Musical Analysis of I'll Keep On
This song is absolutely beautiful to me. Written by Nathan Feuerstein in 2015, and released in America, it was a part of the album Mansion that got Number 62 on the Billboard 200. The best part of the song in my opinion is actually how the melody gets more and more complicated in a way, going from conjunct to disjunct, it starts as something someone could sing pretty easily, but then transitions into something relatively difficult to sing or play. The song also transitions from singing solo to utilizing multiple singers and creating chords, in a way the piano plays chords in the background too, creating a wonderful wall of sound. This sort of building could also be described as the song transitioning from a monophonic texture to a homophobic texture, or from single note usage to multiple note usage. Also, over the course of the song, there was a building of volume from piano to almost a forte, because as the song continued it became more and more powerful. But despite all of these building elements within the song, it always maintained the same exact tempo, to still feel steady. Overall, the elements in the song really helped to emphasize the theme of the song of steady plodding on, but also growing in power through the power of God within us, while even though we may be tired we can still be strong through Him, and that that power grows within us the more we realize that He strengthens us even when we are failing. I know that this song was very impactful for me, the greatest thing also is that the song was very impactful for NF, on Rapzilla he opens up on how much the content of the song meant to him.
Billboard.com, April 2015,
Daniels, David. "NF Talks About His Next Album, Hit Song 'I'll Keep On' And Heartless Critics." Rapzilla.com, 6 February 2016,
Honestly this is one of the few NF songs that I don't like. However, I can appreciate the song as a musician. I find it fascinating that he decided to go with the traditional Christian Pop sound for this song. It's a bold move coming from the rapper that created songs like 'Leave Me Alone' and 'No Excuses'. It really played to the smaller part of his audience that doesn't listen to him for his traditional rap songs. Though I don't like the song it does put out a good message to the world and I can respect that because sometimes a good message is what the world needs.
ReplyDeleteI don't listen to a lot of NF, just because it's not the style of music I listen to, but this song is very different from most of his content. The message of the song pair with the dynamics really drives home the message of hope in Christ. The dynamics of NF's voice paired with the increasing volume of the piano at points of the song create a story feel (also the fact that he's story-talking) making it personal as well.
ReplyDeleteHi Shadrach,
ReplyDeleteI don't remember hearing this song before, but I agree with your analysis of it. It certainly gains a lot of musical texture as the song goes on. It's like he gains motivation to keep going on as he keeps singing. It is encouraging to listen to. The one thing I would add is that, sort of like the steady tempo, there is repetition in the melody and lyrics that help the theme of steadiness. Thank you for your analysis of this song!