Thank goodness for country music???

When Hal and I were first dating, I remember staying at his house until 1:30 in the morning as he played me every song in his repertoire. He has a fairly well-rounded collection, most of which I’d never heard. I was familiar with many of the artists and bands but wouldn’t necessarily call myself a fan of any of them, or their music. From Ozzy Osborne (he’s even been to Ozzfest) to Hank Williams and Jimi Hendrix, I could tell Hal’s taste varied from mine. His parents raised him on The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. I was raised on Mozart, Dave Brubeck and Z100. He loves Muddy Waters and I’m more of an Ella Fitzgerald girl. And while he also had tracks by Ludacris (Luda!) and Jay Z (good things), it was really his heavy metal collection that I was having difficulty appreciating – Pantera, Black Sabbath, Type O Negative (who?). I couldn’t understand how you could listen to someone screaming at you for 3-5 minute intervals with loud banging in the background. But what offends our ears is all relative. I know Hal’s ears get offended anytime Z100 is on.

After listening to all of it and hours of it, there is one theme that clearly transcended all musical genres: Love Sucks. Whether it’s country, pop, rap, or even heavy metal, somebody is writing a song about how horrible love is, and that women are usually to blame. You begin to wonder if all men, or at least the ones that attempt to make and sell their music, hate women. And what about the ones that listen to it? That night, after getting my fill of “that bitch broke my heart”, or lyrics of the like, I started to wonder if I was dating a misogynist. Then I considered the plethora of songs in every genre that bash women (and men) and realized these people don’t hate women (some of them do), but they hate that women have the power to leave them vulnerable and heartbroken. I want to yell at them all, Get Over it, but then what would they have to sing about? For country music artists it’s pickup trucks and my dog, but you can’t make that sound angry in heavy metal.

Still questioning his musical taste, Hal then played that song, the song that I took as a sign that he can be sensitive and perhaps even sentimental. It’s a country song by Blake Shelton called PS, If This is Austin I Still Love You, and it’s a cute little love story of sorts sang with a sweet twang. It was the antithesis of every song we’d listen to so far and it was a breath of fresh Oklahoma air. So now, when he’s in the mood to give me the musical review, I always make sure he plays the Austin song just to remind me that this guy, the guy that can appreciate a cute little love song amidst the angry screaming from men wearing too much eye liner, is also the man I’m marrying.