![]() Country music gives us hope in our darkest day that if we would just hold on and believe, tomorrow will be a better day. Everyone is facing a hardship and right now, someone is battling their demons. A father walking out on his family is universal, a mother worrying about bills needs no translation. Whether you lived in Nashville or Jakarta, we are all facing the same challenges. ![]() Until today, Country music keeps me going, knowing that tomorrow is a better day. Instead, I learned empathy, how to be grateful for what I had, but most of all, I learned how to be resilient, knowing that what I am facing, it’s not just happening to me, it’s happening to so many others out there. I no longer felt like an outsider, I no longer felt like I didn’t belong. It brought the reality of my world to my home. Country music brought the real world to my home. It brought conversations to the table such as losing a loved one, being adopted, not being able to pay bills. Country music brought up issues that mainstream pop culture at that time didn’t. But most of all, it showed me that I wasn’t alone in being raised by a single parent. Country music spoke to me and showed me that the simple things in life mattered most. In a world filled with pop superstars, money, and popularity, country music was the exact opposite. About getting through the day and surviving hardship. None of this matter though in the world of Country music. Remember the Baby G watches that the entire world had to have? yeah, I couldn’t afford that, how about the clear gel shoes that every teen wore? yup, you guessed it, I couldn’t buy those either. I couldn’t see myself in all the MTV pop stars and I sure couldn’t afford all the merch they were showing on the screen. I couldn’t relate to the bubbly, happy, and popular “It” girls persona that MTV kept serving on a daily basis. For me, it was a better alternative to MTV (Yes, MTV actually played music videos back then). At first, I watched it because the songs were catchy. Back then Country Music Television (CMT) was part of our basic cable lineup. And that was where I discovered country music. As if being raised by a single mother was contagious. Most parents upon hearing that my mom was a single mom never wanted their kids to be my friend. She called it our “Window to the world”.Īs someone who was deemed to have come from “a broken home”, I had no friends growing up. My mother raised me in humble circumstances when I was growing up but she did manage to ensure that we had cable tv in the house so I could see what the world was like outside our little world. Children in these situations are perceived to have come from a “broken home”. The second, would be for children raised by a single mother, similar to my situation. ![]() And afer a successful career, the women are expected to marry investment bankers or successful entreprenuers and then live their hapily ever after. Children from these families will then grow up to be doctors or lawyers. The first, coming from a perfect picket fence wholesome family upbringing. There were only two types of paths for a child in an Asian society. Growing up in an Asian culture and raised by a single mother, I never had a role model or even an idea of what life would be like for children in my situation. If the world didn’t know what country music was about, Taylor certainly helped to clear it up.Īlthough country music is synonymous with ballads and story telling, today’s country music goes beyond traditional love and lost. Especially with Valentines day just around the corner.Ĭountry music gave us Taylor Swift and we all know how well she succeeded with her heartfelt ballads, storytelling, and generous acoustics. If you’ve never heard a single country song in your life before, the now is as good as time and any to giver it a try. Shania Twain may have taken the genre to a new stratosphere but those who came before and after her have cemented that country music is here to stay and is better than ever before. As a longtime country music fan, I assure you, country music is so much more than that. Somewhere along the lines of my dog died, I lost my job and my truck broke down. Throughout the years, country music has been perceived to be mostly songs that are gut wreanching, soul crushing and just plain sad.
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