👏Applause: A simple expression that can be tricky to read

There aren’t many gestures that span cultures, nations, even millennia—but the basic action of slapping our palms together as a form of expression has been part of human nature since recorded history began. No one knows where it comes from, just that it’s [“a remarkably stable facet of human culture.”]( (Apes do it too, [but to draw attention]( And although it’s most often used to show appreciation, applause isn’t always celebratory—just refer to the men [hired]( in the 7th century by Byzantine emperor Heraclius to applaud menacingly during a meeting with a barbarian ruler. In dictatorships, it’s a form of allegiance. It’s so flexible as an expression that it can be hard to read: see Nancy Pelosi’s recent State of the Union clap, which was instantly meme-ified as an expression of sarcasm—though the US House speaker [denies that was her intent](. Let’s dig into this surprisingly malleable response. (Please hold your applause until the end.) 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Obsession] Applause March 08, 2019 Put your hands together --------------------------------------------------------------- There aren’t many gestures that span cultures, nations, even millennia—but the basic action of slapping our palms together as a form of expression has been part of human nature since recorded history began. No one knows where it comes from, just that it’s [“a remarkably stable facet of human culture.”]( (Apes do it too, [but to draw attention]( And although it’s most often used to show appreciation, applause isn’t always celebratory—just refer to the men [hired]( in the 7th century by Byzantine emperor Heraclius to applaud menacingly during a meeting with a barbarian ruler. In dictatorships, it’s a form of allegiance. It’s so flexible as an expression that it can be hard to read: see Nancy Pelosi’s recent State of the Union clap, which was instantly meme-ified as an expression of sarcasm—though the US House speaker [denies that was her intent](. Let’s dig into this surprisingly malleable response. (Please hold your applause until the end.) 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Reuters/Reuters/Eddie Keogh/Livepic By the digits [1:]( Side of a record album of Stalin’s speeches that was entirely devoted to the sound of audience applause [4:]( Highest spot on the Billboard Hot 100 achieved by Lady Gaga’s song “Applause” [7 million:]( Number of Clappers sold since the applause-activated lighting device debuted in 1985 [$50:]( Payment received by actors paid to applaud Donald Trump during his presidential announcement [2 hours, 36 seconds:]( Longest applause on record, during a performance of the performance-art piece “Applause” by Dustin Luke Nelson The secret to Stalin's success? --------------------------------------------------------------- During the height of his popularity, Joseph Stalin could inspire wild [applause from his audiences]( like no leader had before—but modern accounts have shown that they weren’t exactly clapping in delight. In the Soviet dictator’s cult of personality, failing to applaud was considered an act of treason; people feared jail time or worse if they ended their applause prematurely. Then applause became the norm, so audiences scaled up accordingly in rounds of applause inflation. “Soviet papers had more ways to describe applause than they had for any other event in society or nature,” [Sasha Gessen writes in the New Yorker.]( Author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn [painted]( a perfectly horrific picture of Stalin’s speeches in The Gulag Archipelago: “Palms were getting sore and raised arms were already aching. And the older people were panting from exhaustion. It was becoming insufferably silly even to those who really adored Stalin. However, who would dare to be the first to stop?” Reuters/Action Images/Ed Sykes Brief history [300 BC:]( The end of plays by Plautus and Terence include instructions to “plaudite”—roughly translated as “applause” or “clap.” [1 AD:]( Alexandrians are well known for their three distinct types of applause: The bees, which sounded like humming; the roof-tiles, which were claps made with rounded hands to produce a hollow noise; and the bricks, a flat-sounding clap. [1500s:]( French poet Jean Daurat buys tickets to his own plays and distributes them to people who promise to applaud at the appropriate places. The practice becomes known as “claquing.” [1842:]( Felix Mendelssohn instructs orchestras to perform his “Scottish” symphony without breaks, to prevent claquers from applauding between movements. [1956:]( Emcee Horace “Hoss” Logan tells a Shreveport, Louisiana crowd that “Elvis has left the building” to inform them that no amount of applause will bring him back for an encore. [2013:]( The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow continues to employ claquers to applaud during ballet performances. [2018:]( Donald Trump speculates that Democrats who failed to applaud during his State of the Union speech were committing treason. Go deeper with Quartz membership --------------------------------------------------------------- 👉Deep analysis of the forces reshaping the global economy, from space travel to big cannabis. 👉Exclusive interviews with the leaders creating the future of business, science, philanthropy, media, and more. 👉Access to our journalists with exclusive member-only conference calls and events. [Start free trial]( Social distortion Let’s hear it for peer pressure --------------------------------------------------------------- Even without a dictator breathing down your neck, applause is still driven by social pressure. Research from Uppsala University in Sweden has shown that the reason for applause isn’t necessarily due to appreciation for a job well done, but because everyone is doing it. Lead researcher Richard Mann [told NPR]( that clapping is socially driven, “So people feel the social pressure to begin clapping if others in the crowd are already clapping. And likewise to stop clapping if others have stopped.” That pressure can come from peers who aren’t even visible—as soon as we hear applause, we feel compelled to respond in kind, regardless of whether the audio cue is from the person next to us or is echoing from across a concert hall. Giphy Quotable “If I’ve played my part well, then clap your hands, and dismiss me from the stage with applause.” —[The (probably apocryphal) last words of Augustus]( Have a friend who would enjoy our Obsession with Applause? [ [Forward link to a friend](mailto:?subject=Thought you'd enjoy.&body=Read this Quartz Obsession email – to the email – Political history How applause stretched SOTU --------------------------------------------------------------- Who’s to blame for the US State of the Union address being interminably stretched by applause? It started with the Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan (or at least his speechwriters). Prior to the former actor’s first term, presidents giving the speech were interrupted dozens of times to soak in the applause, with Eisenhower and Kennedy averaging[30 to 40 breaks](. But in 1982, Reagan’s speech was different, characterized by “‘over-the-top’ synchronized cheering from Republicans,” [according to Andre Tartar at Intelligencer.]( It turned out the administration had distributed different copies of the remarks to Republicans and Democrats, the former of which included specific instructions on [when to applaud]( as a measure to help Reagan break the ovation records. So the next year, Democrats retaliated by issuing their own applause-cued speeches, to highlight the issues they cared most about. So began the age of dueling ovations. Long-winded speeches—along with an increasingly partisan atmosphere—pushed the applause breaks upward. By the early 1990s, there was an average of 80 interruptions in each speech, with Barack Obama averaging 90, and Bill Clinton setting a record at 128. Giphy Pop quiz In addition to clapping their hands, ancient Romans also used what gesture to show approval and appreciation? Throwing their laurel wreaths in the airSticking out their tongues Flapping their togasShaking their arms in the air Correct. Romans sometimes flapped their togas to show positivity en masse, including when weighing in on whether to let a gladiator go free or be slaughtered. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Clapping courtesy No need to applaud? --------------------------------------------------------------- Perhaps the most divisive arena for applause is the concert hall, where the current rule of thumb is silence between movements, but the rules have changed back and forth over time. Clapping during a [performance by Mozart or Beethoven]( wouldn’t have been any more out of place than at a rock show today. But some musicians went too far, hiring ringers for live plaudits. So in the 1800s there was a backlash, with composers like Gustav Mahler and Robert Schumann [cutting out opportunities for applause](. After that it became an aesthetic. Alex Ross [ties it to the Romantic era]( where composers wanted their through-composed works appreciated as full majesties: “the cult of the Work, complete in itself, awesome in its implications, replaced the episodic entertainments of the eighteenth century.” (In 1882, Richard Wagner requested no curtain calls for the singers after the second act of a performance in order to let the music sink in, but the audience misunderstood and didn’t applaud at all, leading Wagner to ask “Now I don’t know at all. Did the audience like it or not?”) As Ross points out, the no-applause rule was never universally embraced by critics or conductors—it certainly wasn’t embraced in opera—and aficionados still debate it. Does it make classical music [seem stuffy]( Or is it good to have [a few more moments]( with the music alone? Take me down this 🐰 hole! If when to applaud during a Western classical concert is confusing and controversial, expressing appreciation during a North Indian baithak—a small-scale concert that translates to “soiree”—it’s an art in and of itself. “Appreciation expressed at the right moments—when a sense of beauty was created, say, by a note being deliberately elided in a raga—demonstrated generosity and knowledge, and both were important to a classical performer,” [writes Amit Chaudhuri in The Paris Review](. Million-Dollar Question Why is gonorrhea called “the clap”? --------------------------------------------------------------- Not that you’re the type to fling STD jokes around but here’s one about the disease known to many as “the clap”: “If you spread it around, is it called applause?” [Insert groan.] But how did this potentially deadly disease, caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae, get the lighthearted nickname? We don’t know for sure, but there are [two schools of thought](. The first is that is comes from the French clapier, meaning brothel, where the disease was often contracted. The other is that it comes from a treatment used on men long before antibiotics entered the picture—[clapping a heavy object]( on the genitals to provoke discharge. Apologies for leaving you with that image. Giphy Poll Have you ever given a standing ovation? [Click here to vote]( Many times.Once or twice.I’ve yet to see a performance worthy of one. 💬let's talk In yesterday’s poll about [toilet paper]( 39% of you said we should obsess next about cellulose, followed closely by 38% for paper towels. 📧 Dan wrote: “My father (91) grew up on a farm in the Depression. One of his favorite sayings is ‘rougher than a cob’, to describe a bumpy road. ‘That road with all those potholes is rougher than a cob.’ One day, as a child, I asked him what that meant. He said they didn’t have toilet paper growing up. They had the Sears catalog and corn cobs.” 📧 Giulia added: “As an Italian, I’m extremely proud of my bidet. However, there is a big misunderstanding: in no way the bidet replaces toilet paper! You first use paper, then the bidet!” 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20applause&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) [🎲 Show me a random Obsession]( Today’s email was written by [Stacy Conradt,]( by [Whet Moser]( and produced by [Luiz Romero.]( The correct answer to the quiz is Flapping their togas. Enjoying the Quartz Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! If you click a link to an e-commerce site and make a purchase, we may receive a small cut of the revenue, which helps support our ambitious journalism. See [here]( for more information. Not enjoying it? No worries. [Click here]( to unsubscribe. 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