Which Beyoncé song are you?

At USC’s Marshall School of Business, MBA students will have to pick one and explain why before they study her whiskey brand, hair-care line and entertainment company, not to mention her music. The assignment has a fitting name: the “BeyEssay.”

“The Business of Beyoncé,” a new course that puts a twist on the usual business school curriculum, “sold out” faster than a Renaissance World Tour presale after the class opened for registration this month ahead of its January kickoff. It follows Beyoncé’s career from childhood performances and Destiny’s Child to her solo stardom and business ventures, with the goal of preparing students for careers in entertainment, music management and branding.

Professor Shaun Harper, a Beyoncé superfan who designed the course, anticipates criticism that students should be learning practical skills rather than studying a pop star. But he sees it differently:

“My class is not going to be just a set of conversations about Beyoncé.”

Students will unpack how she transforms star power into a multimillion-dollar empire and how social media shapes her brand.

Besides, his class is a classic case-study deep dive. It’s also an answer to a long-running complaint that business schools’ case studies too often highlight white men and their ventures.

Celebrity-themed classes are hardly new. UC Berkeley offered one on Tupac Shakur’s poetry in 1997. The University of South Carolina announced a sociology course on Lady Gaga’s fame in 2010. Harvard has a class on Taylor Swift. Beyoncé’s sister, Solange Knowles, is slated to teach a course on music curation at USC’s Thornton School of Music next fall. At Marshall, former USC football coach Pete Carroll has taught “The Game Is Life” leadership course — its guests have included actors Rainn Wilson and Jason Sudeikis.

Now it’s Beyoncé’s turn and students are expected to work hard, or, as Beyoncé put it in “Schoolin’ Life”: “Just remember to stay relentless. … Don’t stop running until it’s finished.”

Inside the classroom

The 16-week spring semester class will meet Monday afternoons for nearly three hours.

Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child won’t have the syllabus to themselves.

Weekly topics will include child stars, girl groups and boy bands, Black artists, women in music, celebrity couples, privacy and scandal. Students will study the Pussycat Dolls, the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, the Supremes and BTS. Readings also look at how the Motown record label shaped pioneering Black artists.

One assignment traces a child performer’s path to adult stardom, with Janet Jackson among the suggested subjects. A week on crossing genres includes readings on “Cowboy Carter” — which won Beyoncé her first album of the year Grammy in 2025 — and her acting in the 2006 film “Dreamgirls.”

Another puts students in the advisor’s seat, telling them to create a 700-to-1,000-word business guidance document for Beyoncé. The syllabus asks them to imagine it is “being delivered directly” to the star.

Fans and career plans

Kendall Ferguson, 30, a second-year MBA student and president of USC’s Graduate Marketing Assn., is among those who signed up. Raised in Ladera Heights, she worked in human resources in London before coming to USC. After graduating next year, she hopes to do brand management for a retail or beauty company.

She has gravitated toward courses in entertainment and marketing. “I’m definitely not the traditional stereotype of MBA,” Ferguson said.

She has been a Beyoncé fan since childhood. A friend’s mother performed with Destiny’s Child and taught Ferguson and her friends choreography to the group’s songs, Ferguson said.

Ferguson, who is Black, wanted to study a Black businesswoman with a Black professor who could identify with her experiences.

She has also been a customer beyond music, using a Cécred braid spray. She said she did not initially know it was Beyoncé’s brand.

Cécred offers an example of Beyoncé’s approach to financing. Her mother, Tina Knowles, told Fortune that Beyoncé funded the company herself after prospective investors pushed for less spending on research and development and more on marketing.

Beyoncé’s business ventures stretch back more than two decades. In 2005, she and her mother launched House of Deréon, a now-defunct clothing line. Beyoncé founded Parkwood Entertainment, her management and production company, in 2010 and co-founded the Ivy Park athleisure line, which debuted in 2016. In 2024, she introduced the Cécred hair-care brand and SirDavis whiskey with Moet Hennessy. She later bought out Moet Hennessy’s stake.

She follows generations of artists-turned-entrepreneurs, including Sam Cooke, Dolly Parton and Madonna. Her husband, Jay-Z, expanded into entertainment beyond his own releases through Roc Nation, which executive-produces the Super Bowl halftime show. He will headline it at SoFi Stadium in February.

Maddie Gissler, a second-year MBA student from Naperville, Ill., also signed up. She aspires to work in entertainment marketing, branding or strategy when she graduates next year. She wants to learn how Beyoncé keeps audiences engaged as she moves into new businesses and reinvents her work.

Before business school, Gissler worked at EY, an accounting and consulting firm.

She has seen two Beyoncé concerts: the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in high school and Cowboy Carter in 2025. When Gissler took dance classes from age 4 to 18, her teachers often played Beyoncé. She remembers getting hooked on the album “B’Day.”

But she also likes other sides of the star. “One of the best things she did was when she kind of moved into acting,” Gissler said.

A professor and a fan

Harper was a fan long before Beyoncé became his teaching material.

As student body president at Albany State University, a historically Black college in Georgia, Harper helped book Destiny’s Child to perform at homecoming in 1997. He said he first saw Beyoncé perform solo at the 2003 Essence Awards.

Her best business decision? “Becoming a solo artist,” he said.

Harper expects students, many in their late 20s, to challenge his views. One likely debate: whether Beyoncé’s guarded public persona is smart brand management. He thinks it is.

“Beyoncé shows up when she needs to show up,” he said.

Her marketing decisions have received business-school scrutiny before. Her surprise 2013 album release, issued on iTunes without advance promotion, became a Harvard Business School case study the next year.

Harper’s admiration extends to her celebration of Black culture and traditions. In 2018, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to headline Coachella. Her set evoked a football halftime show and homecoming celebration at historically Black colleges and universities, with a marching band, drum line, steppers and majorette-style dancers performing in front of bleachers.

On TikTok, Harper has been watching performances and old interviews and learning new facts. He said one clip taught him that Beyoncé reviews concert footage frame by frame afterward, like a football coach.

“That woman’s work ethic is unmatched,” he said.

Through third parties, Harper is trying to get the message to Beyoncé that she’s invited be a guest lecturer in the class. A spokesperson for Beyoncé did not respond to a request from The Times for comment on the course.

In July 2014, Harper’s husband surprised him with pit tickets to the On the Run tour in Philadelphia. Beyoncé danced over and briefly grabbed his hand.

“I have never met Beyoncé. We’ve held hands, but we’ve never met,” Harper said.

He hopes one day for a proper introduction.

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