Composition
"Butterflies" is a midtempo love ballad song with groove musical influences. The track is cited as having pop, R&B, and adult contemporary musical styles. Vaughn Watson of the Providence Journal noted that the track is a "velvety old-school soul ballad" with "elegiac horn riffs" and "simple '70s-style David Ruffin soul." Stephen Thomas Erlewine, a writer for Allmusic noted that "Butterflies" had "Bacharach-styled horns." Lonell Broadnax, Jr., a contributing writer to the Daily Helmsman Online felt that "Butterflies" is a soulful song which takes Jackson back to his "rhythm and blues roots". Ben Rayer of the Toronto Star felt that the song had a "oozy slow jam". "Butterflies" is written in the time signature of common time. Throughout the song Jackson's vocal range spans from E♭3 to E♭5. The track is played in the key of A♭ major. "Butterflies" has a moderately slowly tempo and its metronome is ninety-two beats per minute. Lyrically, "Butterflies" describes the feeling of being in love.
Read more about this topic: Butterflies (Michael Jackson Song)
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“If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad. As to that regular, uninterrupted love of writing ... I do not understand it. I feel it as a torture, which I must get rid of, but never as a pleasure. On the contrary, I think composition a great pain.”
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