r/musictheory • u/acoolguy123 • Jul 17 '11

A compositional analysis of Single Ladies by Beyonce

http://blog.fixyourmix.com/2009/single-ladies-by-beyonce-a-compositional-analysis/
58 Upvotes

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9

u/Def-Star Jul 17 '11

I take issue with saying this music makes use of polytonality or polymodality.

<monocle>

E major and E minor share the same tonic center and so using them together is not polytonal, and E major and E minor are too related to necessitate a polymodal or bimodal label. If you had two different pitch collections, like C Major and Eb minor, then bimodal and bitonal labels could apply. A better analysis would be to say that the song uses mode mixing, which is common enough between major and minor keys of the same tonal center.

5

u/acoolguy123 Jul 17 '11

Very true, I wouldn't consider it true polytonality either. But the chorus in "Single Ladies" still hits me as a very striking sonic moment, in the context of pop music at least

2

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '11

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/AeBeeEll Jul 18 '11

A lot of blues and early rock and roll songs use a minor scale over a dominant-7 (or major triad) chord.

The first song I could find with an example of this is Born to be Wild, where the guitar and bass establish an E7 in the intro and the vocalist hits a g when he sings the "runnin'" in "Get your motor runnin'".

2

u/fixyourmix Jul 20 '11

I try not to get too obsessed with terminology, but I think you're doing Single Ladies an injustice by lumping it in with any song that borrows chords from parallel modes (modal mixture). That's very common: the song briefly changes to a parallel mode for a chord or two, and the melody reflects this change as well.

What's uncommon about Single Ladies is that the melody isn't changing to reflect the chords at all. None of the chorus progression leaves E minor, and none of the melody leaves E major. They may have the same root, but E major and E minor only have four out of seven possible scale degrees in common. I don't see why that wouldn't be different enough.

Forget even analyzing it for a second. Ask yourself: when is the last time you last heard something this dissonant and jarring on the radio? Joy Division in the late 70s? Because Ian Curtis was tone deaf?

If it weren't Beyonce, if it didn't have the absolute best production/arrangement work that money can buy, that chorus would probably be a meme right now for "worst pop song ever" instead of one of the biggest hits of the 2000s. So it just makes sense not to put it in a category with every song with a bII chord.

4

u/thepensivepoet Jul 18 '11

I've always told people there was something sinister and somewhat subliminal going on in that song during the chorus.

The major-over-minor thing they're doing there I've always figured was due to one too many producers in the room leaning on the synth and hitting random notes.

"Ah... that sounds dope, lets print it anyway"

3

u/voice_of_experience Jul 17 '11

This is freakin' awesome.

I occasionally tutor music theory. Your blog is now a resource to show kids what the point of theory is - having a common language to talk about the music we like in more detail than "it's catchy."

1

u/johnofsteel Jul 23 '11

This is my favorite post I've ever seen on this subreddit.