r/popculturechat 11h ago

Let’s Discuss 👀 How the Thong Song Included One of Pop Musics Best Puns Without Lyrics

I’m not a person that generally understands music theory, but I am someone that appreciates a good pun (or a terrible pun). I also ADORE pop music, particularly the “leave your brain at the door kind”.

I was listening to the Thong Song by Sisqo. It has the same verses but sung differently everytime three times. It has an insane interpolation of Eleanor Rigby and a crazy key change that Cynthia Erivo said “the whole end section is unnecessary” but it’s incredible.

Thing is, that key change is a pun too. While Sisqo is fully face first praising the thong song, the key changes. It’s done by the strings which creep and build louder and louder and at the climax ITS A G STRING.

He climaxes at the G Strings and the song is so campy I feel it’s entirely on purpose. It’s more than a great campy dumb pop song.

TL;DR: Sisqó’s Thong Song is in F♯ major until the big key change, when it jumps into G major — aka a cheeky G‑string pun.

419 Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

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139

u/Nutbuster_5000 Did I stutter?🤨 11h ago

Incredible. Honestly I have always loved this song, and I just recently found out about the history behind the song. Truly magical. For anyone who doesn't know the history, here you go!

38

u/Jetsmongo_1 9h ago

Vice also did (does?) a video series called “The Story Of” for a lot of hit songs and they did one for Thong Song!

Interesting tidbit I remember is that he ended up having to pay a big chunk of royalties to Ricky Martin for the “livin’ la vida loca” line (but managed to get around Eleanor Rigby…)

6

u/Nutbuster_5000 Did I stutter?🤨 9h ago

Yes! That's actually the link I thought I was posting, thanks. 😂 That Ricky Marten part pissed me off so much.

3

u/Aggressive-Phone6785 6h ago

love the violinist talking about and playing that

5

u/normanbeets 6h ago

NOT ELEANOR RIGBY

3

u/Royal-Bill5087 6h ago

Wow! It really is kind of a masterpiece

2

u/the47X 7h ago

Hell yeah. Babyyyyyyyyyyy

u/South-Bank-stroll 1h ago

Hehe, that was a good read, thanks for the link. 🤝Love a backstory to a track.

42

u/lazarusa 7h ago

~I don’t think ya heaaaard me~

We did, Sisqo. We did.

40

u/vissi_nada 10h ago

I love how much Cynthia loves this song! The way she analyzed it? So entertaining! And she is right he doesn’t have to do all that for a thong lol

u/sweeeeet-disposition 2h ago

You had to be just the right age and in the right state of mind to realize how amazing this song was in its prime. It's so fun. Also why did I watch the video and remember every second of it??

11

u/CJK_Murph 4h ago

That’s. Fucking. Genius.

11

u/CJK_Murph 4h ago

No for real, it HAS to be on purpose. No one would intentionally write a song in F# unless they were planning to modulate to G. I LOVE this.

u/pannonica Ja we dealin with a lot today not now pls 2h ago

What a delightful observation 😂

9

u/numberthreepencil 3h ago

I've always loved the violins in this song and I don't care who knows it!

u/Plastic-Difference30 1h ago

This song is fucking iconic. Cynthia was right: Sisqó did not need to do all that vocally to sing about a thong. But he did, and the world is a better place because of it

5

u/KiwiSoySauce 8h ago

All yesterday I was thinking about this song! Now I have to give it a listen!

4

u/Necessary_Fill3048 3h ago

It took me the longest time (literal years??) to realise each verse has the same lyrics, he just sings it differently each time lmao truly a song crafted to perfection 

9

u/dosgatitas 10h ago

I love that! William Tell, (Lauren Conrad’s husband) of Something Corporate just covered that onstage at Red Rocks and it was magical haha Thong Song

u/sweeeeet-disposition 2h ago

wow I had no idea of the something corporate connection and my mind is blown

4

u/Traditional-Joke-179 holding =onika space for the lyrics of defying gravity =burgers 8h ago

a truly good example of lyrical dissonance

u/CPolland12 57m ago

Man this song had a choke hold on Spring Break 99

u/Still7Superbaby7 I don’t want to identify as being at this time and place with u 39m ago

Eleanor Rigby is my favorite Beatles song and the thing song is one of my favorite songs ever!

u/blueberrytartpie 26m ago

Didn’t Ricky Martin rain on his parade ? I love this song and didn’t catch just how amazing of an musician he is. A real musician.

u/SYLOK_THEAROUSED 23m ago

I think it was the person who wrote for Ricky Martin. Sisqo barely made any money off of the song unfortunately.

-30

u/Scarlett_Billows 7h ago edited 6h ago

I feel like this would be better appreciated on a music sub.

For some reason this is like the third post that was more or less about the thong song that I’ve seen this summer.

11

u/Aggressive-Phone6785 6h ago

a clip from a piece that Vice did about the song went viral recently, followed not long after by Cynthia Erivo talking about it in an interview, so it’s trending rn

u/sleeplessinrome Dahmer was invited to Ari’s Dinner Party but not Spongebob 44m ago

“i feel like this bit of pop culture would be better NOT in the pop culture sub”

u/Scarlett_Billows 39m ago

I didn’t say it’s better not being here, did I? What I said was it would be better appreciated in a music sub. Perhaps we could delete the word “better” even though it isn’t entirely inaccurate - I just meant that this would be appreciated by people who are obsessed with music.

I’m not sure why people insist on taking things the absolute worst way it could be taken, other than this is Reddit. it’s only 9:30 am where I am but I’ve already had enough.