Composition
Following the success of her self-titled debut album, Carey desired to pen her personal struggles prior to her signing with Columbia. She hoped to give her fans an idea of what her life two years prior and to instill relief or inspiration in them. In the song, Carey sings "Not more than three short years ago / I was abandoned and alone / Without a penny to my name / So very young and so afraid / No proper shoes upon my feet / Sometimes I couldn't even eat / I often cried myself to sleep." Later in the song, Carey sings "But still I had to keep on going / I struggled and I prayed / And finally found my way," retelling how her faith helped guide her until her career blossomed and expressing to listeners the importance of finding and connecting with God. Author Chris Nickson wrote the following regarding the song, its lyrics and composition:
That wasn't just a faith in herself and her talent, but also the ability to let herself go, to pray to God, and to trust in what would happen. These were, by far, her most inspiring words to date, letting others know that no matter what they were doing, no matter how difficult things were, with help they would win through. Musically, the piece had a restrained dance beat, very Mowtownish, that owed a little more to gospel, with a chorus - sung by Mariah, Trey and Patrique - that rose gloriously from the verse to repeat and drive and its very positive message home.
"Make It Happen" is a dance track that draws influence from pop, R&B, gospel, and dance-pop genres; its tempo is 108 beats per minute. The song was written and produced by Carey and C+C Music Factory's David Cole and Robert Clivillés, and it was released as the third and final single from her second studio album, Emotions. It employs several musical instruments, including the piano, guitar, bass, organ, and tambourine. Additionally, Carey incorporated a church choir into the track's bridge, which, according to Nickson, helped the song become even more of an anthem. The song is set in common time and is composed in the key of D major. Carey's vocal range spans from the low-note of A3 to the high-note of G5, while the song's chorus follows a chord progression of Gsus2–G–G/F♯–Em7–G/D–C–G/B–Am7.
Read more about this topic: Make It Happen (Mariah Carey Song)
Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad. As to that regular, uninterrupted love of writing ... I do not understand it. I feel it as a torture, which I must get rid of, but never as a pleasure. On the contrary, I think composition a great pain.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Since body and soul are radically different from one another and belong to different worlds, the destruction of the body cannot mean the destruction of the soul, any more than a musical composition can be destroyed when the instrument is destroyed.”
—Oscar Cullman. Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? The Witness of the New Testament, ch. 1, Epworth Press (1958)
“Give a scientist a problem and he will probably provide a solution; historians and sociologists, by contrast, can offer only opinions. Ask a dozen chemists the composition of an organic compound such as methane, and within a short time all twelve will have come up with the same solution of CH4. Ask, however, a dozen economists or sociologists to provide policies to reduce unemployment or the level of crime and twelve widely differing opinions are likely to be offered.”
—Derek Gjertsen, British scientist, author. Science and Philosophy: Past and Present, ch. 3, Penguin (1989)