What type of music do you play at 6:30 a.m. when you start getting ready for school? Want some new music to listen to but don’t know where to look ? I will discuss some of our students’ preferences and analyze student trends.

“Music is art” says junior Isaac Brinchaux. He loves hearing his favorite artist, Kendrick Lamar, on Spotify and he has to thank his nephew for introducing him to this type of music. Kendrick Lamar Duckworth is an American rapper and songwriter. Lamar, a “master of storytelling,” has projects that are usually concept albums. Lamar tries to connect to his audience by talking about family, love, struggles, and many other situations. Another student that agrees with Isaac is, freshmen Jenessa Henderson. Henderson was introduced to Lamar thanks to social media, and one of her favorite songs is “Alright” by Lamar. “Alright” is about going through a difficult time and knowing that everything will be fine and that life goes on. Lamar is a great artist–especially with teens who go through so much.

Senior Adrian Vasquez has a different idea about music. “The music I listen to basically says who I am.” Vasquez enjoys listening to an artist named Joji and this writer stopped what she was doing to listen to this artist.  I had never heard of this artist and was surprised. Joji has many smooth and yet fascinating and meaningful songs. I listened to one song named “I don’t wanna waste my time,” which is about cheating on a partner . A subject many people can relate to and age doesn’t matter. This song is basically about a man cheating on his partner and he’s trying to figure out if it is really worth it? Basically can you really trust people?

The second song is called “Rain on Me,” which to me I understood it as don’t act sweet just when people are watching, and don’t ruin my day to make your day. When I heard this song I had isolationist tendencies–you do your thing, and I’ll do my thing. Joji is a new artist a very young one too, and by way of these songs, I think people will later be hearing more of him.

Have you heard of My Chemical Romance, Panic in the Disco, or how about Fall Out Boy? Well freshman Debbie Lawhead sure has. Lawhead mentions one of her favorite song is “American Beauty/American Psycho” by Fall Out Boy. At first I didn’t really like the song, as the song was very repetitive and dark. After repetitively listening to the song (over 15 times) and looking for its meaning, I found myself at a dead end, still hating the song.

Not until the help of an anonymous source that shed light on the subject, did I find new appreciation for the song. The song itself is really upbeat and the lyrics hold a deeper meaning than the sound itself. The song is about a person who is used to hurting people and meets a beautiful girl who he does not want to hurt. When he in fact is the one that ends up getting hurt. The song is very meaningful and teens and individuals of any age will enjoy the song.

Explore new music, take two to three minutes out of your time and listen to some aforementioned artists or just listen to the songs in the background while doing homework.