Gravity as wide popular metaphor. Outsider status. From Salon article.

[Mark Kohut]

What makes *Wicked* work—and it can really work—is its thundering
earnestness, best demonstrated in “Defying Gravity,” the grand Act One
finale perfectly calibrated to get everyone to stick around for Act Two. In
it, Elphaba finally decides to strike out on her own, and she demonstrates
this by hitting a bunch of high notes while literally taking flight, thanks
to some clever cherry picker–propelled stage work
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMY3a0N7W9Q> (which sometimes fails, in
infamous and hilarious “no-fly” shows
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQi1yjZiTXg>). The emotional through line
in the song is at once simple and universal: Elphaba finds power through
her own outsider status, and everyone loves outsiders, especially if
they’re fictional.

The climax of the song is its Seriously High Note—or really, the series of
notes—at its dramatic conclusion: A loud, screamy, “Bring *me
dowwwwwwwwwwwwn*,” followed by an “aHHAAAAAhhh” riff that reaches, somehow,
even higher. Whether you’re singing in the original key or transposing the
song, this is pretty much supposed to destroy your vocal chords. That’s
part of the appeal: Nobody, with the exception of Idina Menzel and her
subsequent Elphabas, can really sing this song. It is aspirational for a
few, and impossible for most. Singing “Defying Gravity” makes you an
outsider, a wannabe, by default.

But a rendition of “Defying Gravity” is even better, or at least more
compelling, in my opinion, when the singer can’t hit these notes, but
retains the pathos that comes with reaching for them. Think of when Kurt
purposefully flubbed the song in *Glee*
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQHIFMzQSs0>, or, in my personal favorite
rendition of the song, when Amy Adams performed it at karaoke at a gay bar
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWII_D1dIMc>, clawing ever so close to
nailing that note, but ultimately missing the mark (a trademark move of
hers). This is why the song also fits so well within the structure of
televised singing competitions <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFzu6RhRyJo>,
built as is it for showing off maximal emotion and maximizing the potential
for embarrassment. And if you went to high school in the mid-2000s, you
know that no talent show was complete without at least one attempt at
“Defying Gravity” (bonus points if someone else also did “No Good Deed,” or
there was a group rendition of “Popular,” led by someone who was not).
Perhaps that’s what makes the song, and the musical, stick: It convinces
you that if you feel something strongly enough, you might be able to float.
Spoiler: You tend to stay on the ground.

So over the years, the song has cemented itself in our most earnest and
humiliating spheres of popular culture, thanks to Idina Menzel’s pneumatic
lungs and the powerhouse performances of the divas that followed—and also
thanks to everyone else who couldn’t match them but tried their very best.
And inevitably, along the way *Wicked*, and specifically “Defying Gravity,”
became funny. The show, still doing well in theaters, is a useful reference
for Broadway *Über*-schmaltz, referenced in everything from *The Simpsons*
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XXkxsBbOXg> to *Ugly Betty*
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYgwWSuFSeM>. Winston sang along to it in
the car with tears streaming down his face in *New Girl*
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWII_D1dIMc>. My favorite riff on its
legacy probably comes from Reductress, which, in the summer of 2017,
published an excellent post titled “10 Hot Summer Songs That Are All
‘Defying Gravity’ From *Wicked.*”
<http://reductress.com/post/10-hot-summer-songs-that-are-all-defying-gravity-from-wicked/>
It’s
the kind of song you might be embarrassed to love, but love anyway; the
kind of thing you should grow out of but never do, like enjoying boy bands
or believing in love. Not that embarrassment is going to bring you down.

After *Wicked*’s premiere, something had changed on Broadway. More than a
decade out, we’ve got several similarly teen-targeted musicals on the way,
based on *Bring It On*, *Legally Blonde*, *Anastasia*, and soon, *Mean
Girls; *“Defying Gravity”–esque belt-y songs feel more common than ever.
“Let It Go,” another Idina Menzel song from another story about two
mismatched women, is now the Act One finale of *Frozen*, coming to Broadway
this spring. But “Defying Gravity” floats above it all, the Ur-song—too
big, too high, too much. I can’t stand it. It’s already stuck in my head.

*See also: *How *Hocus Pocus* Became an Enduring Halloween Hit
<http://www.vulture.com/2017/10/how-hocus-pocus-became-an-enduring-halloween-hit.html?wpsrc=nymag>
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