How to count your life in dog years - a lesson implied by the songs of Maggie Rogers.

"I know things are changing, but darling I'm saying, I've been here all along"

My friends told me to listen to Maggie Rogers, a singer-songwriter, and recent NYU alum, and they kept insisting that it would be one of the best decisions. I couldn't quite understand what the hype was about, but after just playing her songs once, I completely understood the buzz and didn't understand why it wasn't more universal. Her sound wasn't one that was overplayed on the radio. In fact, it wasn't one that I had heard on the radio at all and that was what was beautiful. It was a sound that focused on meaningful lyrics and pure melodies. But wait, it gets even better... (trust me, I didn't know how either).

What makes her music even better are her music videos. Her music videos focus on her being surrounded by real, pure, and beautiful women. Women who look like you and women who look like me. Women who have fun dancing around and hanging out with each other. No one is wearing revealing clothes, but rather just comfortable clothes. No one is trying to fit a social norm for the camera. In fact, these women look healthy and genuinely happy. It's incredible. In her videos, there isn't a huge focus on makeup at all and watching it with the strong women in my life was like coming up for air in society's unrealistic view of beauty. You hear it all the time from artists, "be yourself" or "you don't need clothes or makeup to be your best you," yet the next day, a new music video is released. One of which focuses on the clothes that have a specific appeal and another which focuses on the makeup that is meant to draw particular viewers closer. These songs are powerful in their own way as well, but it doesn't have the same meaning as hoped for sometimes. It's incredible to dress yourself up, it's important, but it's not the only important thing and Maggie Rogers shows us that.

More importantly, her song dog years depicts the importance of friendship and camp/retreats. I don't want to give too much of it away, so I'll just post the video here below. It's hard to describe and it's a fantastic experience watching it for the first time. The music video gives a mixture of emotions and presents such an incredible message. True friendships are so hard to find and the older I get I really do recognize that. People change, circumstances change, but not all relationships do. Some people change with you so it still feels the same. You both get happy for each other's successes and applaud one another for personal victories - that is pure friendship. Once you find solid friendships, everything seems to fall into place. The ups and downs presented by life's challenges don't seem as bad as they did before because you have people to lift you up on your very worst days.

Dog years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgWC5oEuyjU

Alaska: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNWsW6c6t8g

On & Off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdIBxhONpC0

Maggie Rogers: http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/02/maggie-rogers-is-more-than-the-musician-who-floored-pharrell.html

And if you had a bad week
I will sing you to sleep
Oh and I'll be there waiting
If you start to get jaded
I know things are changing
But, darling, I'm saying
I've been here all along

Give her a listen, I promise you won't regret it!