Weekly Billboard Theory — Bad and Boujee
I always find it fascinating when songs become number one for reasons other than being great. By no means do I think that Migos’ “Bad and Boujee” is a bad song, but it has had a lot of viral help that led it to become the number one song in the country. If you actively listen to hip-hop, you’ve probably known about the song for a while. If you’re a meme-loving weirdo like myself, then you might have found out about it a little later. And, if you were watching the Golden Globes, then Donald Glover was the one that tipped you off to the song. However you found out about it, “Bad and Boujee” has a lot of interesting aspects that set it apart from the rest of the Billboard.
Migos ft Lil Uzi Vert
Tempo: 127 BPM
Key: We’ll get to this later…
Fortunately, “Bad and Boujee” has a lot more cool stuff happening in it than last week’s chart topper. Remember how I focused on the lackluster use of texture in, “Black Beatles?” Migos did a much better job despite utilizing a pretty sparse backing track. Excluding percussion and vocals, I would say there are four or five distinct musical parts. I know that “parts” is such a vague and meaningless word, but essentially there is the bassline and several other melodic and harmonic lines that are pitched higher. We only hear all of the parts playing together during the chorus while the verses use various combinations to help distinguish the various moments of the song from one another.
This is especially effective because of the range of the various “parts” and the musical space that they take up. The bassline is super low, like I had to grab headphones to hear it while writing this because my laptop speakers aren’t able to project the sound low. Because the frequencies are so deep it is difficult for other “parts” to conflict with them. The other, higher “parts” don’t really overlap any of the other parts and this makes it very easy to distinguish between them. All of this creates very definite signifiers between the choruses and verses to the point where I’m sure that a listener would be able to figure out the choruses with the lyrics removed. For real, give it a try.
More than just texture, “Bad and Boujee” has a lot of cool rhythmic idiosyncrasies. First things first, I gotta talk about the tempo. 127 BPMis a very common tempo to use in top 40 style pop music. Realistically there is quite a wide range for radio bubblegum pop songs but 120–130 BPM is kind of the gold standard. Yes, there are plenty of songs that go above (lots of EDM will be closer to 140 BPM) and songs with more “groove” will be on the slower side. Why is this interesting if it’s such a common tempo? Because hip-hop tends to be on the much slower side. Most often, songs with just rapping will be below 100 BPM. I know, their are exceptions to every rule but this is definitely rare for a Billboard number one hip-hop song that disregards more traditional tonality (I’m kinda excited to get to this part).
If you look above and can read music you might already recognize how interesting the hook to “Bad and Boujee” is. If you can’t read music, that’s okay! That’s why I’m writing this, so you can gain a deeper appreciation for music despite not having some of the formal training. Anyways! You’ll probably notice a lot of “3”s above notes. Most of the music we listen to (especially hip-hop) is divided up into even numbers like 2 and 4. “Rain drop, drop top” are very simple and even word combinations that fit nicely as they each consist of two syllables. If the whole song consisted of even rapping like this, “Bad and Boujee” would not be nearly as catchy. To oversimplify, those “3”s signify that we are fitting three sounds in the same amount of time that two sounds would normally occupy. Make sense? I hope so because I’m proud of how coherent that explanation is without speaking to you in person. ANYWAYS! Those “3”s are called “triplets” and until sorta recently (thanks, Big Sean) they were not too common place in hip-hop. Again, you could find them but they’re much more popular now.
Since there are sooooo many triplets used one might thing that this song is in a different time signature (that’s how we count the music). Like every song ever on the Billboard will be in a time signature called 4/4 or “common time.” This basically means that there are four even beats that you will be able to feel and count in the music. With all of those triplets, why not go with a different time signature that would reflect that? You might want to change the time signature to 6/8 or 12/8 or something that hip-hop is almost never in (but is sometimes!). All you need to know about those numbers is that they will create a verrrrrry different feel of the music. Because of the instrumental beat and the four syllables in “Raindrop, drop top”, we are cemented in a stable 4/4. The barrage of triplets overtop this stable rhythmic setting creates a fascinating and catchy chorus.
The most exciting thing about “Bad and Boujee” is the tonalities. Yes. Plural. This is kind of impossible to explain quickly, but essentially the idea of tonality is that particular notes and chords interact with each other in certain ways. The majority of all the music you will ever listen to is centered around one pitch: the tonic. If you know music or classical cinema you will know the song “Do Re Mi” from The Sound of Music. The word “Do” in that song functions as the tonic: the pitch that all of the music is centered around. I know that last sentence was redundant, but that’s because this is extremely important. Because I hate using dated examples and strongly believe modern music is just as important (if not more important) than “classic” examples, check out Jessie J’s “Domino.” If you skip to the chorus, each phrase will end on the same pitch. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t resolve properly and could feel unstable and/or unsatisfying. That pitch, functions the same as the “Do” from “Do Re Mi” because it is the tonic: the pitch that the whole dang song is centered around.
Alright, so what does this have to “Bad and Boujee”? The use of the tonic is extremely interesting. Not “extremely interesting for a pop song,” this is “extremely interesting for any piece of music.” The tonic of “Bad and Boujee” is an Eb. The higher background melody (pictured immediately above) utilizes the Eb minor scale. Minor scales are nothing special. Big whoop, like every sad song every is in a minor key. The bassline (pictured above the previous paragraph) is also centered around Eb. HOWEVER! The notes surrounding that Eb function differently meaning that the bassline does not use the Eb minor scale. The bassline of “Bad and Boujee” is in the Eb Phrygian mode. Modes are basically like scales (yes, I’m glossing over this for right now). I cannot think of any examples of the Phrygian mode in pop music with the exception of “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane. Literally nothing else. You also might be familiar with the Spanish piece “Malagueña” that utilizes the Phrygian mode.
“Bad and Boujee” is probably the only Billboard number one song in history to use the Phrygian mode. ON TOP OF THAT “Bad and Boujee” uses TWO different tonalities. This is called polytonality and typically sounds very crunchy and dissonant but because the bassline and that upper melody take up very different sonic space, we get a fascinating sound. I should mention that “Bad and Boujee” is one of very few songs that utilizes polytonality and made the Billboard charts (the Beach Boys sorta did it first, sorta). So if you have any dumb friends that say “Bad and Boujee” is boring, please point them in the direction of this post.
Tight. So I know this was a tooooon of info but I had no idea that “Bad and Boujee” would be so fascinating. If ya made it this far and understood everything, dope! If not, that’s cool too! I hope to eventually write some guides that might help with some of this info so you don’t have to read an extra paragraph about tonality if you already understand the functions of western music. It’s looking like I will be writing about my other prediction from last week: Ed Sheeran’s, “Shape of You”. Will it be nearly this interesting? I sure hope so. Find out next Thursday.
