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Yes, I just keyboard smashed for my title. Because, as most of us know, that is the universal sign of a fangirl. This is something I tend to avoid doing, but let's face it, we all do once in a while.

I grew up on a mix of P!nk’s Missundaztood, Bowling for Soup’s A Hangover You Don’t Deserve, and everything Shania Twain. Not to mention an abundance of Jimmy Buffet, Uncle Kracker and Aaron Carter. Both my parents are from Kentucky, so country music was always present and pop was just a normal thing for us. How this affected my current taste in music? I’m not sure.

I will say that I still love most of those bands/performers. But, nowadays, I don’t really listen to them as much as I do different genres. My taste in music has been described to me as “emo alternative” as well as “acoustic indie crap” (thanks for your opinion Brandon) but I don’t agree with either of those to sum it all up. I really like a mixture of different genres. I usually stick to country, pop, “alternative”, and the like. I don’t like the term alternative, or even pop for that matter, because neither are stationary descriptions of music, but it’s the best way to get the point across here.

My top twenty five songs in iTunes consists of a mix of: All Time Low, Bowling for Soup, Mayday Parade, Demi Lovato (don’t judge), Felicia Day & Neil Patrick Harris, Taylor Swift, Paramore, and Katy Perry. I will admit, that’s quite a mix. But, I really like all of that and it makes complete sense to me.

I like listening to complete albums at a time, sometimes even a single song repeatedly. That’s just how I like it and having Sick Little Games by All Time Low at number one does not surprise me, because I will play it five or six times in a sitting.

Some of my favorite bands/singers that aren’t in that group include (but are not limited to): Barenaked Ladies, Cartel, Dixie Chicks, Evaescence, Flyleaf, Green Day, He is We, Automatic Loveletter, Kelly Clarkson, Lady Gaga, Miranda Lambert, No Freaking Doubt, P!nk, Panic! At The Disco, along with an assortment of YouTube-inality and musical theater music. And by musical theater music, I really mean things of the musically theme. Things like: Once More With Feeling, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, RENT, Wicked, Chicago, etc.

I wanted to pick on group to talk about most, and for that I chose Rise Against. (Mainly because, at the moment, they are definitely number one on my list) I recently went to a concert of theirs and ADTR’s (in February) and it was… amazing to say the least. It’s really stupid, but I think I agree with Kelsey that the way lyrics hit me, I feel like most of the time I couldn’t relate more.

While this isn’t always the case with Rise Against’s music, I feel like there is always something there that makes it easy for anyone who knows the words to sing along and really mean what they are saying. When we all sang out the words to songs like Swing Life Away, Collapse, The Good Left Undone, Audience of One, Make It Stop, and wrapping things up with a song like Savior, you could hear how much everyone was pouring their hearts into those songs. It was insane. I don’t think I’ve had a better experience in my life.

And I think that’s why I like Rise Against so much, because no matter what they’re talking about, they are always so passionate. And, under most circumstances, someone’s passion can make or break a band for me. I think if I was going to fangirl about any band, it would be that one, for sure.

I want to say how sorry I am for my late posting and I hope you guys can forgive me. In all honesty, I just forgot. And I would have posted this earlier today, but between school, picking up Toby, driving all over creation, and still having a history project to do, I just now got around to it. I hope you guys had a wonderful Thursday (along with a great Memorial Day weekend) and I cannot wait to see what Kathleen has to say tomorrow. Cheer up everyone, it’s almost Friday!