The world stops with a Beyoncé drop. On Monday, June 20th, our prayers were answered with “Break My Soul,” the lead single off of her upcoming album, Renaissance. The song draws from several places of inspiration: lyrically, it’s a cathartic dance-floor ode to liberation, soundtracking the current cultural moment that some have called the “Great Resignation.” Sonically, though, “Break My Soul” is Beyoncé’s foray into house music – a genre that the chair of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, Jason King, summarizes as “a highly rhythmic dance music created by mostly Black and brown artists in the late 1970s and early 1980s,” propelled by a fanbase of queer and trans communities of color. There’s been an undeniable buzz that Beyoncé is “bringing house music back.” And from Charli XCX to Drake, it does feel like house music is currently having a moment in mainstream pop music, paralleling the original rise of the subculture from the ruins of disco. But the genre “has always been here,” in King’s words, and has decades of history. In this episode of Switched On Pop, we unpack house music – and how Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” fits into the genre.  

Songs Discussed

Beyoncé - “BREAK MY SOUL”

Beyoncé - “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”

Drake - “Falling Back”

Thelma Houston - “Don’t Leave Me This Way”

Robin S - “Show Me Love”

Bob Sinclair, Steve Edwards - “World Hold On (Children of the sky)”

Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj - “Swish Swish”

Charli XCX - “Used To Know Me”

Livin’ Joy - “Don’t Stop Movin’”

Mr. Fingers - “Can You Feel It”

Madonna - “Vogue”

Black Box - “Ride on Time”

CeCe Peniston - “Finally”

Aqua - “Barbie Girl”

Big Freedia - “Explode”

Beyoncé - “Formation”

Drake - “Nice For What”

Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers - “Get Lucky”

Destiny’s Child - “Say My Name - Maurice’s Last Days Of Disco Millennium Mix”

Beyoncè - “FIND YOUR WAY BACK”

Madonna - “Deeper and Deeper”

Janet Jackson - “Together Again”

C & C Music Factory - “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” 

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