One artist that I was introduced to is completely different from the rest of my music taste. Jon Bellion is a smaller artist who has had one or two very popular songs. I had never heard of him before because my music taste is mainly rap. He makes more R&B and Pop songs.
My cousin Maddie played “Morning In America” for me and my brother when it first came out in 2016 when she was visiting us over the summer. I completely forgot about him until the winter of last year when I was going through my old playlists and I saw this song. So I started listening to more and more of him, and now I know every song.
The song “Morning In America” is the 11th track on his first studio album The Human Condition. He has two albums and three EPs. My personal favorite is his most recent album Glory Sound Prep. But everything he produces and releases is amazing.
In “Morning in America,” it is a story about the crushing pressure of living up to expectations. The song starts off with, “1600,1600 on the SAT/ Said they gettin’, said they gettin’, said they gettin’ me a SUV.” At the very start of this song, it is putting expectations extremely high, getting a perfect score on the SAT. Something that very few people have done.
It then moves into the chorus, “We’re secretly out of control.” This line discusses how people always try and hide what they are truly like because of societal expectations. Later in the song he says, “Nobody knows me” This is because he has been putting on a face his entire life so no one knows the true him. The way that people cover up their true selves is detrimental to everyone because people will never get to express themselves fully and no one can know them truly.
This song also mentions using drugs to cope with the pressure put on the people in this town. One line is, “At the locker selling time release.” This is in reference to time release Adderall which people use to stay focused, maybe studying for the SAT.
While this is not my favorite song by Jon Bellion, it is the first one that I ever heard and I feel like it has a message that a lot of people could use about taking the pressure off themselves and showing who they truly are.