Kicker Country Stampede comes to Tuttle Creek, and when it does, Instagram is filled with people in country boots standing in front of the Stampede sign. There are people that go just to say they went, even though they don’t listen to country.

In fact, many of these people claim they listen to everything except country and rock. Why is that though? There are a lot of benefits to listening to country music.

The genre of country music, unlike pop or rap, holds a variety of subjects within each song. The subjects range from love, family, religion, politics, abuse, divorce, loss and a good Friday night. For example, Tim McGraw’s song “Humble and Kind” talks about norms in his family life and the morals he has that came with it.

Most songs in this industry have a storyline that has a meaning; instead of hearing “Gucci Gang” a hundred times in one song, a story is told. This can be seen in Thomas Rhett’s album “Life Changes,” all of his songs portray a story that can be easily imagined in one’s head. He talks about how he met his wife, how their life changed super fast, how he lost the love of his life to another guy and he’s heading to their wedding and so many other emotions that have been felt by most people.

Each song portrays a story and emotion and because of this, each song makes you feel. No matter what mood a person is in, it is easy to find multiple songs that describe exactly how the feelings we may have felt or what we may have gone through change us. Country shows a specific emotion in each song that is brought up throughout the song, which makes it easily relatable to any age.

When you turn on the radio and pop or rap comes on, it’s not always appropriate for little kids to listen to or older generations to understand. Country music is family-friendly because there is rarely profanity sung in the music. The messages in these songs  are clear. It’s not hard to decipher what the artist is saying in these songs because they don’t talk fast. In country music, there is an actual storyline being told and artists don’t want listeners to miss out on it.

Country music has an overall good feeling vibe and that’s why it should be appreciated and listened to more.