“Heartbeat Song” by Kelly Clarkson

song info

    “Heartbeat Song” by Kelly Clarkson (official video) is a synth pop song.

link to the static song information page for this song:
http://www.thissideofsanity.com/music/songs/he/heartbeatsong.php

    Summary quotation from Wikipedia:

    “Heartbeat Song” is a song by American singer Kelly Clarkson from her seventh studio album, Piece by Piece (2015). Written by Mitch Allan, Audra Mae, Kara DioGuardi, and Jason Evigan, the song is an uptempo synthpop track produced by Greg Kurstin. Lyrically, it sings of meeting a person who restores someone’s faith in love. “Heartbeat Song” was released by RCA Records as the album’s lead single on January 12, 2015.

    Upon its release, “Heartbeat Song” has received a generally positive response from music critics, who complimented the song’s production and vivacious themes, while lauding Clarkson’s return to contemporary pop music. Critics also complimentary compared the song’s resemblance to Jimmy Eat World’s single “The Middle” (2001). Commercially, the single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 37 and has so far peaked at number 21, marking her sixteenth top 40 hit on the chart. It also became Clarkson’s highest debut among her twenty career entries on the Billboard Adult Top 40 chart. Internationally, it became her ninth top 10 hit single in the United Kingdom and also became a top 20 hit in the national charts of Austria, Germany, and Sweden.

    Filmed by Marc Klasfeld, its accompanying music video features a scenes of various downtrodden people and their process of finding love again. Clarkson premiered “Heartbeat Song” in a live televised performance on The Graham Norton Show in February 2015.

Background and composition

    According to Audra Mae, Kara DioGuardi came up with the lyric “This is my heartbeat song and I’m gonna play it!”

    Shortly after the release of her first Christmas album, Wrapped in Red (2013), Clarkson, despite her pregnancy, began to record material for her seventh studio album, with a target release date in 2014. One of these tracks, “Heartbeat Song”, is an uptempo synthpop track produced by Greg Kurstin. Lyrically, the song sings of meeting a person who restores someone’s faith in love. Sonically, USA Today’s Brian Mansfeld remarked that the record serves as sonic defibrillator, starting with a jolt of melody, its rhythms shifting a couple times before finally settling into its steady pulse; while Idolator’s Bradley Stern described its production as Top 40 radio-friendly and remarked that the track sees Clarkson’s pulse raising while falling in love above kicky drums, guitars and hints of 80’s synths.

    “Heartbeat Song” was written by Mitch Allan, Audra Mae, Kara DioGuardi, and Jason Evigan in a two-day session writing camp. In an interview on Entertainment Tonight, Mae revealed that DioGuardi came up with the main idea and used it as the song’s chorus, with everybody else contributing in. After pitching the song to different artists, she later found out during the Christmas season that Clarkson had recorded it and plans to release the song as the album’s lead single.

Release and reception

    In January 2015, Clarkson revealed a set of clues for the single, posting the words “Proof of life & Dr. Dre #TheNextEpisode (sic)”. On January 7, 2015, she announced January 12, 2015 as its release date as a Digital download by RCA Records, followed by a release to Mainstream Top 40 radio stations in the United States on January 13, 2015. A CD Single is also set to be issued by RCA’s parent company Sony Music Entertainment on March 6, 2015.

Critical response

    “Heartbeat Song” has garnered very positive reviews from music critics, some of them lauding Clarkson’s return to mainstream pop music, along with her strong and confident vocals. Billboard’s associate editor Jason Lipshutz approved the song with four-out-of-five stars, he wrote that the track is the sound of a reinvigorated artist embracing the opportunity to re-prove herself, adding that the song is less of a reinvention than a reassertion. He also complimented its production, writing it as a sum of the driving tempo of “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” added with the “warm, synthetic heart” of Tegan and Sara’s Heartthrob (2013). Reviewing for Rolling Stone, Jon Dylan gave the song a three-and-a-half star rating, saying it as hardly a warm, fuzzy snuggle-fest. In his midweek review for Spin, assistant editor Brennan Carley wrote that the song is a Kurstin production that sparkles with new-found passion, saying that Clarkson sings a lyric of the chorus with a bubblegum snap. In his review for music website Popdust.com, Jason Scott gave the song an “A-” grade, saying that song would fir quite nicely to Clarkson’s previous studio album All I Ever Wanted (2009). He also added that despite the song’s the chorus isn’t quite as “tasty” as what she’s capable of, it’s just as momentous as her previous singles such as “Mr. Know It All” (2011) and “Breakaway” (2004). Reviewing for Time, Nolan Feeney wrote that “Heartbeat Song” as more of a celebration of that than a hungry comeback, reminding listeners of what Clarkson has so reliably provided over the years, with just a few souped-up adjustments. He also praised Kurstin’s production and Clarkson’s “arena-ready pipes”, describing the song as “slick, sugary and incredibly catchy — everything you want in a pop song, really”.

    Critics also compared “Heartbeat Song” to Jimmy Eat World’s single “The Middle” (2001). In his review for Idolator, Stern observed both songs’ similitude, and added that despite the unexpected tempo change in chorus, it still feels undeniably, classically Clarkson. Hunter Hauk of The Dallas Morning News also remarked of the two songs’ similarities, but was ambivalent of “Heartbeat Song”’s lack of innovation as compared to Clarkson’s previous lead singles. Digital Spy rated this song with 2 stars out of 5 and concluded by describing it: “ruthless in its pursuit of earworm status, and like it or not it’ll find itself lodged in the inner vestibules of your brain.”

Chart performance

    On the chart week ending January 31, 2015, “Heartbeat Song” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 37 with 70,000 copies of digital downloads, becoming her sixteenth top forty hit on the chart. It also marked as her third highest debut among her 25 career entries, following “Never Again”, and “Mr. Know It All”, which debuted at number 8 and number 18 respectively. On the chart week ending February 21, 2015, it moved to a peak of number 21. The song also debuted on other Billboard charts, including the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 chart, the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, the Billboard Trending 140, and the Billboard Adult Top 40 chart, where it entered at number 20, marking a career high for Clarkson. In Canada, “Heartbeat Song” debuted on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 chart at number 37 on the chart week ending January 31, 2015. In Australia, it entered the ARIA Singles Chart at number 51 on the chart week ending January 26, 2015. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted at number 7 on the Official UK Singles Chart, becoming Clarkson’s ninth song to reach the chart’s top ten. In addition, “Heartbeat Song” had attained a chart position in the national charts of Austria, Germany, Spain, and Sweden; and has also charted in the airplay charts of Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovakia.

Music video

    On January 26, 2015, RCA released an animated lyric video for “Heartbeat Song”, featuring heartbeat graphs of Clarkson and three other radio guests in Nashville using a ECG monitor. Directed by Marc Klasfeld, its accompanying music video premiered on February 5, 2015 on Vevo. The video depicts scenes of various heartbroken people unexpectedly finding a chance to love again. These scenes are inter-cut with footage of Clarkson performing the track in a colorful background. Upon its premiere, the video had received a generally positive response, with mild criticism targeting a scene depicting a couple kissing through the opposite seating sides of a bench. In his coverage for Spin, Carley remarked that there are some surprisingly deep moments tracing the journey from loss to happiness in video. Reviewing for Yahoo! Music, senior editor Wendy Geller wrote that despite the video’s concept may sound hokey, but the idea that life can change from dark to light in an instant (couple with Clarkson’s buoyant vocals) is irresistible.

Live performances

    Clarkson premiered “Heartbeat Song” in a live televised performance on the British television programs The Graham Norton Show on February 20, 2015, and Loose Women on March 2, 2015. She also performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on March 2, 2015, and Good Morning America on March 3, 2015.

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