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Originally posted by the floacist
Single Ladies is just Get Me Bodied redux. The video saved Sasha Fierce
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It's not like those kinds of songs are common. Bey's just known for those kind of vocal-centric/call and response songs. I remember when I first heard SL, I was a bit confused by it tbh. She mixes major and minor chords and it took me aback and makes the song sound kind of menacing.
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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. ... 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.
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I always thought the Single Ladies bridge sounded really jazzy. Single Ladies is an unusual pop song, no doubt about it. Just because it's "catchy" doesn't mean it's "generic"
RTW was riskier than SL though. RTW has an unusual structure with several bridges and pre-choruses, the main hook is basically a chant, the background vocals provide the melody (the pre-chorus doesn't have any lead vocals), and she's rap-singing most of the song.
I don't think Bey was "expecting" either of these songs to smash and only one of them did.
grow up