Growing up in an extremely rural part of Michigan (my graduating class was 90 students), the overall “farm town” culture had a great influence on my literacy. I grew up listening to great amount of country music, which ultimately led me to fall in love with the soulful nature and how it tells stories of a more carefree, simplistic way of life. My favorite artists are able to tell stories in a way that connect better with me than those of other genres. Also, country music videos tend to portray these quite well, making the songs resonate.
For example, one of my favorite artists, Thomas Rhett, released a new video for his single “Marry Me”. The video is almost like a short film in itself, portraying the situation of a man and woman who have been in love with each other since high school, but he ends up having to watch her get married to another man. Or another one of my recent favorites, the video for “Tequila” by Dan and Shay, which tells the story of a woman falling in love with a deaf man, ending in a heart-wrenching breakup.
Overall, in my opinion, I love country music because artists are able to tell these intense stories through written word, the portraying them through their music videos. I think that this genre has been able to resonate with so many people, like myself, because many songs are well-written and based on real-life situations that draw emotions. I know that people may love to disagree, but I undoubtedly will always be a country music fan.
