Here at Grayslake Central, it seems kids always have headphones in, whether it’s to block out the people around them or just to entertain themselves to get through the day. The student body is very diverse in this category and everyone has a different taste in what they like to listen to. Student tastes vary greatly; they could be listening to something that comes from their culture, a podcast that helps get them through difficult times, or a song that doesn’t have significant meaning to them and they just like how it sounds. To get more insight into what students are listening to and how it impacts them, a few GCHS students were asked exactly that. Senior Garrett Johnson said “My favorite genre of music right now is underground hip hop and rap [because] it sounds cool and it’s throwback stuff.” He also emphasized how different music helps him in different ways throughout the day. He said that he listens to music “at least two hours a day” and that “music helps to motivate me because I listen to a lot of music at the gym. But [music] also helps me if I’m studying;” he mentioned that “[he] listens to jazz when [he’s] studying and at the gym [he] listens to rock and hip hop.” For many students, music is a way for them to get away from their issues for a while and to comfort themselves. Junior Josh Miller said he enjoys listening to music nd watching shows in his spare time. He talked about his favorite genre being rap because of the beats that are included in the songs and the unique style that most artists approach their music with. He also went on to talk about how in the category of rap his “favorite rapper is Polo G because he tries to be different from others” and Josh likes his catchy beats. In terms of other things that he enjoys listening to he said that he likes to watch a lot of YouTube. On YouTube, Josh enjoys watching almost anything basketball-related. “On average I probably listen to five hours a day of YouTube and music.” Although that number seems high, according to Statista the average person listens to 26.9 hours of music a week. This comes out to be a little less than four hours a day, which makes Josh’s five not much of an outlier. Junior Muhammad Ulaqas said his favorite genre was nothing specifically, and that he likes a lot of different types of music, but for his favorite artist, he said it would have to be Shawn Mendes because of the way he sounds and the message that he conveys through his music. Although Muhammad listens to a significant amount of music he went on to say he doesn’t watch much YouTube or listen to any podcasts. For a single day, he stated that “usually [he] listens to an hour to an hour and a half of music each day.” Getting the perspective of students’ taste in music and YouTube categories provided insight into the wide variety of different backgrounds and opinions at Grayslake Central. Having such a large spectrum of diversity in things like music is a great thing to have at school and hopefully we continue to educate ourselves on the things that interest both others and ourselves.