Walking around campus at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, it is not uncommon to see students listening to music between classes, at lunch and even during class time. For many students, music is a key part of their day and serves as both a stress reliever and an escape from reality. With so many different types of music, students at MSD enjoy a wide and diverse range of artists and genres.

Music is a universal language that spans across different cultures and connects people around the world. There are many individuals who enjoy their music without understanding the language. One key example of this is Korean Pop or K-Pop, which is a subgenre of pop music, sung primarily in Korean, but has a large worldwide audience.

“Personally, I feel like I can’t get anything done without listening to music, it kind of just brings me to a control zone. So I can do work without having any other things disrupt me whether it’s a sound from my family or from somebody in school,” senior Isabella Ortega said.

Students listen to music to complete daily tasks such as homework or exercise. They use music to prevent disruption, as it helps mute out the world when needed. It is also a form of entertainment due to the fact that most songs emit emotions, causing students to create a sense of balance. One of the most popular genres of music students listen to is rap.

“It’s just underground rap: it’s unique, it’s all the mainstream stuff everybody’s used to listening to, with the underground stuff, you don’t even need a big fan base, as long as you like what type of music they’re making,”sophomore Jason Ortiz said. “And I feel like that’s like a better connection to the artists themselves, instead of just like an image of what rap is, like, made out to be.”

Underground rap is a subgenre of rap, which originated in villages in West Africa, however rap and hip-hop became an actual genre during the 1970s in New York. It could be defined as fast paced rhyming over a beat.

Rap appeals to teenagers as most rap songs are about the rapper’s life and hardships that they have endured. They also could be inspirational, and can bring awareness to social issues. An example of this is the song “No Church In the Wild,” by Jay-Z and Kanye West. It speaks about the writers’ hatred of the hierarchy and how we should break the chain by the normalcy of the past. This is what makes rap/hip-hop so different as it connects the artist with the listeners on a personal level.

“This is kind of embarrassing but I’d say my favorite artist is Rod Wave,” senior Michele Hirn said. “I feel like the other people are just rapping about guns and drugs and then he kind of has more of a purpose. He raps more about love, I just feel like he has positive messages.”

Rod Wave is an American rapper known for his fusion of rap and R&B, in his music. He rose to fame in 2019, and is recognized for his prominent and strong voice.
Pop music, also known as “Popular music,” is a genre of music that does not just attribute to a fixed audience. It is a mixture of different genres which include country, Latin, and rock.
Currently, some famous pop artists are Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, and Ariana Grande. These artists are very popular in the music industry, due to their individuality, so no wonder they are favorites to countless students.

Their songs have left lasting impressions on the younger generation, as they talk about problems such as love and sadness, which many adolescents are dealing with. This could be academics, social life and even home life.

“One of my favorite pop artists is Taylor Swift because her songs have a nostalgic feel to them that reminds me of the time when I used to live in Georgia,” freshman Aditi Sawant said. “It was around the time she was popular so her music played everywhere we went and my mom used to play music all the time.”

For many students at MSD, music is a key part of their day and an escape from reality. Students enjoy a wide variety of different music genres and artists, creating a diverse range at MSD.