard: at :04 seconds
Handclap Pattern: double clap, on beats +4, heard every second measure throughout at least the first verse
Commentary: This is a great song, I don’t care what you say, and DaBaby is really good too.
Rose Royce — “Car Wash” (1976)
This was not in the shuffle order but it is the quintessential handclap song.
Genre: Disco
Peak Chart Performance: #1 on Billboard Hot 100; topped charts in Canada as well
Handclaps First Heard: at 0:01, it’s literally the first thing you hear
Handclap Pattern: It starts out as the 1 & 3 and then they turn it around & make it the 2 & 4!!!
Commentary: it’s only the most iconic handclap intro of all time, of course!
This thumbnail…YouTube did this, not me. It’s bad.
Taylor Swift — “Shake It Off” (2014)
Genre: Pop
Peak Chart Position: #1 Billboard Hot 100; topped charts in Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Hungary, Mexico, New Zealand, and Slovakia
Handclaps First Heard: end of prechorus, :041
Handclap Pattern: three claps, beats 2 3 4, for emphasis
Commentary: I am not a Swift fan at all, and this song & video makes me legit cringe, but she’s a good songwriter and a better businesswoman, and this song gets people moving every time.
Note: this video features the aftermath of drug use & potentially upsetting images.
Snoop Dogg feat. Charlie Wilson — “One More Day” (2018)
Genre: Hip-Hop, Gospel, R&B
Peak Chart Performance: n/a
Handclaps Pattern: quarter note upbeats, beats 2 & 4 in almost every measure
Handclap First Heard: in above video, at 0:39, earlier on original recording
Commentary: this is not a secular song, nor is the album the song appears on, 2018’s The Love Bible. The album was Snoop’s lowest Billboard Albums chart entry, but it topped the Billboard Gospel charts for seven weeks after its release. The video features a young lady on death’s door from a pill overdose, but Snoop & Mr. Wilson & crew pray over her, and she wakes up at the end to embrace her father.
This song contains handclaps in the same tradition that they entered popular music: through the Gospel tradition. We would not have popular music were it not for the Black Gospel tradition born in the American South at the start of the 20th century, so there you go.
Prince — “Little Red Corvette” (1982)
Genre: Pop, I guess? Prince was everything.
Peak Chart Performance: #6 on Billboard Hot 100; #2 on UK Singles Chart
Handclaps First Heard: in chorus, at :051
Handclap Pattern: honestly, the closest I can approximate is 2 +, because this song grooves too hard and the beat is difficult to subdivide like you would on a Dr. Beat y’all. That was Prince for you, again.
Commentary: The handclap here is not really syncopated, like it is on a lot of other pop songs, but it still feels syncopated? That’s groove for you. Played by most anyone else, lots of Prince’s rhythmic lines would be v. square, but he made them all groove v. specifically.
Split Endz — “Six Months in a Leaky Boat” (1982)
Genre: Pop/New Wave
Peak Chart Postion: #2 in Australia via Kent Music Report
Handclap First Heard: in chorus, at 2:16 in video above (the music video features a lengthy synth intro not heard on album or radio versions)
Handclap Pattern: double clap, on +2 & +4, then on +2, in the 2nd & 4th measures of the chorus
Commentary: I used to think I was cool because I liked this fun Kiwi song, but then I just realized my music choices had been influenced by Amy Sherman-Palladino yet again. Alas. This song is interesting both because it is very loosely about colonization & slightly more concretely about a nervous breakdown, with the participatory pop chorus obscuring the darker meaning (that becomes more clear in the piano outro). The song was also discouraged from play by the BBC upon its release because the UK was at naval war with the Faulkland Islands. Yikes.
John (Cougar) Mellancamp — “Hurts So Good” (1982)
Genre: Rock, Pop
Peak Chart Position: #2 on Billboard Hot 100
Handclaps First Heard: right at 1:00, as the chorus begins
Handclap Pattern: on beats +2 & 4, slightly syncopated
Commentary: like a lot of kids raised on MTV, for me this song was a pop culture fixture throughout the 80s and the 90s. But now, watching the video consciously for the first time, I’m realizing how deeply inappropriate it was for anyone under age 18. Might as well have been singing “Venus in Furs” to a handclap beat. Well. That was the 80s for you.
Tom Tom Club — “Genius of Love” (1981)
Genre: pop? disco? hip-hop? See next item.
Peak Chart Performance: #31 on Billboard Hot 100; #1 on Billboard Disco 80, #2 on ::squints:: Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Handclaps First Heard: at 0:07 in above video, later in album/radio edit
Handclap Pattern: single clap, beats 2 & 4, continuous
Commentary: I become a bigger Tina Weymouth fan with each passing day. If you were like me and experienced most of your pop music in the 90s, you might know Mariah Carey’s no. 1 song “Fantasy,” which prominently samples this.
Carly Rae Jepsen — “Cut to the Feeling” (2017)
Genre: Pop
Peak Chart Position: #42 on Billboard Digital Songs; #3 on Japan Overseas & #13 on Japan Hot 100
Handclaps First Heard: after chatty intro, at 0:08, during subsequent choruses
Handclap Pattern: subtle syncopation at end of pattern, beats 1 2 3 a e…at that point it makes more sense as a groove and less sense in notation.
Commentary: my love for Carly knows no bounds. The more I learn & listen, the more I love her. There was a recording of her performing this song on a cruise ship a few years ago, and it was amazing, and I can’t find it anymore.
This video features a great deal of cultural appropriation, especially in the costuming.
Florence + the Machine — “Dog Days Are Over” (2010)
Genre: Alternative, Pop
Peak Chart Position: #21 on Billboard Hot 100; #6 in Ireland & #23 on UK Singles
Handclaps First Heard: at 0:29 in this video
Handclap Pattern: similar to other songs — double clap/single clap, on beats +2 4
Commentary: the video is a mess, as I’ve noticed was highly indicative of lots of successful indie rock bands in the early 10s, but I can’t help loving this song. Maybe the only harp + handclap pop song around? I think (I hope) Florence has come a long way from here.
Elton John — “Crocodile Rock” (1973)
Genre: rock (piano), pop
Peak Chart Performance: #1 Billboard Hot 100 charts; hit number one also in Canada, Italy, New Zealand, and Switzerland.
Handclaps First Heard: at 0:54 in the song, in the middle of the chorus
Handclap Pattern: eighth notes on upbeats, 2 + and 4 +, only briefly during the chorus
Commentary: don’t believe the hype that only Millenials & Zoomers are obsessed with nostalgia. In the 70s, they were obsessed with the 50s. I mean, haven’t you seen Grease?! This song is a great example of this.
Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj — “Bang Bang” (2014)
Genre: pop
Peak Chart Performance: #2 on Billboard Mainstream Top 40 (?); topped the UK Singles charts & hit number one on in Australia (Urban?!), Euro Digital Song Sales, Scotland, and South Korea International Chart
Handclaps First Heard: right at the start, although at 0:08 in this theatrical version
Handclap Pattern: every beat, directly on the downbeat, 1 2 3 4
Commentary: Nicki has somewhat been eclipsed in popularity, Ariana is still going very strong, but what is Jessi J doing? I read on some clickbait that she dated Channing Tatum, but what else is she up to?
To spare you some loading time, I’ll post the next few in a separate entry. That’s all for the moment! Keep an eye out for part II!