Country Music.

I moved to a fairly rural part of North Carolina from a VERY rural part of Northern Minnesota when I was in second grade. I didn't want to leave all of my friends behind and I resented my parents for making me leave for a long time, but eventually I realized that they were just doing what was best for the family and I forgave them. Because I felt like I had been ripped away from everything that I loved I flat out refused to like anything that was popular in my new home. When the other kids wanted to play Football, I'd suggest that we play street hockey. When they wanted to talk about how cool their older brother's "muddin' truck" was I would point out that cars are faster and therefor cooler. When they wanted to listen to country music I would bitch about it until they changed it to something "less lame".
My hatred for country music led me to retreat to opposite sides of the musical spectrum (or so I thought) and eventually helped me find punk rock. I latched onto it as tightly as I could because I KNEW that it was everything that country music wasn't and was cool as a result.
Over a decade later I started working with an older gentleman that flat out refused to listen to anything but country music and would literally walk off the job if I changed the radio station from pop country to anything else. After prolonged exposure to my most hated genre I began to start dissecting each song and I soon found that they aren't all that bad. Obviously some of them really where that bad, but there were enough solid lyrics to convince me that there are real life lessons to be learned through listening to a man singing about working, trucks, women, dogs, love, and drinking.
Recently I stumbled onto a tweet (which I have since misplaced) that stated that all punk rockers eventually get into country music. I guess at some point everyone grows out of their teenage angst and things like family take priority over sticking it to the man. It was when I sat and thought about this that I realized how similar country music and punk rock are on a lyrical level. Yes, the music itself is completely different, but both genres set out to evoke an emotional response. Punk rock makes you want to flip cars over and burn down police stations while country makes you want to work hard to support your family, but when you really think about it, they're both using the power of music to make you feel some sort of emotion. Actually, both emotions are passion, one just happens to be passion for destruction while the other is a passion for creating and nurturing.
I fully understand that you wont all agree with what I've said and that's fine. Maybe music just doesn't effect everyone the same way. These are my experiences and they're being shared here so that others that feel this way can see that they aren't alone. Punk rock is still my favorite genre, but the more I start to settle down the more I grow to accept pop punk even though I've despised it for so long.