Country Music

So - a little background about me.  My parents are hippies (you obviously know that if you regularly follow my blog) and enjoy Celtic music and Enya and such (I also am a big Enya fan).  Sorry to disappoint, they are not the concert going drug using type hippies.  So in the 2nd grade we move to Oklahoma where county music is fairly popular (at least compared to Santa Cruz, California where we had been living).  I found country music to be fairly obnoxious and assumed it was just about trucks, heartbreak, and Jesus - all of these things were fine, but wrapped up together it was just too much for my ears to handle.  Then we move to NC - also a fair contingent of country music lovers.  Once again, I found this to be obnoxious. Then I move to Atlanta - an interesting music mix to say the least. A few of my close friends here were pretty big country fans, and once again, I had a distaste for the music....until one day I started loving it!!!

It all started after I got in to a car accident in Atlanta, and found that I became extra stressed while driving, it also happened because NPR was doing a fundraiser and interrupted their normal programming.  I accidently started listening to country and quickly began to like it!! For someone who had judged country music for so long, I found this new enjoyment of country music somewhat disconcerting and too hypocritical to deal with.  What had changed? Who am I? Why am I enjoying this?

So, obviously I had to do an analysis. I listened to the top 6 most popular country songs and did some light qualitative coding and grouping to find main topics....and this is what I found (in visuals):

http://winerecipes.blogspot.com/2008/04/honeysuckle-wine.html

Source: luxmagnadesigns.com via Gaya on Pinterest

Source: couldntbeparve.com via Gaya on Pinterest

Source: weheartit.com via Gaya on Pinterest

Source: attractions.uptake.com via Gaya on Pinterest

Source: weheartit.com via Gaya on Pinterest

So the songs had a couple focuses:

1)     Drinking – whiskey, tequila, wine, and a cold beer were mentioned…I am noticing a theme here

2)     Love – holding on to it and cherishing it, and losing it and missing it

3)     Partying – use your imagination

4)     Water – shores, boats, paradise

5)      Small towns and woods and truckss

So some of my stereotypes held true, but over all the themes were fairly diverse, and the lyrics actually make sense vs. a  lot of music now days is just a bunch of silly lines with a good beat.

So as I grapple with my new ‘like’ of country music – I wonder, what do I hate now that I will like in 5 years?? 

I also want to know what you used to hate that now you like (excluding guacamole and greek yogurt!)