There is a reason this song is so universally beloved. It is so well-written.
I remember first hearing this song in late 2008 and being kind of blown away by it. “Single Ladies” didn’t sound like any prior Beyoncé songs, and it didn’t sound like its contemporaries on the radio. I didn’t quite comprehend it at the time but in just over three minutes, the amount of tonality & structure that Mrs. Carter covers is really a thing to behold. And looking back, Kanye West was actually right about something — this is one of the most iconic music videos ever made.
Happy birthday to one of the greatest entertainers who has ever lived. To the person who have arguably given more voice to Black women in the music industry than anyone else. To the person who has shaped the music industry more than anyone else in the last (at least) 20 years. To the inspiration of a generation. And to someone who gave out a pretty hefty birthday gift.
Happy 39th birthday, Beyoncé.
Overview: At the bridge (starting at 2:01), “Single Ladies” modulates. It could be referred to as a major to minor modulation. Some have postulated that it’s a flattened submediant modulation.
Introduction: Beyoncé needs very little introduction. A cultural tour de force and the highest paid Black entertainer in history, Beyoncé will be remembered as one of the hallmark entertainers of her generation. Mrs. Carter has won 24 Grammys and been nominated more than any other woman in the history of the awards. She has sold over 100 million albums and has set chart records left & right, including the only female solo artist whose first six solo albums have debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts. She was named by the RIAA as the top certified selling artist of the 00s.
“Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” was Beyoncé’s fifth solo single to top the Hot 100 charts. It also topped the charts in Brazil, and strangely enough, remained on singles charts across the world (from Europe to South Korea to Australia) for five years after its release in late 2008. The song & video won multiple awards, from MTV’s Video of the Year for 2009 to the Grammy for Song of the Year at the 2010 ceremony. It was released on the album I Am…Sasha Fierce in 2008, which debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Album charts. As of 2015, the album has sold eight million copies worldwide and as of 2017, it has generated over one billion streams.
Analysis: A lot of songs I write about on this blog have a fairly basic surface level analysis attached. That’s the point — I’m writing for an intended audience of K-12 teachers. Even the most advanced AP Theory course will probably not cover half-diminished chords in a pop song, so I don’t usually go that far into an analysis. But a definitive idea of this song’s modulation has escaped me for so long that I’m going to dive into it further than I do with other songs.
Grab a snack.
The song “Single Ladies” is in in E major, remaining on the tonic E chord during almost the entire first minute of the song. A chordal analysis could be constructed mostly from the notes of the melody, but we don’t hear any notable harmonic changes until the second repetition of the chorus (heard at :51 in the video recording above), where a bassline definitively enters.
This is where other scholars have debated as to what is happening here. The melody remains unchanged, but the harmony is totally different. The bassline is in conflict with the key of E major, featuring plenty of non-diatonic tones throughout. It could be analyzed that the bassline is heard in e minor while the melody remains in E major, creating a polymodal situation for a few more measures. (What!) That is up for debate. By the start of the second verse at 1:01, we have safely arrived back in E major with all hands & feet inside the diatonic car.
The biggest point of interest to me is where we hit the bridge. If you’re a follower of the Golden Ratio idea, it’s of note that this particular modulation happens at 2:01 into the song, which is a total of 3:18 long. Wild.
Anyway, at the bridge, there is no dual modality. Everything is happening in what appears to be e minor. The chord progression (which resembles IV-i IV-i IV-i V7) reinforces the key of e minor. So you could refer to this modulation as a major to minor modulation, moving between parallel keys. This would mean that the ten second foray into polymodal territory earlier was potentially a preview of this key change. Possibly!
And to make it even slicker, she sticks a measure of 3/4 under the words “and like a ghost / I’ll be gone” under the B7 chord (which could be analyzed as a V7). The beat that is skipped is the one that would have come after the word “gone.”
So Emily, are you afraid to give a definitive answer about how we should categorize this modulation? Well, I’m not a theorist myself, so most of my analysis is just practice. But I’m not sure there is a definitive answer to the question. Did the producers in the studio put a label on it when they were recording it?
These are questions regarding popular music that we don’t entirely know the answers to. And for as many Mozart passages as I analyzed in my undergrad (which morphed into Bartok a couple years in, then morphed into Holst in grad school), it begs the question: did a full understanding of these kinds of theoretical tricks help Mozart write music that has maintained appeal for hundreds of years? Probably not. We hear & notice things as we’re analyzing them, but maybe not so much while we’re composing them.
Which is not to say that the compositional choices in “Single Ladies” were not intentional. It’s pretty clear they were. Especially that 3/4 measure right after she hits the word “ghost.” But does it matter which exact specification we put on the notes that are played at a certain point in the song?
Ideally, listening to this song and discussing it in these terms can bring up a lot of questions. If we’re still discussing this song in the context of music education, that’s what we’re wanting to do with our young musicians, right? To try and make them think? I’d go a step further and say that “Single Ladies” is a minimalistic masterpiece, only bolstered by its brevity and the fact that it is so overwhelmingly popular across multiple demographics.
And there’s so much more to think about it. There’s been a lot of academic writing focused on Beyoncé in the last ten years. To start with, Dr. Robin James discusses “Single Ladies” in the context of Afrofuturism & rejection of traditional heterosexual marriage. The biggest takeaway from Dr. James’s blog is truly that Beyoncé is so much smarter than just about anyone gives her credit for (a sentiment echoed in this NPR blog from nine years later).
Anyway. “Single Ladies” gives us lots to think about & discuss. I’m barely scratching the surface here. And if you’re educating people of whatever age about music, isn’t that the point? All the better if you can dance to it.
Considerations for Teaching: This song features no inappropriate lyrics. It has been featured in multiple children’s movies, giving it such a level of pop culture recognition that I cannot imagine you’d experience any resistance if you taught it.
There are a few different analyses I’ve read about this song, and I’ll go ahead & link them. Here is an analysis from the blog Fix Your Mix, and some ensuing Reddit discussion that doesn’t quite agree. Here is a good analysis from the blog Pop Grammar. The Hook Theory folks postulate that the 2:01 key change lands on a big C major chord, an official flattened submediant, anchored by that C natural in the bassline. This supports the idea of even a momentary flattened submediant modulation. (Is that a thing?)
Point being, there is a lot to think about pertaining to this song. As Dr. James further points out (referring to later albums), so many critics of Beyoncé who call to question her compositional aptitude come from a totally irrelevant point of view. It also seems many of these music critic bros have failed to do an appropriate theoretical analysis. Insert shrug emoji.
