Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Five Types of Applause

Wow, time sure does fly when you're... busy! It's been three months since my last post. Well, here's a little something I think many of you can relate to. I was inspired to share this with you after a poor performance at last night's Bluegrass Friends weekly jam session.

Some time ago I came to the conclusion there are at least five types of applause, or five reasons why people applaud a performance. Here's my take on it.

Obligatory Polite Applause
The standard, everyday, ordinary applause is what I would call the Obligatory Polite Applause. This is the applause which is imposed on one by authority, command, or convention; probably mostly by convention. This is the standard applause that people give out of respect, whether they liked your performance or not. It’s something you do because "it’s the right thing to do."

The Genuine Applause
The Genuine Applause is one of real appreciation. This type of applause is given when a performer does something that stands out from the crowd. Frequently, this type of applause will erupt right in the middle of a performance. Examples of when this type of applause might be given are when somebody does an outstanding instrumental break or holds a vocal note for a long time; like twenty-one and a half seconds. The crowd is truly indicating "we like what you’re doing, keep it coming."

Two other forms of applause are the scream and the whistle. This is when people either scream "more... more" at the end of a performance or they put two fingers in their mouth as they ready to take the eardrums out of whomever is sitting adjacent to them. I figure both the scream and the whistle best fit into the Genuine Applause category.

Good For You Applause
The Good For You Applause is most often given to performers of lesser talent or to people that have been holding back from performing for some time, while they’re building up their courage to perform for the first time. The audience isn’t saying "wow, that was great," but simply saying "well good for you, I’m glad you got up and did your thing."

Pity Applause
The Pity Applause is a step below the Good For You Applause. In essence, the audience is saying "Bless your poor soul. You really have no talent at all do you? You're so precious!" The pity applause is reserved for people who think they have talent, but really don’t have any at all. We don’t want to make these people feel bad, so we offer up some pity applause. The pity applause is obligatory like the standard, everyday, ordinary applause, but demands a category all its own.

The pity applause is not something anyone should strive for, although it is slightly better than being booed or heckled off the stage.

The Prompted Applause
I can't leave out a mention about the Prompted Applause. The prompted applause happens when someone in the audience or somebody on stage gets the attention of the audience and signals they should give applause. This type of applause is usually reserved for somebody that is "supposed" to be pretty hot, and perhaps we should let them know just how hot we think they are by responding to the person who is prompting us to "give it up" for so and so. This applause is often prompted by the promoter of an event, but certainly not always.

Sometimes a prompter will get confused and prompt an audience when the line of thinking is 180 degrees out of phase with what I've described in the above paragraph. That is to say, in reality, an applause based on pity is called for.

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