Everybody listens to different music. Some enjoy pop/punk, some rap, some metal, and yes, some even enjoy oldies. The trend that comes along with the wide variety of music tastes is music-shaming. We tell people they listen to terrible music and if they don’t have the exact same playlist as us, they’re wrong. Well, that’s messed up.

I’ve seen a lot of tweets lately where they screenshot what song is playing on their phones and tweet it out. I’ve participated in this, tweeting the wonderful song “Exposure” by The Company We Keep. I didn’t expect any response, and I didn’t get one, and that’s fine. Personally, I don’t think I’ve seen a tweet like that where I knew what song it was, except mine of course. That made me realize how huge the music industry actually is and how much I haven’t listened to. After the existential crisis, I realized that the fact that your favorite song isn’t on everyone’s top ten list shouldn’t be a surprise.

I recently wrote a review of Brick + Mortar, in which I gave their album “Bangs” an “A.” In another review, I gave Fall Out Boy’s “American Beauty/American Psycho” a “C.” Did I get hate from that? Of course. But can you blame me? 25% of my iTunes is filled with the Motion City Soundtrack. It’s a no-brainer that I will like a band who went on tour with Motion City over a band that’s abandoning their pop/punk roots.

What I am seeing continually is the classic, “You listen to them? Are you deaf?” or variations of such. Why bother? I know that most of the school could sing along to “Uptown Funk” and yet, I hate that song. So do I go on rants and throw fits whenever it’s played? No. I suffer through it. If I blared some Farewell Continental, pretty much everyone would start yelling to turn it off while I sang along. What we consider “good music” isn’t something we can define.

The only song I could justify music-shaming is “Blurred Lines.” That song is trash and needs to retire from existence. Any song by Robin Thicke actually. Just don’t listen to Robin Thicke. Maybe he should retire from existence.

What I’m trying to say is that you could go through anyone’s iTunes and find that one album that nobody has ever heard of. People have different music tastes. Whatever range of music is on your iTunes, legally or illegally, it’s your’s and you should be proud of that.