We’ve still not been let out of the house, the but atypical pop harmony of “Rumors” is making the days inside brighter.

Welcome! This is your friendly neighborhood Rebel Music Teacher, reporting from 18 months of full-on pandemic here in the United States. While there’s been some good things happening for me personally amidst the horrorshow, I will say the one cultural wish I had came true in a big way last month: a new Lizzo track.

Because talking about pretty much anything could be grounds for firing in a tenure-less state like Florida nowadays, I was worried that at my new job (which I love!!!!), I could get fired for even telling my students to Google “Lizzo flute.” But it came up when we had a very brief discussion about popular music last week, born of discussing chord changes and using the Little Kids Rock Jamzone website! And some students didn’t realize that Lizzo plays the flute. I’m sure my face told the whole tale.

Anyway. She’s back with a certifiable banger, one that addresses not only her personal life, but also the fact that artists like Sister Rosetta Tharpe are responsible for this song and any other we’re listening to nowadays. And while I would not play “Rumors” in an elementary school setting, obviously, I will be talking to my students about Sister Rosetta Tharpe at some point. Because it would be an injustice to my students to not teach chronology.

NOTE: the video is not safe for work or school or probably kids, and even more so than I realized when I first watched it. Nonetheless!

Spoiler Alert: Lizzo’s “Rumors” flirts with Phrygian mode, using a great deal of chromaticism.

Background: Since last we wrote two years ago, Lizzo has become a household name and a festival headliner. Her breakthrough album, Cuz I Love You, was nominated for eight Grammy awards, and won three. Time magazine named her the 2019 Entertainer of the Year. And if you were an obsessive band geek like me, you’re going to cry your brains out when you watch the updated video she put out for “Good as Hell,” even if you’ve already seen it 87 times.

Analysis: Even after a sing-songy opening line, we know we’re in for a harmonic ride. It seems to me that the tonal center of the song hits when she approaches the word “damn,” on a G (and G augmented chord). The most common chord found in “Rumors” is the B major, featuring the signature D# note, but that also doesn’t exactly fit neatly into the typical Phrygian mode. However, an emphasis on the B chord (even a capital I instead of a lowercase i chord) would indicate that the song is functioning in Phrygian mode.

The movement between the B major and the E minor chord is interesting, because in most typical major or minor songs, a good deal of harmonic movement happens between either V-I chords or v-i chords, with both chords the same quality. Could you rationalize the B major chord as a secondary dominant of the ii chord, and the song is in E Dorian instead? Either way, it’s pretty interesting.

A few years ago, Some Dude was complaining at the Grammys about how too many pop songs lacked the harmonic complexity of songwriting in the 70s & 80s in particular. The same Dude mentioned that Bruno Mars was an exception, which I disagree with. His songs are not any more harmonically complex than other artists, even if there is a cool chromatic line in the pre-chorus of “Uptown Funk.” I’m sure the dude is still somehow complaining about Lizzo, but as she would say, “Haters do what they do.”

Safe to Play for Kids: While my own child has overheard it at home, I would not come close to approaching this in a K-12 setting, unless you had tremendous leeway as a high school teacher. While the harmonic structure is fascinating, and almost brings in scales outside of the Western music paradigm, both the theoretical concept and conceit of the video (including parental warning label language and major phallic symbols throughout) would not really work for any setting less than a collegiate classroom.