Post hoc ergo propter hoc

Ordinarily, the good people at China Daily are perfectly capable of coming up with their own ridiculous articles, but it seems for once they haven’t had to:

Beyoncé’s song ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)’ could lead to economic collapse, according to scientists.

A study carried out at New York University has found that songs with a more regular beat coincide with volatility in the American financial markets.

Phil Mayim, a professor of finance and risk engineering, has studied the Billboard chart for decades and found that low “beat variance” songs had an “inverse correlation with market turbulence”, reports The Guardian.

“If it’s a steady beat, the same beat, no matter if it’s fast or slow, that’s a low beat variance song,” Maymin told PRI Radio. “[But] if [the song] starts off slow and becomes fast and comes back down, that’s a high beat variance.”

The last market crash coincided with the release of A-Ha’s ‘Take On Me’, which had a “steady beat”. Meanwhile, songs with more complex arrangements were more popular at times when the market was less volatile.

“The correlation is pretty strong,” Maymin concluded. “The turbulence of the music predicts the steadiness of the market.”

Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)’ is currently at number two on the Billboard Hot 100.

(Hat tip: AIP)