Country music stands as a love or hate relationship among many different people. People tend to either really love country music, or they hate it and would choose to listen to anything else. If you’re a good human being, then you probably like country music. Country music has been around for decades and created legends and long-lasting memories for people all over the world. Country music is more than just a song about beer, women, trucks, and Jesus. Country music is about being able to listen and connect in some way to each song that you hear. Country music is about feeling your emotions, whatever that may be, getting to sing them out loudly and off-key because no one cares, and realize that yes, life is hard, but you will be okay.

Being fans of country music is similar to being fans of any sports team. Some of you might be thinking that this analogy makes no sense. Allow me to explain. In sports, you have bandwagon fans. These fans usually start liking the team or that certain sport only during the season and more importantly, when they are winning. This happens very frequently and still these certain people call themselves “die-hard fans." They are still considered fans, however, they are nowhere near the fans who have the game schedule memorized, die to spend all their money so that they can go to all the games, know each and every member on that team, and still are talking about the team’s season when the season is over. This is where country music has their similarities. There are bandwagon fans to country music just like bandwagon fans in sports. People can say that the love country music and are big, die-hard fans, but the problem is that they realistically might know a few of the current artists and listen to them in the summertime. This is because country music portrays that it's cool to have your windows down and blast the music out of your car. Now, don’t get me wrong, because I am accused of this as well. However, this isn’t the only thing these die-hard fans know about country music.

The difference between the bandwagon country fans and the die-hard country fans are that those who are die-hard will know everything there is to know about country music. More importantly, these fans will love the music all year long. When the summer is dead and gone, you can bet that these people will be turning on the country radio stations, still waiting for that concert in the middle of January, and be able to talk and sing about the greatest legends in country music. Country music is about the old and new artists, visiting Nashville to see the Grand Ole Opry, planning months in advance to see concerts, and most importantly, being dedicated to the true meaning of country music. So turn it up and sing along, because this is country music.