Pop, country, and rap; These are some of the most popular genres of music in the United States according to CBS News. However, with so many different music genres, some people can feel stereotyped for having a unique taste in music.

“I find that whenever I try to discuss (my favorite) genre(s) of music which not many people normally listen to, they automatically associate my personality with a more stereotypical version,” Daniel Chechelnitskiy, sophomore fan of pop-punk music, said. “I listen to My Chemical Romance and, people automatically assimilate this with a goth-emo type expression.”

Pop-punk is a genre of music described as having “great songwriting”, “anti establishment (views)” and focused “on speed, concision and three-chord simplicity” according to Rolling Stone. Some pop punk bands include Blink-182, Green Day and 5 Seconds of Summer.

“I listen to a lot of metal, hard rock, more extreme progressive metal music,” Liam Haynes, sophomore said “My friends think its a little weird, but that’s fine. When I was first getting into it, they were a little bit surprised since they didn’t expect me to go down that road of extreme metal of music since I normally just listened to pop, hip hop and rap.

Neither person has experienced any major discrimination or bullying based on music tastes, but both have felt what it’s like to be made fun of for liking a type of music. However, most of this was from friends who did it in a joking manner.

“It didn’t feel that good, but it didn’t affect me in any major way,” Haynes said “(I) can just ignore it or realize my personal taste has no bearing on them and not care.”

Students may have also been made fun of their taste in music from family. But this was also in a jokingly manner.

“My mom may joke around about [my music] as it’s more intense than her [taste in] music,” Chechelnitskiy said. “ The joking is lighthearted, it doesn’t hurt our relationship [at all]. It’s just a joke.”

Some students with different tastes in music have found ways to find other people with the same taste both in and out of school.

“There [are] many forums and communities online, websites, and many chat rooms to talk (about music) in.” Haynes said, “The website Guitartab.org and metalforums.org have lots of like minded people who like metal but also have other interests so that isn’t all they [talk about].

“People who have this certain taste (pop-punk) in music have a more introverted but outgoing personality and you would be able to recognize this by how they articulate themselves,” Chechelnitskiy said.