If you say you like all music except rap and country, you’re a music poser.
There’s a lot of music floating around today. With the rise of niche markets and music- streaming services like Spotify, millions of songs in hundreds of genres are just a click away.
But no matter what your music listening habits are, categorically denouncing entire styles is just stupid.
Country and rap seem to divide people more than the rest. Maybe people feel as though they can’t relate with the cultures that listen to this music. There does seem to be a kind of insulation when it comes to country and rap. They can be more than just music types and become full lifestyles. Maybe people feel if they’re not a part of that lifestyle, they can’t or don’t want to listen to that music.
Maybe it’s the way they’re presented. You can hear pretty extreme versions of the genres on radio stations. Flip to a country channel, and it’s all trucks and beer. Rap definitely has stigmas of misogyny and homophobia. Just knowing that, people could be turned off from the entire genre.
But just as with any other music genre, there are so many different aspects of country and rap. You can’t pigeonhole every artist as “bad” because they have that genre as part of their sound.
All music explores the same or similar aspects of the human experience. Some artists do it better than others. But every genre is telling the same story. Every artist is trying to cope with the same problems.
Love, heartbreak, success, family, growing older, self-identity — these are all things everyone struggles with. The point of music is to express these life issues and your emotions about them, to share and relate with others and to grow from the experience. No type of music is exempt from this.
There are some artists that just write songs to get hits and make money. But this isn’t limited to one particular type of music. If you can’t find country and rap that you like, you’re not looking very hard. There are excellent, thoughtful artists in both genres.
If you’ve written off rap or country, give them a try. Go beyond their radio hits, and look for some artists who speak to you.
There are so many bands that blend styles, you’re bound to find one you think is cool. And with music being so easy to access, you really don’t have any excuses not to try. Maybe you’ll find a new passion, or you’ll meet new people who like the same music. Maybe you’ll discover something more about yourself.
If you don’t try to look for good music in all genres, you’re missing out. Your life isn’t a box that only has so much space for you to fill with satisfaction. There’s a crazy amount of good music out there to appreciate. You don’t need to compromise or fill your life with only so much or only one type.
Music is as diverse as the people who make it. If you want to be a more fully recognized individual, give it all a try, even country and rap. You might like what you find.
sckroll@indiana.edu
