Memory
My preference for music shifted from freestyle music to pop and sad music as I got older and went through trying times. My mother was going through a lot at one point in my life when she found out some things about her relationship. We would listen to a lot of sad music, for example, Alicia Keys. I found myself relating to the sentiments expressed in sad songs. When I initially heard this, I had no idea the impact music had on my emotions.
Reflection
To date, the most memorable song by Alicia Keys is “Fallin’.” I particularly recall this song because my mother liked it and often tried to explain to me the meaning of the lyrics. Today as I listen to the song, I increasingly understand why it heavily influenced my emotional development. Unsurprisingly, it begins softly with controlled piano and slow drum sequencing, ultimately developing to an epic crescendo. The song feels spiritual and sad from start to finish. Thanks to my mother, I could understand the song’s lyrics. I understood that Alicia Keys has a habit of “falling in and out of love” with her guy. As my mother explained, this was evidently due to his tendency to treat her nicely occasionally and other times poorly. Often, I felt pitiful for Alicia, especially when she confessed that he was her first love (“I never loved someone…The way that I love you…Oh, oh, I never felt this way”).
My mother claimed that Alicia Keys wrote the song in her mid-teens when most individuals began experimenting with romantic relationships. She went on to say that her unwavering love for her mother, nevertheless, impacted the story. In other words, no matter what her mother does to annoy her, nothing will make Alicia stop loving her. To me, I felt that this was the underlying theme of the whole song. The song influenced how I related to my mom as a teenager. I tried hard to balance the excitement of my ten years with my responsibility of being a good child to my mother. I did not want my mother to feel abandoned because that is how Alicia Keys felt when singing “Fallin’.”