I completely, hopelessly adore country music. As a black girl growing up in the 90s, it seems like I was expected to like rap and hip-hop. Not I said the fly. I've always been a little different from my peers. I never did care for rap music, except for a good handful of artists, such as Eminem and Nelly. I also liked the occasional rap song from some random rap artist, but I digress. My thing was bubblegum pop, such as 'N Sync, B*Witched, The Spice Girls, The Backstreet Boys, Britney, Christina, BBMak and many others. However, these bands and singers never really inspired me much. They inspired me to be myself in a sense because I was the only black girl in my middle school to like 'N Sync AND be open about it. But other than that? I just enjoyed their music.
As I grew older, I was one of those "I like all genres of music except country music and heavy metal and rap!" people on social media, despite the fact the occasional country song was played on the two radio stations I listened to. (And I liked said songs, funnily enough.) I retracted that statement a little bit later because how could I judge a genre I've never listened to? Naturally, I thought it was about losing your job, your dog dying, and your girlfriend or wife cheating on you with your brother. Little did I know, I was dead wrong, and little did I know a certain band would forever change my life and my perspective of the genre.
It was January 2009. I was on YouTube (before Google took over), and I happened to go onto my friend's page, and I saw she had favorited about 6 or 7 music videos by this band called Sugarland. It piqued my curiosity, so I clicked on the video for Baby Girl. I thought the song the really cute, especially the line: "Well, I love you more than anything in the world, love your baby girl." At the time, I was looking for new music, so I watched a few more videos and enjoyed those as well. Then, I played the video for All I Want To Do. I don't know why, but in the second verse, Jennifer does this little dance with her dress while Kristian fanned himself and shook his head... that somehow pulled me into the group, but it was mainly their music. It was really good!
I spend February occasionally listening to them more, but early March, I had a falling out with my friend. She temporarily ceased contact with me, and I would listen to Sugarland to help me remember her and all the good times we had. I discovered their other songs and in early April, I purchased Love on the Inside, and listened to it on my way home from class. Totally fell in love with the album and the group even more. I used to watch (or listen to, rather) the soft rock station on Music Choice while sleeping or when I wasn't watching TV. I turned right to the Today's Country station. And while waiting for a Sugarland song to play, I discovered something.
I discovered I do love country music. All the songs were just really fun and catchy with a great beat.
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