Beyoncé's new single spells economic doom

According to an NYU professor, some of history's steadiest pop songs were released before a market crash – and the 'low beat variance' of Single Ladies signals financial meltdown

Beyoncé's worldwide hit, Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It), is not just catchy – it may spell doom for international finance.

According to findings by Phil Maymin, professor of finance and risk engineering at New York University, the more regular the beat on Billboard's top singles, the more volatile the American markets. After studying decades of Billboard's Hot 100 hits, Maymin found that songs with low "beat variance" had an inverse correlation with market turbulence. Which is to say, the more regular the song, the crazier the stock market.

And Single Ladies is very regular.