If you had asked me three years ago what kind of music I liked, I would have told you, a… If you had asked me three years ago what kind of music I liked, I would have told you, a little bit of everything except country. I’d heard a couple country songs here and there. They sounded like real gun-toting hick music. I assumed that if it wasn’t downright redneck stuff, it was whiny garbage about being dumped and having your dog run over by a pickup truck.

But then the strangest thing happened. My best friend started dating a “country boy.” Of course, I was then forced to listen to the country radio stations whenever I was in the car with her, since this guy’s taste somehow wore off on her. Before I realized it, I knew the lyrics to some of the songs well enough to sing along. And I liked it.

Granted, I grew up in a small, rural town, so maybe I was primed for this musical conversion through some kind of cowpoke genetics. But I grew up listening to my mother’s Zeppelin and Rolling Stones, my brother’s rap, and I soon fell in love with rock. I loved everything from hard to punk to the occasional dreadful pop song. When I discovered country music in the summer of 2001, it was totally unexpected.

Country crept up on me. The music is absolutely infectious. It’ll get under your skin and get stuck in your head almost immediately. You can’t listen to a rowdy country song with a catchy chorus — which defines most of the genre — and not want to belt out a few lines. It is quite possibly the best music to sing along to.

Part of the reason for this is because, contrary to popular belief, there is musical skill involved in this music. No, it’s not blow-you-away complex and innovative instrumentation, but it’s not bland guitar-plucking either. Country falls somewhere in between, in a place where you get a good balance between lyrics you can hear and instruments that can rock out. And, hey, country musicians actually pick up their instruments and play their songs, which is more than I can say for the “musicians” in some genres. And when it comes to singing, country’s got the good stuff. What you hear on the radio or an album is exactly what you get in concert: singers with genuinely pleasing and strong voices. Go to a concert lately and find out that your favorite lead singer’s voice gets a big makeover in the studio? What a shame.

However, I’m not going to deny that some country music really is hick stuff. There are songs about tractors, bars, growing up on farms and loving America. But there are also songs about the very same things you’ll hear in other music genres, like love, being young, being mad, or any of the other random things songwriters come up with. As for the “my dog got run over” stereotype (that I heard only one week ago), it is complete bull. I doubt I’ve ever heard a country song about a dead dog. And when the songs are sappy or sad, they’re no more “depressing” than what you’ll hear in other genres. If anything, country musicians can make these songs enjoyable, too. (Listen to Gary Allan and Tim McGraw).

Of course, I’m not saying all country music is good. Sometimes country’s tendency to tell a long narrative tale in a four-minute song works on my nerves, too. Sometimes the point of the song just seems stupid. Sometimes the over-the-top political message of someone like Toby Keith makes me want to throw up. But do you love every band or singer in your favorite genre? I don’t even love every song by my favorite band (which is not a country band, by the way). It’s really not fair to pigeonhole an entire style based on such anomalies.

Tune to a country station while you’re driving in your car with the windows down. Try some Tim McGraw, George Strait or Kenny Chesney to start your conversion. You can move onto the less mainstream once you get the hang of things.

If the urge to sing doesn’t overpower you after a handful of songs, then I think you need to check your pulse. However, if the genre just really isn’t for you, then at least you’ve given it a fair try. Regurgitated stereotypes aren’t attractive on anyone.