The American Teen

This weeks blog is not about one song, not even 2, but a whole album. The album is “The American Teen,” by Khalid. This is one of my favorite albums, because it is very relatable and there is a good diversity of songs. The album was released last year, in 2017. It has 15 songs.

The entire album is supposed to represent what life looks like to the average American Teen. Khalid was 19 when his album was released, so just out of high school. A majority of the songs are just about parties and relationships. It was made to be like a cycle. In an interview about the song “Angels,” he points out an interesting detail.

Toward the end of “Angels,” you hear an alarm clock. At the beginning of “American Teen,” you also hear an alarm clock. That’s me saying high school is a cycle. Life in general — our days are all cycles. Sometimes we put ourselves in cycles. The only way to get out of them is if you break them. If you don’t break the cycle, you’ll be there forever

What I want to point out about the album is how raw and real it is. Khalid doesn’t try to sugarcoat what life is. He breaks some of the typical ideas that men are hard and don’t have emotions. He also breaks the idea that we often see in male pop songs, of women being objects, easily thrown away. In his song “Coaster,” he is open and honest about a woman that he loved. He talks about how hard it is for him to get over her.

Khalid does a great job of just being real and relatable, which we don’t often see in pop culture. He just talks about the struggles of your typical American Teen. In the song 8TEEN, he says:

“Woke up a little too late this morning, but I think I’ll be okay, I’ll be okay. Damn, my car still smells like marijuana, my mom is gonna kill me, gonna kill me. Traffic’s backed up from corner to corner, so I guess I’ll hit the highway, hit the highway.”

Overall I thing Khalid can credit some of his success to the relatablity and honesty in his songs. His album was definitly a success. His new hit with Normani, is the same way. It definitely is a nice change to the music industry. Maybe the key to breaking down stereotypes is getting in a new generation. Maybe it’s not something we can change but instead it is a transition.