Six seconds.

The length of each video Shawn Mendes consistently posted to Vine in 2013.

The videos he posted to Vine, Twitter and YouTube were the start of the success he has today.

The 20-year-old from Toronto is the poster child for using your resources. He dedicated his time to posting on social media, grew a following and created a career.

This career, including being the the third-youngest solo artist to achieve three No. 1 albums, began with Andrew Gertler stumbling across Mendes’ cover of A Great Big World’s “Say Something.” Mendes was 15 at the time.

Gertler, now Mendes’ full-time manager, sent the clip to Ziggy Chareton of Island Records who had interned at Atlantic with Gertler during college and the Mendes family was flown to New York.

The rest is a story one could probably guess. His debut album was a success, largely due to his already large following on social media.

Saying from the start he wanted to remain down-to-earth and real, creating and writing his own music, Mendes did just that.

He writes about relationships, both the ups and the downs. Singles such as “Stitches,” “Treat You Better” and “There’s Nothing Holding Me Back” all peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Billboard describes these songs as, “…a song that reminds all of us of our first heartbreak…makes just about anyone wish Mendes was pining for their heart…an adrenaline-pumping love song with growls guaranteed to make you swoon and maybe even fist-pump, too.”

Mendes’ fourth No. 1 single is different though. It searches through the ups and downs Mendes has with himself, not relationships.

It describes his battle with anxiety, and how he copes when feeling overwhelmed and insecure.

The opening lyrics “Help me, it’s like the walls are caving in / Sometimes I feel like giving up” are repeated throughout the song, along with “No medicine is strong enough / Someone help me / I’m crawling in my skin/ Sometimes I feel like giving up / But I just can’t.”

Mendes’s most vulnerable track is described by Billboard as a beautiful contrast to his other work. “The lyrics in the verses beg for assistance during an incredibly painful time, contrasted by powerful shouts in the chorus, they wrote. “In My Blood” stands apart from Mendes’ past work by featuring more electric guitar, creating an effect that’ll send chills down listeners’ spines.”

A lot can change in a year. The greatest example of just how much change can take place during 365 days can be seen in through Lil Nas X’s career.

The 20 year old rapper from Atlanta, Georgia dropped out of college approximately one year ago. Today, his single “Old Town Road” is No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100.

According to The Oprah Magazine, he said dropping out of school to pursue a music career was a decision his parents did not agree with.

In fact he ended up staying at his sister’s house for a few days until they came around to the idea.

“My dad initially was like, ‘there’s a million rappers in this industry,'” Lil Nas X revealed to TIME. “They wanted me to go back to school.”

Lil Nas X (his real name is Montero Hill) is the success story of determination, hard work, and a bit of luck every young adult dreams of achieving.

“Everything was very stressful,” he told TIME. “I would probably get three hours of sleep, staying up on the internet trying to promote my music at my sister’s house before coming back home. I would be over there sleeping on the floor—I didn’t want to come back home because I knew my parents would be mad at me. I had headaches, literally almost daily, I guess from depriving myself of sleep. And I was just being talked down to because I left school.”

But after the song gained popularity on TikTok, a social network known for generating music-based memes, Lil Nas X signed with Columbia Records, and the hit took off.

It gained more popularity when Billboard removed it from the Hot Country Songs chart last month, according to Rolling Stone. Billboard claimed that the song did not “embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.”

But the songs removal from the chart did far from hurt its success. It created more popularity, and even lead to Billy Ray Cyrus joining Lil Nas X to record a remix.

The overnight success of Lil Nas X is probably envied by other people his age. A 20 year old with two No. 1 Billboard hits, who wouldn’t be jealous?

But for the most part, college students, especially the ones at Troy University, just enjoy the music that Lil Nas X has created.

Dancing to the song at The Front Porch in Troy, Alabama are two sophomores at Troy University who are just happy the song exists.

A 21-year-old singer/songwriter from Westport, Connecticut wants to create a connection with her fans by expressing her emotions through her lyrics in a way that listeners can visualize the situation. This situation is a cold shower, and her name is Chelsea Cutler.

“Cold Showers” is Cutler’s eighth song on her second album, “Sleeping With Roses II.”

In it, she sings about a moment that occurs often the lives of young adults: having to snap yourself back into reality and pull yourself together.

Annotating the song herself on Genius.com, Cutler explains the meaning behind the lyrics “I take cold showers to remember I’m not with you / I leave with someone else to act like I don’t miss you / I can’t pretend I won’t give in / I hate myself for giving you the things I give you / When I know that it’s over.”

“I liked the concept of splashing cold water on you face to snap yourself back into reality,” she said, “and I thought cold showers were kind of a bigger statement on that same concept.

“‘I hate myself for giving you the things I give you when I know that its over’
I think I struggle to create boundaries, which is probably confusing for people. I wanna give all of myself, even when its not right to. And then I think I’m being stupid and I pull back and thats probably tough.”

This experience is not foreign to anyone that struggles with handling how to get a grasp on their emotions, or how to ensure control of those emotions to begin with by not giving away all of themselves.

Cutler sings the narrative of young adults who are just trying to figure out life, relationships and everything in between.

She sings about the beauty that is a break down.

I like to think I am successful for my age. Not above average, not below average. I attend a college and maintain a high GPA, am involved in multiple clubs, and have made many amazing friendships.

Then I discover artists like Billie Eilish. A 17-year-old girl from Los Angeles with multiple Top Billboard tracks and sold out tours, Eillish is the epitome of young success.

But it’s not just her millions, yes 31,755,958 monthly listeners on Spotify, of fans who deem her such a young prodigy. She has been featured in Harper’s Bazzar, and was described as, “inches away from redefining pop stardom in 2019” by Billboard.

But, seen through Eillish’s dark and moody music, this amount of fame and success does not equal happiness.

Her music is described as dark and violent, with music videos setting the same tone. Her 2017 single “idontwannabeyouanymore” is no different.

The song, which peaked at number 2 on the U.S. Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, is a message, or even a breakdown, to herself. The “you” is being sung to her own reflection, wanting to be someone different than who she is.

Eillish even goes as far to address depression and sadness further than her own.

“If teardrops could be bottled / There’d be swimming pools filled by models”

No one is as satisfied with themselves as they wish to be. Not me with my modest accomplishments thus far in life, not Billie Eillish and her successes, or models, as beautiful as they may be. The want to be someone else is inevitable.

The opening lyric, “Don’t be that way / Fall apart twice a day” gives us a glimpse into the imperfect life that is Billie Eillish’s. This vulnerability is what draws her fans to her. The relationship that can be formed by being open and honest with someone goes further than just in conversation. Listeners feel a connection to Eillish through a common denominator: their pain.

The dissatisfaction with ourselves does not go away once success comes. It is a struggle that anyone in susceptible to.

Eillish’s “idontwannabeyouanymore” may not be an anthem of overcoming this self-hate, but it creates an atmosphere for listeners to feel less alone in their battle.

Khalid Robinson, more commonly known as Khalid, will turn 20 on Monday. The singer/songwriter with numerous Top 100 tracks and Grammy nominations is just two months younger than me, but while our levels of the average success thus far in our lives does not quite equal up, Khalid’s most recent EP Suncity resonates with every young adult through far more than just the smooth beats.

Suncity goes deeper. It expresses Khalid’s experience as a young, confused late teen trying to figure out life and love. He sings about relationship struggles and triumphs that everyone faces, and some are lucky to overcome.

In Saturday Nights he sings about his relationship with a girl, and how that relationship is better than her’s and her parents.

The refrain opens up with, “And all the things that I know / That your parents don’t / They don’t care like I do / Nowhere like I do,” as he continues to sing about the dreams she has and family issues she faces.

The straightforwardness of this song is what makes it so beautifully relatable to his audience. We all have relationships that blossom into so much more than casual small talk. We sit in parked cars and cry our eyes out to our significant others or drive off to school and tell our roommates all about our family drama back home while we eat ice cream on the couch. They see us through it. They support us. They make us feel cared for and heard.

We are also often in Khalid’s shoes. Angry at how unfair our friends are treated, and frustrated because all we want is for them to achieve their dreams and be happy.

Khalid’s Saturday Nights portrays the love we as young adults have for those around us, and the love we feel from them. While often not much can be done about it, for it is hard to chose your parents, we should be reassured in knowing that the struggle of wanting better for your friends is something we all experience. The best we can do at this point in time is be there to sit and listen to them as they let their struggles out, and know that they would do the same for us.

Life is tricky. The ups and downs that come with it require more than just our own strength to get through it, a support system, if you will.

People who let us know that we are not alone, and that they are always there if we need them. The tricky part begins when you feel as if you need them too often, sometimes more than they realized they bargained for.

Lorde describes this feeling in her song “Liability,” which reached No. 1. Billboard + Trending Twitter 140 in 2017. Since then, Lorde has explained the emotion behind this lyrically strong ballad on many occasions.

“It’s kind of not really about anyone. It’s about me and just feeling the pressure of people finding it difficult to be friends with me- to be close to me,” she said, “It was very much a product of me sitting alone in taxis and alone in my living room, and working out how to be my own best mate really.”

The 22-year-old singer/songwriter from New Zealand describes what it’s like to realize you must learn how to be there for yourself, more than depending on others, a feeling people Lorde’s age feel more often than expected.

This single is different than Lorde’s usual love melodies. Lyrics such as, “They say, ‘You’re a little much for me / You’re a liability,'” and, “I know that it’s exciting / Running through the night, but / Every perfect summer’s / Eating me alive until you’re gone / Better on my own,” showcase her facing the fact that she is who she can depend on, and everyone else will eventually leave when she becomes too much.

Whether someone is a 22-year-old attending college in Alabama figuring out what to do after graduation, or the youngest pop star since 1987 with multiple No.1 Billboard Top 100 hits and grammy nominations, it is okay to feel like you are too much. It is even better to realize that at the end of the day, you can count on yourself.

Lorde goes, and grows, through it, and so can you.

“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.” 

― Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

Hi! My name is Marilee Butler, so glad you could join. I hope you are listening to your favorite song. If you aren’t, put some headphones in and jam out, you deserve it.

I believe that everyone deserves to jam out to their favorite song uninterrupted at full volume at least once a day. It is good for the soul. Music is good for the soul. It can brighten the atmosphere in a room, make us feel less alone, and let us forget about the stresses of life for a few minutes, all by simply being.

The stresses and challenges that music helps me forget about are most likely not too different from those that every young adult, college student deals with. Once I realized this, I almost began writing about the tips and tricks to surviving college. As I listened to my current favorite album, (Chelsea Cutler’s Sleeping With Roses II, if you were wondering) I thought about what life must be like at this age for the musicians who make the music that helps me.

I am a sophomore at Troy University studying multimedia journalism and advertising. I stress over my assignments, my job, and even sometimes my relationships with those around me. I want to be successful in my career, and live a happy life with the people I love. Today’s young adult artists can’t be that different, can they?

The 19, 20, 21, etc. year olds that create art that reaches billions of people were not once me, young and just trying to make it, no, they are me. The difference is that they have been found. Whether it be by managers, record labels, or other stars, they are no different from the 20-year-old who plays their songs through her bluetooth speaker every morning while she showers.

I want to create a space where we realize we are all quite similar. We are all just trying to make it. Each week I will find an artist, an album, or song of theirs and discuss their story. I want to appreciate how each artist came to be who they are today, how that influenced their music, and how that music influences us.

My love for music drives why I am the way I am. I hope that love can create a fun, entertaining space for anyone with an appreaction for music as well! See you next week, and each week after that! In the meantime, go listen to some good music.