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Article about and the single ladies:
And the single ladies. Thanks to all of you over at Reddit for voting up this article. If you are a self-taught musician, you may find it helpful to check out my Solfege To Intervals Translation Chart to follow the melodic analysis.
Click here for And the single ladies
This week, I’m going to break down the music theory behind one of the most unusual pop songs to come out in years: Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies.†Tempo: 87 BPM* Key Signature(s): E major, E minor Special Songwriting Devices Used: No back beat, Polytonality (technically polymodality**), Resolution using a Minor 6 chord, Starting a melody on sol. Several months ago, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about whether or not this single would flop. Pop music has certainly gotten interesting over the past 5 years, but this song was, well , too interesting. To put it bluntly: “Single Ladies†is just downright bizarre. And yet as time went on, I began to see that it has what I call the Spice Girls Factor–designed to make groups of adolescent girls dance around in their bedrooms, sing into hairbrushes, and post videos of the whole ordeal on YouTube for their friends to watch. To start, let’s take a look at the groove. In pop music, there is almost always some kind of clap, snap, or snare on beats 2 and 4, also known as a back beat (read my post on back beat options here). “Single Ladies†breaks the mold, especially for a pop song, with claps on every 8th note, which gives the song an uptempo-feel. In fact, to me these claps give the song more of a “1 feel†rather than strictly 4/4, which would mean every quarter note is an equally strong beat. Normally only beats 1 and, to a lesser extent, 3, are considered strong beats. Strong and weak beats become important when understanding how melodies and chord changes affect perceived key signature or tonality. This “1 feel†theory is reinforced by the dancing in the music video, in which the choreography consists largely of Beyoncé jolting around on every beat. But it doesn’t stop there. There is a snare drum in this song, and like virtually all hip-hop out right now, it’s not used as back beat. However, where normally hip-hop draws the line at syncopated southern-style fills or dotted 8th note patterns a la “A Milli“, there is a snare hit on the last 8th note of each measure (AKA the “and†of beat 4). This, combined with the 8th note claps, plays a big role in giving “Single Ladies†its memorable feel. Now let’s move on to the harmony. During the song’s call-and-response section (“All the single ladies, all the single ladiesâ€), she sings solfege syllable*** sol (as in do re mi fa sol ) then riffs on mi, re, and do . Sol is a very common beginning note for a pop melody, adding strength (rather than color) to the harmony. Also note that she skips fa , which is common practice for melodies sung over a root chord because it forms a weak interval, a perfect fourth. As I talked about in last week’s analysis, in traditional harmony and counterpoint, we only need a major or minor third interval to imply a chord. Beyoncé does exactly that during the verses: solidly establishing the key of E major by singing only an E and a G# with the occasional F#. The only “music†during the verses is a pitched noise, though the notes are indistinguishable, keeping in line with the current pop minimalism trend (see: 5 Pop Songs With No Music). Pretty basic stuff so far. Now here’s where things get really interesting: During the chorus, a bass synth comes in and goes from B to C, which is the bVI chord borrowed from the key of E minor . I will be talking a lot about borrowing chords from related keys and tonalities (aka modal interchange) in future Compositional Analysis posts, but what makes “Single Ladies†downright bizarre is that the melody doesn’t reflect this change in harmony at all, so what we’ve got is music in E minor and a melody in E major. This is called polytonality**, a technique normally reserved for highly esoteric jazz and classical music. The result is a striking juxtaposition: a nursery rhyme-esque melody with a powerful, sinister bassline beaneath it, creating a bitter, almost shocking melancholy which underscores the “strong woman†image for which Beyoncé has become an archetype. The melody is distinctly feminine and “cute†while the bassline is aggressive and forceful (usually thought of as masculine traits). It is probably no coincidence that the bassline enters with the line, “if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it.†Here, the woman asserts her control over a man. All this being said, she could not have pulled this song off were it not for a sparse arrangement, an exceptionally catchy beat, and the clout of being a well-established, top female artist, not to mention a role model for a generation of young, ambitious women. Some music scholars might take issue with my assessment, in fact some don’t believe in polytonality at all, saying our ear cannot perceive two tonalities at once. With an arrangement this sparse, though, their case holds little weight. But just for the hell of it, I’m going to do a standard harmonic analysis of this tune anyway, as if it were all in one key. Things often get vague when it comes to analyzing modern pop music because the harmonies are so fragmented. You rarely hear a full triad or seventh chord in rap and dance-oriented R&B these days (though I believe this trend is about to change) and “Single Ladies†is no exception. The result is often some funky looking chords with half the notes missing.
Single women 50 and over
And the single ladies
Ladies who are single and searching
Single ladies and their contacts
Article about and the single ladies:
And the single ladies. Thanks to all of you over at Reddit for voting up this article. If you are a self-taught musician, you may find it helpful to check out my Solfege To Intervals Translation Chart to follow the melodic analysis.
Click here for And the single ladies
This week, I’m going to break down the music theory behind one of the most unusual pop songs to come out in years: Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies.†Tempo: 87 BPM* Key Signature(s): E major, E minor Special Songwriting Devices Used: No back beat, Polytonality (technically polymodality**), Resolution using a Minor 6 chord, Starting a melody on sol. Several months ago, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about whether or not this single would flop. Pop music has certainly gotten interesting over the past 5 years, but this song was, well , too interesting. To put it bluntly: “Single Ladies†is just downright bizarre. And yet as time went on, I began to see that it has what I call the Spice Girls Factor–designed to make groups of adolescent girls dance around in their bedrooms, sing into hairbrushes, and post videos of the whole ordeal on YouTube for their friends to watch. To start, let’s take a look at the groove. In pop music, there is almost always some kind of clap, snap, or snare on beats 2 and 4, also known as a back beat (read my post on back beat options here). “Single Ladies†breaks the mold, especially for a pop song, with claps on every 8th note, which gives the song an uptempo-feel. In fact, to me these claps give the song more of a “1 feel†rather than strictly 4/4, which would mean every quarter note is an equally strong beat. Normally only beats 1 and, to a lesser extent, 3, are considered strong beats. Strong and weak beats become important when understanding how melodies and chord changes affect perceived key signature or tonality. This “1 feel†theory is reinforced by the dancing in the music video, in which the choreography consists largely of Beyoncé jolting around on every beat. But it doesn’t stop there. There is a snare drum in this song, and like virtually all hip-hop out right now, it’s not used as back beat. However, where normally hip-hop draws the line at syncopated southern-style fills or dotted 8th note patterns a la “A Milli“, there is a snare hit on the last 8th note of each measure (AKA the “and†of beat 4). This, combined with the 8th note claps, plays a big role in giving “Single Ladies†its memorable feel. Now let’s move on to the harmony. During the song’s call-and-response section (“All the single ladies, all the single ladiesâ€), she sings solfege syllable*** sol (as in do re mi fa sol ) then riffs on mi, re, and do . Sol is a very common beginning note for a pop melody, adding strength (rather than color) to the harmony. Also note that she skips fa , which is common practice for melodies sung over a root chord because it forms a weak interval, a perfect fourth. As I talked about in last week’s analysis, in traditional harmony and counterpoint, we only need a major or minor third interval to imply a chord. Beyoncé does exactly that during the verses: solidly establishing the key of E major by singing only an E and a G# with the occasional F#. The only “music†during the verses is a pitched noise, though the notes are indistinguishable, keeping in line with the current pop minimalism trend (see: 5 Pop Songs With No Music). Pretty basic stuff so far. Now here’s where things get really interesting: During the chorus, a bass synth comes in and goes from B to C, which is the bVI chord borrowed from the key of E minor . I will be talking a lot about borrowing chords from related keys and tonalities (aka modal interchange) in future Compositional Analysis posts, but what makes “Single Ladies†downright bizarre is that the melody doesn’t reflect this change in harmony at all, so what we’ve got is music in E minor and a melody in E major. This is called polytonality**, a technique normally reserved for highly esoteric jazz and classical music. The result is a striking juxtaposition: a nursery rhyme-esque melody with a powerful, sinister bassline beaneath it, creating a bitter, almost shocking melancholy which underscores the “strong woman†image for which Beyoncé has become an archetype. The melody is distinctly feminine and “cute†while the bassline is aggressive and forceful (usually thought of as masculine traits). It is probably no coincidence that the bassline enters with the line, “if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it.†Here, the woman asserts her control over a man. All this being said, she could not have pulled this song off were it not for a sparse arrangement, an exceptionally catchy beat, and the clout of being a well-established, top female artist, not to mention a role model for a generation of young, ambitious women. Some music scholars might take issue with my assessment, in fact some don’t believe in polytonality at all, saying our ear cannot perceive two tonalities at once. With an arrangement this sparse, though, their case holds little weight. But just for the hell of it, I’m going to do a standard harmonic analysis of this tune anyway, as if it were all in one key. Things often get vague when it comes to analyzing modern pop music because the harmonies are so fragmented. You rarely hear a full triad or seventh chord in rap and dance-oriented R&B these days (though I believe this trend is about to change) and “Single Ladies†is no exception. The result is often some funky looking chords with half the notes missing.
Single women 50 and over
And the single ladies
Ladies who are single and searching
Single ladies and their contacts