Comments on: “Single Ladies” by Beyonce: A Compositional Analysis

By: Mari

Mari — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 10:47:26 +0000

Fellas,

I stumbled upon this page while trying to “compose” a single ladies costume for Halloween.

What a bunch of nerds you are! I love it! Thanks for inspring me to go dig deeper – just so I can begin to understand some of the terms you are using.

Uh uh oh!

By: Larry Elliot

Larry Elliot — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 11:00:10 +0000

Interesting look into the tune. The beauty of it is that the producers probably didn’t think of the song’s mechanics in those terms when the song was being constructed. On another note, the video is really nice. If pornography did NOT exist… single ladies would take the cake in that category.

Beyonce is a lovely woman with great dance moves. It’s all subjective but Kanye West was right … Taylor Swift is a bland, mutated pop recording artist and Beyonce is a banging young lady.

By: BigJoe

BigJoe — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 21:39:35 +0000

The live version she does has lots of more instrumentation, as heard e.g. in the AOL Live Sessions version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko-B-dQKpEE – check it out!
Especially, I like the bridge. Anyone care to write out the chords of this version? Would be highly appreciated.

As a drummer (and chord noob), I’m mainly puzzled with the rhythmics of this song. I experience the “1″ to be on the word “like” in the chorus, and on the first word, “up”, in the verse. This means that the intro appears to lack some beats since “1″ is on “single” when she starts singing “All the single ladies”, as is the case after the bridge. Also, I feel the beat to be an up tempo 4/4 with the snare on the “4″ in the second bar.

I agree with the concept of the chorus being like a childish chant that goes on over some dramatic chords.

By: Reba McEntire Covers Beyonce | Hollywood Pad

Reba McEntire Covers Beyonce | Hollywood Pad — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:14:13 +0000

[...] Beyonce, starting to get just a tad obsessed http://twitpic.com/1z01xybitfunk: http://blog.fixyourmix.com/2009/single-ladies-by-beyonce-a-compositional-analysis/juz_rican: Poison -by beyoncesakacrawford: #nowplaying Beyonce feat. Shakira – Beautiful Liar [...]

By: Pianola

Pianola — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:30:51 +0000

I’ve only heard this song a few times, but I think I see what you mean by the “B-C” bassline for an E major melody. However, don’t you think it could just by the viio7 of E major? The C natural could just be the flattened seventh note of the leading tone diminished seventh chord. Personally, I don’t think there’s enough clues to imply polytonality. In fact, even when there is modal mixture, it only acts as a type of “borrowing” from another key. I don’t think it means that it’s in E minor and E major at the same time. It could just be an emphasis on a tonally altered chord.

By: sam

sam — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:45:24 +0000

i like the article. i dunno what the hell this whole polytonality ordeal is. it sounds like its just the key of E maj until the chorus with the bass part. the B to C, and the B to A bass lines fit into the E hindu scale which is the fifth mode of the A melodic minor scale. the C acts as a -6 in an E mixolydian scale. doesnt sound at all like E minor to me. A melodic minor all the way baby. but im only in high school so i have no degree to back up whatever i say. so. penis.

By: phenelopy lenk

phenelopy lenk — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:48:06 +0000

i love beyonce sou brasileira mas sou fã da beyonce,etava no show dela aqui no brasil,espero ir a mais shows da beyonce.

By: zippy

zippy — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:40:16 +0000

Paul, you sound kinda bitter, like a songwriter in the shadows whose music really “goes somewhere” … The cool transition section in this song goes somewhere: back to the repetition… Tits interest? Sure, why not? .. But I like this song for the same reason I like some Bjork and Tom Waits… because it’s very DIFFERENT … nothing else like it — different = noteworthy in pop music… a reason for discussion..

After the original version, the song evolved into a much more interesting song.. Check the live video versions online (yes, hot visuals too) … google search: “single ladies ellen” and “single ladies aol” … tight band! .. sounds like they rehearse a lot… i wouldn’t want to piss off the bassist or drummer.. mess with the dancers and the rhythm section will kill you!

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:16:09 +0000

This is indeed disposable music. Buy it now while it’s hot kids, cuz in a year it will be “so last year”. Another marketing hit! Amazing that people with short attention spans like music that is repetitive and goes nowhere. What keeps their interest?
Oh yeah…tits.

By: FixYourMix

FixYourMix — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:51:26 +0000

@Jharms- I kinda did the chords as an experiment, I don’t really think it’s even useful to break some pop songs down into functional harmony because I’m not sure that we hear them that way, in fact I did it mainly to demonstrate how ridiculously obscure the chord names would be and in doing so, support my idea that we’re hearing two completely different things going on simultaneously rather than a complete harmony.

We have seen a resurgence in interest in this particular post since that cover came out. Thanks for reading!