Song Exploder Key Change: Jia Tolentino on "I Love You Always Forever"
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Aug 27, 2025 
Jia Tolentino, a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of the acclaimed essay collection *Trick Mirror*, joins the discussion to explore the lush emotional landscape of Donna Lewis's 1996 hit, "I Love You Always Forever." She reflects on how this song marks pivotal childhood moments, evoking nostalgia and joy. The conversation dives into the transformative power of music, its profound emotional ties, and how it shapes our memories and cultural identity, particularly for women. Tolentino shares her journey into music writing and its lasting impact on her relationship with pop culture.
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Childhood Musical Awakening
- Jia first heard "I Love You Always Forever" at age seven in the back of a minivan and felt instantly transported.
- The song opened her perception of adult music as a sacred, perfect experience she treasured.
Pop's Emotional Scaffold
- Jia describes the song as an abstract, pure shot of joy that isn't narrative-driven but emotionally direct.
- She credits its stripped-down structure for giving listeners a clean scaffold to project feeling onto.
What Pop Should Do
- She defines a lane of pop as dopamine-rich, instantly transporting music that feels like suspended, ecstatic presentness.
- That type of pop uses simple, legible patterns to summon the purest expansiveness from listeners.
