Weekly Billboard Theory — Boo’d Up
I’m not sure if I had heard “Boo’d Up” prior to last week’s write-up. There’s a possibility that I might have heard it on an R&B radio station while back home but if I had, the song never caught my attention. There’s definitely some cool stuff going on in Ella Mai’s biggest hit but does that make it a good song? We’ll get into some analysis and try to come up with a verdict!
Ella Mai
Key: Bb Minor
Tempo: 82 BPM
The first thing that you’ll probably notice about this song is the chord progression. Most of these write-ups deal with simple chord progressions (I-V-vi-IV and variations) but we see accidentals from time to time. Often times I’ll simplify these chords down when learning the songs and focus on the root position triads for ease of concept. Fortunately, I didn’t have to do that for “Boo’d Up” because there are loads of tutorials on how to play the piano accompaniment.
I’ve posted the progression below for your viewing pleasure. There are some pretty complex chords! However, when we start to look deeper at those chords, specifically the roots, we’ll realize that they aren’t all THAT special. We’re in Bb minor so logically the i chord would be a Bb minor. A Bb minor chord consists of Bb-Db-F. “But wait, we only have one of those notes!” Yep, and that’s fine. The melody will help fill in the rest of the chord. Obviously, it’s not a simple triad because we don’t have the the other two notes, so what would we call it? Well, there are no accidentals and the chord actually stacks nicely so this will be a piece of cake. Omitting the Db and F, we have Bb, Ab, C, and Eb. I’ll work through how to figure these out step-by-step. Let’s PRETEND that the Db and F are there. Bb-Db-F-Ab would be a Bb minor 7 chord. Add that C on top? Bb minor 9. Yes, the C could be considered the second here but when building chords we always refer to it as the ninth. Can you figure out the pattern for Bb-Db-F-Ab-C-Eb? This would be a Bb minor 11 chord. It’s a completely diatonic chord but the additions add a lot of color to the sound and ~vibe~ of the song. If you’re a songwriter, this is an easy way to make your music a bit more interesting. Heck, here’s a simple video for guitarists that should help.
So yeah, that’s a lot of info on one chord and when we reduce everything down the song shows its simplicity. That second chord? Gb major 7. Nothing too crazy. But wait! What’s that in the fourth measure? With the question mark? There’s an accidental!? What could it beee? Well, that’s what I want to get into. There are two ways to look at this chord. The first way would be an augmented Db chord in first inversion while the second would be an F major chord with an added six. Let’s go over those. An augmented chord is like a major chord but the fifth is raised by half step. A Db major chord would be Db-F-Ab while a Db augmented chord would sound Db-F-A. Makes sense? Cool. There are only three pitches occurring so this seems like a pretty reasonable analysis but the bass note is throwing me off. Remember, it’s not just an augmented Db chord, it’s also in first inversion. This means that the second pitch of the chord sounds in the bass.
What about the other option? F major with an added sixth? We’re missing the fifth of the chord if this is the case. F-A-(C)-Db. As don’t naturally occur in Bb minor, so why would we get one here? Well, if we raise the Ab to an A we get a V chord which nicely takes us back to the i. Ella Mai dips into harmonic minor for the brief moment before going back to the i chord. “Why wouldn’t the entire song just be in harmonic minor?” The easy answer is that the song would have a very different vibe. Look at the transcription again and you’ll notice Abs all over the place. What about that Db in there? Just some extra color in there.
So which analysis should we go with? The augmented Db in first inversion or the F major add six? I’m going to make my decision based off of those bass notes. That F-Bb movement makes me think that this is definitely a V-i. But I’m interested in what do YOU think? That’s right, I’m making a dang call to action. Write a comment or however Medium works telling me you’re thoughts on this!
So that’s a whole lot of words analyzing one chord? But is this song any good? Yeah, sure. There could be a little more dynamic variety throughout the music but the pre-choruses and choruses are memorable. I feel that “Boo’d Up” is a little lengthy at 4:16 on Spotify (only 4:00 on YouTube) but that sort of feels like a non-issue with radio’s chopping songs down. Ultimately, I think “Boo’d Up” is fine. I wouldn’t change the dial if it came on but I don’t think I’d jam it any time soon. However, I do think that this song foreshadows the future of pop music and R&B becoming more apparent in the Top 40. Only time will tell.
Recommended listening? I heard “Electric” by Alina Baraz while in Umami Burger last night and that song is pretty tight. Listen to that.
Next week! What we got? Drake is back at number one (and three) while Donald moved down to number two. We got something new at number six with “Yes Indeed” by Lil Baby &, you guessed it, Drake. I’ve had to write about Drake a million times already, what’s another one. Okay, that’s it. See ya next week.
