YMMV / Kelly Clarkson

• Awesome Music:
  • Her rendition of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" starts off like a run-of-the-mill Christmas song, but that beautiful high note she hits at the end will bring a tear to your eye.
  • Her version of “Never Enough” from The Greatest Showman will send chills up your spine.
  • "Breakaway" is one of the absolutely iconic pop songs of the 2000s for a reason. It's an absolutely lovely "Gaining Confidence" Song with fantastic instrumentals.
• Breakaway Pop Hit: A somewhat literal example with "Breakaway", which became her first major success after the From Justin to Kelly fiasco. Hardly anyone remembers it was a tie-in to The Princess Diaries 2 (unless you watch the music video).
• Contested Sequel: The Darker and Edgier "My December" album has many detractors for being "too dark" for Kelly, but it also has many fans who enjoy (or even prefer) the darker tone of the album.
• Critical Dissonance:
  • Barring a couple singles like "Since U Been Gone", Clarkson has never been a favorite among critics. But, among the general public, she's one of the most popular and respected pop singers in America. The very positive public but not critical reception of her 2011 album Stronger demonstrates this quite nicely.
  • When Breakaway was released in late 2004, some critics accused her of ripping off Evanescence and Avril Lavigne with her style.^note This was due to the fact that ex-Evanescence members Ben Moody and David Hodges wrote songs for Clarkson and Lavigne after leaving the band. Lavigne also wrote "Breakaway." That didn't stop the album from selling like hot cakes, however. And a number of its singles (especially "Since U Been Gone") are, to this day, staples of pop radio.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: She was actually this in the early rounds of Idol with Tamyra Grey and Justin Guarini getting the most buzz and attention.
• Fan Nickname: Kelly's fans nicknamed her butt "Big Bob". Yes, really.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Several of her fans like to forget My December. Sony Music Entertainment likes to think of it as Canon Discontinuity. Within the fandom it is actually an Acclaimed Flop and adored for not being an attempt by Kelly to make Breakaway II but instead taking a bigger artistic risk, doing an album of more personal, noncommercial songs against her label's wishes. Her next album All I Ever Wanted was derided by some fans for being a blatant attempt by her label to return to shallow pop, although it does contain some personal songs like the previous album. Almost all her fans would like to forget From Justin to Kelly, though. And so would she.
• Funny Moment: Her guest appearance on Reba as a ditzy weather girl.
• Growing the Beard: Her second album Breakaway turned Kelly from a reality show star to an actual pop star. However, "Miss Independent" and "Beautiful Disaster" from Thankful showed hints of her eventual later style. A live version of the latter song was even included as a bonus track on Breakaway.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The song "My Life Would Suck Without You" from her March 2009 album All I Ever Wanted, is centered around a tumultuous relationship, comes off as somewhat gut-wrenching after she filed for divorce from Brandon Blackstock in June 2020 citing irreconcilable differences; especially the chorus:
    Cause we belong together now, yeah
    Forever united here somehow, yeah
    You got a piece of me
    And honestly
    My life would suck without you
  • The last verse of “Piece By Piece" also counts:
    Piece by piece, he restored my faith
    That a man can be kind and a father could stay
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Kelly sang the national anthem at the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis, a performance which got rave reviews and which Kelly tweeted she had "never been more nervous in her life." Right afterwards she flew to San Antonio for a concert the next day. She went into her hotel room and found a big card signed by all her crew and bandmates congratulating her for doing a great job.
  • Her song, "My Life Would Suck Without You". It's about being in a relationship with many bumps on the road, but never letting that person go because you're that in love with each other.
    Cause we belong together now, yeah. Forever united here somehow, yeah.
  • The video of her private wedding to Brandon Blackstock.
  • Announcing her second pregnancy during a concert.
  • "Dark Side" is half-Tear Jerker and half this.
    Nobody's a picture perfect
    But we're worth it
    You know that we're worth it
    Will you love me?
    Even with my dark side?
• LGBT Fanbase: A large one, due to her cute personality, her incredible voice and her songs that are either Wangst or anthems. Lesbians want to date her and gay men want to be like her!
• Memetic Mutation: NOOOO! KELLY CLARKSON!!!^note  Steve Carell ad-libbing as his chest is actually being waxed in The 40-Year-Old Virgin
• Moment of Awesome:
  • Her rendition of "Stuff Like That There" on Big Band Night on American Idol. It is still regarded as arguably the greatest performance in the history of that show.
  • Closing out the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards with a full rocked out performance of "Since U Been Gone" with her giving a call and response to the crowd while soaking wet from the fountains around the stage.
  • Putting out Greatest Hits: Chapter One 10 years after winning Idol when many at the time saying she would just be a flash-in-the-pan with no real career in the music industry.
  • Singing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" at the second inauguration of Barack Obama, and doing it live, without a backing track in cold weather.
  • During the finale of American Idol, she sang a pre-recorded medley of her hits while pregnant, and ending with a performance of "A Moment Like This."
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • In "Never Again" where her character is murdered by being drowned in a bathtub and then continues to haunt the murdering cheating boyfriend as a ghost.
  • "Haunted" with scary chords and sad errie lyrics.
• Periphery Demographic: She's actually quite popular with rock and metal fans. Partially because of the obvious rock slant her music has and also partially because of her less bombastic and more "Girl Next Door"-like persona.
• Sequel Displacement: A large number of people outside the U.S. think the popular Breakaway is Kelly's first album and not Thankful, which was made right after she won American Idol.
• Signature Song: "Since U Been Gone" or "Stronger". "Underneath The Tree" has also became a popular Christmas song in recent years.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Thankful was an enjoyable but somewhat pedestrian R&B album that was clearly made under a business contract. Kelly's second album, Breakaway, was where she really showed her talent as a singer/songwriter and went from being a flash in the pan R&B singer to one of the defining pop singers of the 2000's.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Dr. Luke admitted that "Since U Been Gone" is a sort of musical Fix Fic of "Maps" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He felt that the more subdued chorus of that song didn't do its intense verses justice, so he reversed the dynamic with subdued verses and an intense chorus. Indeed, not only are both songs in the same key but they have near-identical bridges.
  • "Already Gone" has a very similar arrangement to Beyoncé's "Halo", and both songs were co-written by OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder. Once Kelly heard "Halo", she tried to keep "Already Gone" off All I Ever Wanted, fearing she'd be wrongfully blamed for the similarities, but the track-list had already been finalized; Executive Meddling subsequently led to it being released as a single. Because of the similarities, she performed it on the tour promoting the album in a new acoustic arrangement, and even sang it as a medley with "Halo" once.
  • "Heartbeat Song" also had many people saying it sounded suspiciously similar to Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle".
• Tear Jerker:
  • The Because of You video.
  • This viral video of young cancer patients at Seattle Children's Hospital lip synching to "Stronger" with and nurses and staff as background dancers.
  • "Dark Side".
  • "Piece by Piece" - her recent performance on season 15 of American Idol had Keith Urban crying.
  • Her cover of "It's Quiet Uptown" from The Hamilton Mixtape. Kelly said recording the song "was literally the hardest thing I’ve ever done in the studio." because she was pregnant with her son at the time and the song is about Alexander Hamilton and his wife grieving the death of their son.
  • "Irvine":
    Why is it so hard?
    Why can't you just take me?
    I don't have much to go
    Before I fade completely
  • "Addicted". Love Is a Drug and probably just as bad.
  • In 2020, all her song covers on The Kelly Clarkson Show are this due to her recent divorce from Blackstock.
• The Woobie: Kelly has stated she will never reveal what happened that inspired her to write the song "Irvine", but you immediately want to hug her after hearing it!
• Wangst: Break Up Songs... they're everywhere.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Kelly has her music played on Radio Disney, and has starred in a few kids' works like Phineas and Ferb, Home: Adventures with Tip & Oh, Ugly Dolls, and Trolls World Tour. However, some of her songs contain adult themes and mild cursing.

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