I can still remember the excitement I felt as a young child sitting in the car listening to early 2000s music on my favorite radio station. Believe it or not, this was one of my most loved activities at the time. 

Spending countless hours listening to the car radio helped me realize that I deeply enjoyed and appreciated music. The way a single song has the power to help us define ourselves always left me feeling captivated and, over time, helped music grow to become an important part of my life.

Even so, I’ve never felt comfortable sharing my music tastes with other people, because society seems to have created a harmful stigma around people’s music tastes.

Nowadays, anyone can be judged for listening to music that’s considered “too mainstream” or “weird.” 

However, people should not get caught up in this stigma. Instead of feeling ashamed or embarrassed of their music preferences, they should feel proud or confident in them. 

A key fact people need to realize before judging others on their music taste is that music is very subjective. No one song is ever going to appeal to everyone. 

Because of this, a song that one person might deeply love, someone else might not enjoy at all. Now, it is fine for a person to not like a song that someone else may really enjoy, but it is not fine for them to use their feelings to make someone think that their music taste is inferior.

As humans, we all have different life experiences, values and tastes that will most likely never completely interlock with those around us. This can play a role in the kind of music we listen to and whether others like it or not. 

No matter if your favorite music is heavy metal from Metallica, hip-hop and rap from Kendrick Lamar or the entire Taylor Swift discography, your music taste is significant. Don’t let the fear of being judged keep you from sharing your preferences. At the end of the day, your music defines you and who you are growing to become.