A couple of days ago, I saw Martina McBride in concert on PBS. She is a country singer and I don’t really classify my type of music as country but as I watched on, I realized she sang many of the songs that I like.

Martina McBride exudes elegance, grace, beauty, and energy. She is very wholesome and I may say, relates to any age. The concert has young girls, teenagers, young adults, middle aged men and women. I could not believe that they all could sing to her songs.

Country music, as Martina explained in a segment of the show, has really evolved from what it was in the 60s.  She said she grew up hearing traditional country music from her father’s radio.  Now a country singer herself, she gets to sing unconventional variations of country music.

I have always preferred pop as my kind of music. But nowadays, it is really hard to tell if the song is country or not. Especially for me who doesn’t have a trained ear of what country music sounds like. One way I know it is country is by knowing the singer. Like if it’s by Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, and Shania Twain, then, it is a country song.

As opposed to pop music, country music upholds the normalcy of people’s lives. Sometimes, pop music can be anti-culture, destructive, and disturbing. And I’m not only speaking of the songs but of the singers as well.

My favorite song by Martina McBride is “This One’s For The Girls.” The song honors women of every age; women from all over the world living different lives. It doesn’t matter where they come from or what situation they are in. Women are universally the same with the way they dream, live, and love. And for what they are, they are all beautiful.

The concert was televised under the show dubbed Great Performances. It is one of the programs of PBS to raise funds for the station.