Background and Composition
The song was written by Alicia Keys as the lead single from her debut studio album, Songs in A Minor. When asked about the background behind the song, Keys told Billboard, "I wanted to write a song for someone who was 10 or 12 years old -- like a young Michael Jackson. Even though he was young, he was singing some deep stuff back then. is about the ins and outs of a relationship. Sometimes, you're completely head-over-heels in love with someone, and sometimes you can't stand that person. You fall in and out, sometimes it goes back and forth, and that's just what relationships are about."
"Fallin'" is described as a R&B-soul song with gospel influences. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the song is set in 12/8 time with a "free" tempo of 60 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of E minor with Keys' vocal range spanning from the low-note of B3 to the high-note of E5. The song has a basic chord progression of Em–Bm7–Em–Bm7 as it follows a "moderate blues tempo" throughout the chorus of the song.
Read more about this topic: Fallin'
Famous quotes containing the words background and, background and/or composition:
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“I live in the angle of a leaden wall, into whose composition was poured a little alloy of bell-metal. Often, in the repose of my mid-day, there reaches my ears a confused tintinnabulum from without. It is the noise of my contemporaries.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)