A community I belong to is my group of friends, best friends to be exact. Despite high school being a place where you discover yourself and your interests, I managed to meet 5 stranger sand they became my best friends. All of us of with similar, yet different backgrounds, nationalities, aspirations and taste.
Each one of us has a distinct music taste. Some of them prefer Spanish music, others like pop while others are into rock, and others like country. Personally, I fall into the category that listens to a little bit of everything. Every time we get in a car, the big debate breaks out, who’s music choice will we be stuck listening to the whole ride? You definitely want to be the one who gets the aux cord, so you aren’t miserable if you hate the other person’s music choice. And I’m sure many people can relate to this. Luckily for my group of friends, we’ve come to be in these situations so often that we now like each other’s music, and although we may not be crazy for the genre, we’re at least able to tolerate it!
The one genre that brings us to agreement is country music. Yes, there are debates over who we think is a better artist whether it be Sam Hunt, Hunter Hayes, Kenny Chesney, George Strait or Johnny Cash, but it allows us to come together and share something. Now that we have gone off to different colleges and cities, we’ve grown a bit apart, but whenever we are together or are logged on to our group chats we mention new music we are currently into or songs we are relating to at the moment.
Since my friends are hispanic, our other friends and family aren’t used to listening to country music. I don’t think that they have anything against the music, but it isn’t something that the majority of the hispanic community is listening to in huge numbers. It sometimes sets us apart from the rest of the group and when we choose country music to play with others, we get a look of bewilderment and a “you like country music?”. The fact that it sets us apart from the rest allows us to come together more because it is something we share with one another. Country songs are about telling stories and being able to relate to one another which is why it’s able to bring my group of friends closer together. Music has the power to make people happy and bring them together, but country songs in particular are about people and different kinds of relationships. And due to this it gives us a kind of bond that we wouldn’t be able to experience in other ways.
Being hispanic I have to agree that country music is not very big in our culture but I am like you in the way that I too listen to a little bit of everything. I could relate to your post because I too have friends who I have drifted apart from since I began college and music in general is one thing that definitely brings us together since were always sharing new songs with each other. In addition, I thought the aux cord struggle part was pretty funny and definitely something I could relate to. Anyway, I really liked your post and thought you did a pretty good job overall, thank you for sharing.
I really enjoyed reading your post, Laura! I am from the Northwest, and country music does not tend to be the first choice for many of my friends back home to listen to. I can definitely relate to being able to become closer with a person (or people) over taste in country music or any other type of music. One of my best friends from home has also gone off to school in the South and found interest in country music, and when we go home we tend to be the girls in the car forcing the rest of the group to listen to our country songs. It’s great to be able to have something to bring back home to high school friends that sets you apart but also can bring you closer.