Q: Dear Lara, in the last couple of months my musical taste has completely changed. I went from listening to the top hits on the pop charts to listening to more “indie” music. Unfortunately, my friends, who still listen to the same music I used to, haven’t been taking this so well. They call me a “hipster” (and not in a good way) and “emo,” and they tease me when I pick the music. At first it didn’t bother me, but now it really is getting on my nerves. Got any way to deal with this?

A: Musical taste is exactly that: taste. To me, music is one of the most important things in my life because it can affect my mood, my style of writing, and sometimes even my style of dressing. A little bit before I started high school, I saw a music video for the song “Black Balloon” by the Goo Goo Dolls, and my entire musical selection went from America’s top 40 to mainstream, underground soft rock. This was around the time that punk music was becoming very commercialized, and everyone wanted to be Avril Lavigne. Of course, I got made fun of more than anyone should for music, and for a while I was too afraid to listen to music that I truly enjoyed. It was almost like a pause on my musical development. Eventually, I got back on track and began to listen to the alternative music I really like, but now I look back and think how pointless it was for me to not have listened to the music I truly enjoyed. A lot of the bands I like now are from back then and no longer tour or have live shows, so I missed out on that. Although I would like to think that my musical taste is pretty spot on, I just imagine how much broader my musical selection could have expanded. So, basically, what I’m trying to say is that music should be something you choose and should not be chosen for you. If you’re like me, it will eventually become part of your personality, and you would never want anyone to change who you really are.