'We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.'

As a country music girl, I want to take this opportunity to commend and publicly acknowledge this genre and its positive focus on women.

I have always had an eclectic music taste. I grew up listening to artists such as AC/DC, 10CC, The Spice Girls, Edith Piaf, The Sex Pistols, and Buddy Holly—it is fair to say I did not have a consistent genre.

Throughout my teens, I continued to listen to a variety of music, discovering my own artists or building on the ones that I used to moan at as a child when it was put on in the car.

As I then entered my 20s I experienced a whole new genre that I hadn’t really ventured into—apart from a few classics from the likes of Johnny Cash, Elvis, Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton.

I first fell in love with country music following a trip to Nashville, Tennessee. With no massive connection to country, I was finding myself sitting in Honky Tonks day and night—immersed in the lives of those around me and the stories they were singing to me. It was like nothing I had ever experienced, and I was immediately swept up in its charm.

After converting to all things country, I have barely listened to anything different for three years now. Old school, bluegrass, modern, country gospel—give it to me in any form and I’ll listen.

Listening to songs and the words written by so many artists, it began to portray a different image to me. It felt like a very different message to the world—so different to the words often conveyed in many other genres of today’s music.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of talk of heartbreak, low days, and loss, but the overriding message is often how all of this should result in something positive. To appreciate that you were in love to feel that heartbreak; to understand that it’s someone worth fighting for; to understand that life is short, so live it right; and to learn that the low days are what makes you appreciate the high days and will allow you to come out much stronger. As Dolly says, ‘The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.’

The reason I began writing this piece in the first place was to speak about the positive message to girls and women today. From a young age, there can be so much pressure on girls—from massive social media influence (not always positive), to the idea of what is ‘normal’, and peer pressure—and the country music genre breaks these barriers of social pressure supporting women in the process.

There is fearlessness, strength and power portrayed by female country singers, but there is also such positivity when talking about women from the male perspective. In some songs, women may be seen to be objectified, but the difference with many other genres is this is usually the extent of it—with country music, the writer moves one step further—and talks from his heart, not his pants.

Commenting on a woman being sexy, and following it up with positivity, can contribute to what makes us powerful—it is just what we decide to do with it.

Here are some of my favourite lyrics:

‘And now, he’s wrapped around her finger / She’s the centre of his world / And his heart belongs to that sweet, beautiful, wonderful, perfect-all-American girl.’ Carrie Underwood, All-American Girl

She’s got a gentle way that puts me at ease / When she walks in the room I can hardly breathe / She’s got whatever it is, It blows me away / She’s everything I wanted to say to a woman, But couldn’t find the words to say, Because every time I try and tell her how I feel, It comes out ‘I love you.' Zach Brown Band, Whatever It Is

She got a smile that makes your worst day, Feel like it’s your birthday / She make you wanna fight for her, She make you wanna die for her, She make you wanna fall, Make you want it all, Make you wanna call. Chris Lane, For Her