"Brave" is a pop, dance-pop, funk, and R&B album. The opening track "Stay Together", co-written and produced by J.R. Rotem, is an anthem of monogamy where she declares that heartbreak and dating are so passé, that toughing it out is the new trend. "Heartbreaks are overrated, stay together, that's the new trend," insists Lopez on the dance song filled with breakbeats and synth fills. Second track "Forever" was described as "harem R&B", having a "gut-bucket dirge rhythms", in a song about making sure she is with her significant other for the rest of her life. "Hold It Don't Drop It" references the chugging bass line from "It Only Takes a Minute", the 1975 disco-funk song by Tavares. Fourth track and lead-single "Do It Well" was considered a "classic dance floor J-Lo with its hip-hop beat and disco sirens at the bridge." It samples the breakdown from Eddie Kendricks' 1973 smash "Keep on Truckin'." Ryan Tedder co-wrote and produced the song, stating: "I love that song. It's a lot of fun. I'd never done a song like it at that point. I took it as a challenge. I just looked at some of the top pop female artists at the time: JLo, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Britney before she went off the reservation. I thought, `I know I can write just as well as (their songwriters).' She heard it, flipped out, and it became the first single."