How Does a Moment Last Forever marks the first collaboration between Menken and Rice in over two decades; the last time they worked together had been in the "Beauty and the Beast" musical. Menken believes that the songs he and Rice had written for the musical would not have translated well to the screen due to the structural differences between the two formats. One of at least nine significant changes made to the film specifically for the remake, "How Does a Moment Last Forever" was conceived to explain Belle's backstory. Her quest to find out her mother's fate serves, in the plot, as a foundation for
How Many Licks? song as an example of how Sisqó pushed the envelope of sexuality in popular culture. Brittany Vincent of "Billboard" noted it as an example of how the rapper was unafraid of exploring sex in her music. An editor for Apple Music included the song on its "Lil' Kim Essentials" playlist, writing that Lil Kim' "more than held her own as an agile and self-possessed MC who pushed hip-hop toward its unalloyed id". However, African-American studies professor Mark Anthony Neal criticized the single for perpetuating the sexual objectification of women. Comparing "How Many Licks?" with American singer Tweet's 2002 song "Oops