Okay, I get it.
Country music is not the most popular music style where I’m from.
But that hasn’t stopped me from rocking out in my dorm room to Dierks Bentley on a Wednesday night.
My mom’s family is from the south, so naturally, I grew up listening to country music. When I was little, I would dance around in my plastic, pink high heels to Shania Twain’s rugged, powerful, “That Don’t Impress Me Much.” Even my dad, who is (definitely) not the biggest country fan, admitted that Shania Twain was his future ex-wife…sorry mom.
I know what the world shouts.
“It’s redneck!”
“It’s all about drinking with your buddies!”
“It’s music about your mama’s cousin…who is actually her husband!”
“It’s about your big old truck”
And yatta, yatta, yatta.
Let’s think for a minute.
We view rap as “in,” right?
But that doesn’t stop some from saying that it’s all about sex and drugs.
I can bet you that at this exact moment, some committed rap fan jumped up out of her seat and mentioned a song that broke those norms.
The one that comes to my mind? “1-800-273-8255,” suicide prevention ring a bell?
So, I’m asking, give me a chance to explain why country is the kind of music that I can find myself in.
I’m an empath. Because I’m an empath, I connect with my feelings…like A LOT. Growing up, I took refuge in music; it spoke for me, not at me.
Don’t get me wrong, I listen to all kinds of music, alternative, pop, rap, hip-hop, anything…anything with a meaning.
As I’ve gotten older, I have grown close to just a few artists that I believe speak about things that others are scared to talk about, for fear of rejection. Yes, I’m sure many of you will chuckle at my list, but come on, they’ve been with me since, like, well…forever.
Taylor Swift, Niall Horn, Dan & Shay, Raelynn, Tim McGraw, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Thomas Rhett, Adele, Alex & Sierra, Kelsea Ballerini, Rascal Flatts, Dierks Bentley, Alison Krauss, Lady Antebellum Reba McEntire, and the list goes on and on.
These artists have written at least one piece that has motivated me to make it through a hard day, a hard month, or even a hard year.
I fell in love with country music as a child, but my love grew as I grew, and it’ll keep growing until I’m long gone. Country music is more than drinking with your buddies or tailgating in a prairie field somewhere.
Want proof?
I thought I’d miss you (when it ended) I thought it hurt me (but it didn’t) I thought I’d miss you I thought I’d miss you
But I miss me more I miss my own beat, to my own snare drum I miss me more Miss my own sheets in the bed I made up I forgot I had dreams, I forgot I had wings Forgot who I was before I ever kissed you Yeah, I thought I’d miss you But I miss me more (I miss me more)
I put on my old records that I hid in the back of the closet And I turn them up to ten And then I played them all again I found my independence Can’t believe I ever lost it What you wanted, ain’t it? It’s what you wanted
-Kelsea Ballerini, Miss Me More
Just reading those lyrics, would you presume this to be a “country twang song?”
I presume, no?
Because it’s a song about a girl finding herself. And let’s be honest, I think we all are in need of a little soul searching.
Country music is family. It’s passion. It’s love. It’s hate. It’s ethereal. It’s home. It’s far. It’s anything you want it to be.
Country music, well, it’s mine.