I'm rural, white, and from a town of about 12,000 people. If that doesn't tell you anything about how diverse or otherwise my music tastes are, then I don't know what will.

When I was younger, the only music that I'd heard that wasn't classic rock or country, or even Run DMC, was a premier album that contained several hits from Carlos Santana. I tried my hardest to, and made a terrible effort at covering "Migra". My heart and soul were into it, but it just wasn't working. At that point, I gave up on the whole covering thing, and switched into different genres.

Pop, rap, hip-hop, blues, rock, metal, and everything within those genres was fair game in Massena. But, you rarely heard anything that wasn't American.

And no, I'm not talking about Celine Dion, the Beatles, or any other Americanized musicians and collectives. I'm talking about Latin American music. Middle Eastern music, Indian, Korean. The collective rest of the world that I just was never exposed to.

Two things happened that expedited that development into my current musical consciousness; the advent of YouTube and social media, and my friends.

YouTube has allowed us, as people, to listen to music from around that world, that just wasn't available to us in earlier times. People before that advent of television and internet probably didn't care about international music, but if they did, I'm sure that they listened to shitty covers and terribly racist accents as they struggled through a traditional song, or even a popular one.

Now, I can listen to Japan's top single of the week, listen to new Korean rappers like Sik-K, and hear a popular French club beat such as "Alors en Danse". Everything is available to us now, and that's something that we shouldn't take for granted.

The second thing; my roommates. One is from the Dominican Republic, one is from Mexico, and the third is born to Salvadoran heritage. Without them (shoutout to Oscar especially #PassOscarTheAux) I wouldn't have as diverse a music taste as I do now. Hearing popular songs from Mexico, the DR, and countless other Latin American countries from people who grew up with them is an awesome experience on it's own, and that's something that will remain with me for a long time.

If you have international friends, or even people with diverse music tastes, ask them to show you songs that aren't American. It will be an awesome trip, and one that you won't regret.