The Sound of Music: Maggie Rogers’ Mastery of the Folk-Pop Sound
Some artists make folk music, and others are pop connoisseurs, but rising star Maggie Rogers crafts a perfect marriage between the two genres.
The Sound of Music breaks down how every little noise ― that instrument, that sample, that oh-so-significant pause ― makes a song special.
Written by Myah Taylor
Photo courtesy of NME
After growing up in rural Easton, Maryland where she picked up numerous instruments, sang in the choir, and began songwriting, Rogers decided to continue pursuing music at New York University as a student at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. Before starting college in 2012, the Grammy-nominated artist recorded her first album, 2012’s The Echo, in a broom-closet-turned-music-studio. Then, during her sophomore year in the music engineering and production program, Rogers released a second folk album, 2014’s Blood Ballet.
“I grew up as a banjo player and always made folk music and loved being outside … that’s my space,” Rogers said in a NYU Masterclass taught by Pharrell Williams in 2016. “I made very straight ahead folk music I would say. That’s kind of where my soul is.”
Following the release of Blood Ballet, Rogers went through a two-year musical hiatus before a study abroad trip to France inspired her to create again. While out clubbing, the songstress became enamored with dance music, a sound she wanted to fuse with her folk roots.
“All I want to do is kind of combine that folk imagery and harmony and natural samples that I’ve been picking up while hiking over the last couple of years with the sort of backbone and energy of dance music,” Rogers said.
The songstress’ “spiritual experience with dance music” and a National Outdoor Leadership School course birthed “Alaska,” her breakout song. Making Williams visibly emotional as it played during his NYU Masterclass in 2016, “Alaska” garnered absolute praise from the acclaimed producer.
“Alaska” is exactly the pop-folk fusion Rogers hoped to achieve after returning from France. The lyrics invoke nature scenes, as Rogers sings of “walking through icy streams” and “glacial plains.” But her folk ethos becomes more evident as the lyrics become more opaque. One moment Rogers is straightforward, taking in the great outdoors, and the next she’s describing a transformative hiking experience when she sings “I walked off you, and I walked off an old me.”
The natural imagery juxtaposes well with the synth beats and drops pulsing throughout the song’s verses. “Alaska’s production differs from typical pop music in that it sounds more organic and textured, more subdued. Rogers achieves this effect by utilizing unorthodox samples such as the sound of her hands patting on her jeans, finger snaps, and a morning dove in the pre-chorus. Once the actual chorus hits, the dance-club inspiration shines through with all the colors of Rogers’ nature rave. And just when “Alaska” begins sounding like a pure pop track, the repeated “oohs” and chimes remind listeners of Rogers’ folk beginnings.
Rogers expressed to Williams that she couldn’t get enough of making music, so she followed “Alaska” up with “Dog Years,” a song even more lyrically complex than its predecessor. “I count my time in dog years,” Rogers sings. “Swimming in sevens, slow dancing in seconds.” “Dog Years”’s driving synths coupled with chimes, bird calls, rattlesnake tail shakes, and other primitive percussion instruments equates to a masterful pop song utilizing nature to its best ability.
“As a songwriter or any kind of artist, you’re constantly having this sort of existential conversation about existence and emotion and trying to understand your experience as a human,” Rogers said in an interview with REI in 2019. “ And nature shows that everything is interconnected, and it provides a holistic, peaceful view on life … Whenever I am in nature, I feel really connected to that sense of purpose.”
Other examples of Rogers’ dual pop and folk sensibilities are present on her major-label debut, 2019’s Heard It In a Past Life. Continuing her nature motif on the track “Overnight,” Rogers ditches studio-produced synths in favor of croaking frogs and shifting glacier samples that weave throughout the verses. On “Fallingwater,” Rogers describes a failed relationship through the use of water imagery, singing “I fought the current running just the way you would and now I’m in the creek.” Throughout this percussive pop ballad packed with drum beats and pianos, Rogers utilizes soulful vocals to add that folk touch. In the song’s bridge, Rogers slows things down in a way that almost sounds tribal, as she layers her vocals with deeper tones and the drum beats become more prominent. As the song transitions out of the bridge, the fragmented sounds all come crashing down — much like falling water.
Traditionally, music has been sharply delineated by genres, but as of late, more and more artists are breaking this convention, fusing sounds from various ethoses. Rogers is just one of the latest to master such genre-bending. Adopting the singer-songwriter approach of folk artists and absorbing the energy of European dance music, Rogers has cultivated her own sound while feeling every beat and chord in the most authentic way possible. What Rogers brings to the table is the kind of novelty the music industry so desperately needs.