By Juliet Vargas 

Life constantly evolves, and music is no exception. Music follows up with a multitude of genres — R&B, rap, rock, pop, and the list goes on to include the most obscure of genres, like folktronica. 

Students at Miami Lakes Educational Center have experienced a shift in their perception of different genres. Being stuck at home because of COVID-19 has caused this shift, allowing more individuals to open up and discover new flavors of melody’s they would have not previously considered. 

“I’m more open to pop music than I was before. I started listening more to Ed Sheraan and Ariana Grande rather than the rappers I usually listen to like: City Girls, Toosii, Lil Baby,” said Juliana Moquete, a sophomore in the Health Science Academy. 

“I still listen to them, but not as much because some of their songs are explicit and don’t have a lot of deep meaning in their lyrics.”

Music not only transcends time — but various cultures as well. Even if students are well educated in different forms of music, there is always more to discover and enjoy. Students like Whitney Souffrant, are well diversed in the pieces she listens to. 

“Music has always been something that I’ve done my best to be well versed in. Whether it be Kpop or dream pop, they’re all great in their own ways and express different things,” said Souffrant. 

“Within the last year, I’ve allowed myself to venture more into the art of theater. Not only did I fall in love with musicals, but found my true love,” she continued. 

Other students say they haven’t changed their music taste; rather, their scope expanded to accumulate with the isolating pandemic era. This serves to be the case of Laura Castellanos, a junior in the Health academy. To cope with a lonesome year consumed by lockdowns and cancelled events, Laura finds herself listening to more feel-good tunes.

“My music taste hasn’t really changed within the past year. However, I do find myself listening to more up-beat songs to liven my mood since lately, there has not been a lot of joy surrounding the pandemic and not being able to socialize like before,” she explained. 

People now spend more time exploring their interests to fit their circumstances. Music has changed over the course of the pandemic, and so did individualistic tastes.