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In the song, "In Liverpool," by Suzanne Vega, there is a constant note that is played continuously to go along with the lyrics describing a dull, motionless, soundless part of town that acts as a sort of catalyst to a sense of going stir-crazy in a particular place. This highlights Ratliff's point that a monotonous note can be a type of alarm that wakes a sense of urgency or movement that must be made.

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"The stubborn note is bossy; it takes you over. It puts you on notice. It is a marker, a reminder: wake up, get free of your momentum, you have somewhere to be right now. The difference between this and true repetition is that repetition puts a spell on you. The stubborn note takes a spell off you.
-Ben Ratliff p.75

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Comic representation of how the single or stubborn note wakes a person up, according to Ratliff.

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Ratliff uses “Thelonious,” as the primary example of a constant single note that repeats so as to grab the listeners attention. Ratliff explains that the way Monk takes an otherwise background or accompanying feature in music and puts it at the forefront of the song, catches the listener off-guard because we are not used to such a technique. In music we are usually accustomed to hearing different notes played in differentiating ways, whether that be harmonious, melodious, or a background piece. So when Ratliff explains that the use of the single note repeated, though not for the sake of repetition, we are caught off-guard. In a realistic way, we use alarms to wake us up, we are in a state of peace and sleep, unaware of reality because we are dreaming, and then, all of a sudden, our alarms go off in a repetitious, staggering way so that we might be woken from this state of sleep to go back to reality to start our day. I do think that a single note has a striking quality that can grab one’s attention, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that every time there is a stubborn note played over and over that the musician is trying to trick someone as a type of musical wink or a hidden language, in a sense. Rather, I think that when a musician can practice and perfect a single note in a way that no one else can, even when imitated, that says more about the dedication of the musician to one particular aspect in music, and it gives a certain signature to the artist.

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"They are warnings, or challenges, or alarms. Those repeated notes are the performer, or the subject of the song: they represent a person, a will."
-Ben Ratliff p.73-74

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Quite literally, the church bell tone.

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Ring the Alarm by Beyoncé perfectly exemplifies both a literal alarm throughout the song and a constant single note both in the background and in her melody to grab the listener's attention in a confrontational way to make the subject of the song aware of their infidelity. You can hear the anger in her voice and when mixed with the constant note accompanying her lyrics the song provides for a wake up call.