MadSen
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S I U C M
By Sierra Prochniak
girl with auburn hair sits alone in her room, on her bed, a guitar gently cradled in her arms. She strums the guitar, hums a melody, and scribbles a collection of lyrics on a sheet of binder paper lying in front of her. Discarded pieces of paper are strewn across her bedspread, roughdraft verses written in smudged ink. Guitars and ukuleles in various shapes, sizes, and colors hang on the wall to her right, and a sleek chestnut piano is pressed up against the wall across from her. A pantheon of posters surround her, from Alvin Ailey’s Dance Theater troupe to a middle school production of Freaky Friday Jr, with letters from friends and photo strips peppered in. Many say that your bedroom is a reflection of your mind. Evidently, teenage singer/songwriter Rose Madsen has music on the brain. 16-year-old Madsen is a Junior in high school and a San Francisco Bay Area based musician, frequenting venues from Santa Cruz to Mountain View to play gigs. She describes her genre as folk/ pop/rock, drawing influence from her favorite artists such as Carole King and Big Star, as well as her father, fellow musician Aaron Madsen. Her music explores stereotypically “teenage” themes, such as relationships and self-acceptance, however, she often ventures outside female songwriter norms by writing about heavier topics, such as being the daughter of an immigrant, or sexual assault. She is a gifted lyricst, using poetic devices to portray complicated, emotional subjects in a captivating way, and she puts heartfelt care into the production of her songs.
Although
Madsen has a deeply personal relationship with music, she dreams of pursuing a music career and reaching a larger audience with her songs, an exciting yet daunting goal. As a young female artist, she’s already experienced a plethora of challenges with the music industry, in particular, lupta cus, ut to handle legal processes whenaut lacidios learning how working with a record label. However, the setbacks-