UHS Students Sound Off on Music Styles

Dominique Styles tells us, “Music, for me, is a way to step out of my own skin and into someone else’s, who feels the same way I do, and is able to express it in words that I can’t.” Many teens have this same perspective on music, as the Echo Staff found out by conducting a music poll with UHS students. We asked a variety of 50 girls and 50 boys about their favorite musical artists. Some of the opinions we heard were surprising, some were expected, but all in all we came to the conclusion that music is very important to teens. The Echo Staff came up with five genres of music—rap/hip hop, pop, rock, country, and oldies. We picked five of the hottest artists to put into these categories, and asked students to tell us their favorite musician of the ones we picked for each genre.

Even though Jaydon wanted Drake to win and Hannah wanted Kid Cudi to win in hop hop, Lil’ Wayne won by 69 percent. Lady Gaga won hands down by 92 percent in pop, Taylor Swift won in country by 57 percent (with Carrie Underwood as a close second), Paramore was the winner for rock with 89 percent, and for oldies 2 Pac got the most votes at 95 percent.

We conducted this poll because we were curious to see just how interested our students are in music, what artists seemed to get the most attention, and how music affects our students. Many people voted for the most popular musicians being played on the radio, but some told us the names their favorite singers or bands that were not on our poll. We also heard lots of views about favorite songs or concerts coming up, which led us to believe that we have many students here at UHS who keep up with the times on their favorite bands, read music blogs, or just listen to a lot of music in general.

From the poll, we realized just how important of a role music plays in teens lives. Every person we asked to vote was excited and eager to do it, because music is a huge part of the lives of many young people. Dominique Styles explains, “I think music is a way for high school students to express themselves in a way that doesn’t bring physical harm to anyone else. They also use music as a way to vent or unwind.” In addition to getting relaxed by music, a song can also be an essential part of a teen’s study process, and can help them get in the zone for doing homework. All in all, we discovered that high school students are very opinionated and passionate about their music, and are inspired by what they hear.