We've Got The Whole World In Our Hands

    I love Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!  Musically?  Eh, I really only like one song, and I have no idea what the band is singing:

      But as a band name?  Hell yeah!  Who doesn't clap his or her hands and say yeah!  I clap all day long with my students, "Ready... 1, 2, 3, 4...1, 2, 3, 4.  Come on, clap with me!  1, 2, 3, 4."  As a baby, it's fun to learn how to clap.  By the time the kids hit elementary school, it's some scary, foreign thing to do in front of the piano teacher.  They sit there and lightly tap their palms, quietly mumbling to themselves, staring at me blankly.  As an adult, I embrace clapping as the only fun activity I may have for that day.  The rest of the hours can end up being so monotonous.  And this, my friends, is why clapping is so important - not only to music, but to our lives.  Break the monotony and clap!  No, we mustn't just applaud the performers before and after the songs... but we must incorporate clapping INTO the music.  Who doesn't love a good clapping song?  We're done being shy around the piano teacher.  We realize that hell, it's fun to make noise and it's especially fun to make a rhythmic noise inside a song that already has noise.  We become part of the creation.  We become part of the art.  Whoah, a little too deep for me.
      My love for clapping may or may not have started in the classical world.  Steve Reich wanted to create a cyclical rhythmic pattern using the human instrument of... the hands.  His result:

  But really, we can't clap along to this.  We would just mess up the actual piece of art, considering 99% of us can't follow the musical notation one would have to read to keep up.  So instead, I'll start our fun here:

    Honestly, I don't deserve credit for Queen.  I wouldn't have even thought of Queen until it was thrown out into discussion today.  My favorite encounter with clapping?  Definitely The Kills' "At The Back of the Shell." We can't consider this "real" clapping, seeing as it's a computerized, continual rhythmic beat.... but now is not the time for a discussion on authenticity:
     
   Now I'd like to point out a song where the clap solo is so prominent that it has become a part of all audience participation at concerts.  At shows, the band usually stops the music and we all clap along as devoted fans who know exactly where to start.  Here's Rilo Kiley's "With Arms Outstretched."  (Please enjoy the lovely slideshow presented by this YouTuber).  Oh, we get to clap at 3:03:
      
    Hmmm.  I am reminded of this:

    Thanks to the recent movie though, I keep picturing Kristen Stewart in a wig.  I'm very sorry Joan.  Don't we have a similar cut-out and clap in "I Want You To Want Me"?  I'll spare you from that video, considering I'll have to play that at my next cover band gig.
   I'd like to end with my new, favorite example of incorporating the clap into music (yep, interpret that however you'd like).  Sweaty musicians, sweaty crowd, sweaty music?  What's not to love about this clip of Frightened Rabbit?