Many young female singers court the tweenie market by exaggerating their girlish charms, but twenty-year-old Alicia Keys sings for adults. Showing a maturity beyond her years, this New York newcomer's largely self-produced debut suggests down-home R&B contemporaries like Jill Scott as well as yesteryear's soul sophisticates. She's not at the level of her heroes yet: Keys penned much of Songs in A Minor in high school, and the singing is more mature than the self-consciously retro arrangements and sometimes thin sonics. Still, there's no denying the serious early Aretha vibe permeating the current hit "Fallin' " or the authority with which Keys rips into Prince's beloved B-side ballad, "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore." Jermaine Dupri's typically slinky "Girlfriend" steers her into contemporary hip-hop mode, while elsewhere, complex jazz harmonies and organic instrumentation complement her commanding presence. Keys is a discovery of pop impresario Clive Davis, and his orchestrating hand sometimes weighs heavily over this album; but Keys is never upstaged, and we're only beginning to see the depth of her talent.

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.