Beyoncé’s smash hit "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" might be the harbinger of continued chaos in the financial markets, the Guardian reports. Hit songs with steady, regular rhythms—or “low beat variance”—throughout correlate with volatility in the American markets, an NYU professor of finance found after comparing decades of the Billboard Top 100 to market results.
Likewise, songs with high beat variance are correlated to calm times in the market. And the relationship has the rhythmic quality of popular songs predicting market volatility, not the other way around. “The turbulence of the music predicts the steadiness of the market,” said professor Phil Maymin—so Beyoncé’s droning, hypnotic chart-topper may be bad news. (More Beyonce stories.)