# Do you keep up with current music? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 24, 2011, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598 "2011-10-24T02:52:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/1 "2011-10-24T02:52:37Z")
Poll coming. Just curious, do you listen to the latest songs? Not all of them of course, but enough to consider yourself fairly knowledgeable about modern music? I’m thinking mostly of songs played on terrestrial\* stations like pop, rock, rap, and country, but it if you keep up with the latest classical that’s fine too. As for me, my wife and I watch what little music videos there are on MTV and VH1 in the morning hours. I also listen to a rock station, mainly for a radio show they have, but I’ll listen to some songs too. So I’m fairly up-to-date on modern pop and rock. \*Although it might not be technically correct, terrestrial radio is what most Americans call radio that isn’t satellite radio. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/2 "2011-10-24T02:57:13Z")
The wife and I are both in our 50s and keep up with it to a certain extent. We can’t be arsed to buy CDs or download much music, so we just keep the radio tuned – Western music – and watch MTV Taiwan. By doing that, we do keep up a bit. Plus there’s a lot of hot young Chinese and Korean singers too, mmmmm. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/3 "2011-10-24T03:02:09Z")
Nope. I gave up on it in the mid-90s. My recent music purchases have been by “classic” acts such as the most recent releases by Bachman and Turner, Skynyrd, and the Eagles. I’ll be the old man holed up in my house holding on to my Aerosmith and Van Halen albums lamenting that all current music sounds like shit. I’ll be the cynical asshole like Stan in South Park literally hearing farting and No. 2 noises coming from the radio. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/4 "2011-10-24T03:03:35Z")
I’ll be 30 in January, and listen to a lot of music, but almost none of it is through the radio. I mostly use online sources to try to find stuff similar to what I already like, as well as friends, and TV and movie soundtracks. Most of what I like are recent acts, just not hugely popular mainstream ones. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/5 "2011-10-24T03:28:56Z")
Sheer amount of music these days overwhelms me. Oh, I hardly ever listen to radio much so that doesn’t help much. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/6 "2011-10-24T04:03:19Z")
I’m 47 and voted, “I’m 40 to 54 and I keep [pretty] current.” I listen to teen-oriented music stations quite a bit, and my 14-year-old son also brings songs to my attention that he thinks I might like. My iPod has stuff by John Mayer, Lady Gaga, Kei$ha, Gavin DeGraw, LMFAO, Bruno Mars, Kanye West and others of their ilk. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/7 "2011-10-24T04:06:07Z")
I keep current in a very specific underground niche genre. I’m not that knowledgeable about modern mainstream music that would be on the radio. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/8 "2011-10-24T04:17:20Z")
If some band shows up Friday mornings on the Today Show, then I guess I’m current. I listen to a contemporary radio station in the car, but this summer all that non-stop Keisha and Katy Perry frightened me off. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/9 "2011-10-24T04:20:12Z")
I’m 31… I’m not going to vote, but I can explain. I stoped keeping current in the late 90’s. Alternative (Smashing Pumpkins, Live, POTUSA, Pre Kid-A Radiohead etc) was that last music I actively kept up with. It was the most recent thing that could be possibly be called pop that I would have (and did) paid to see. Having said that, at work they have the Top40 station on all effin day so I end up hearing most of the pop songs over and over and over and over\* from my office so I’m am more then familar with what’s popular at any given time. After a given song has been in heavy rotation for more then a two weeks or so I can tell you who it is and once that person or group has been around for more then a year I can recognize them on TV or pick out a new song by them without being told who it is (provided they don’t have a unique sound or look that gives them away from the first time they hit the airwaves). If it wasn’t for the station that they listen to at work, I would be utterly clueless. In my car I have XM and without that, I would have the Classic Rock station on. So, I don’t know who’s on tour or who’s at Lalapalooza. When the new CD is coming out. I don’t know who’s up for Grammy’s or even when the Grammy’s are. I couldn’t tell you what band just broke up or who Gwen Stefani is dating…but I’m am famililar with most of the pop songs on the air at any given time. \*from time to time there’s a song that will really rub me the wrong way and I will come out of the office and change the station or just turn the radio off if no one’s around to notice it. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/10 "2011-10-24T04:28:03Z")
43 and I stopped a few years back. Which isn’t to say I don’t occasionally check out something new, but I don’t really _keep up_ like I once did. The most modern thing I own is probably the last album by **The Raconteurs**. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/11 "2011-10-24T05:29:11Z")
1. Why yes, [I do](http://threateningloveletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Monthly%20Music%20Roundup). ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/12 "2011-10-24T05:40:10Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > or who Gwen Stefani is dating Since you like 90’s grunge/alternative then you’ll probably remember be familiar with Bush lead singer Gavin Rossdale. Stefani is married to him. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/13 "2011-10-24T05:42:14Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > 1. Why yes, [I do](http://threateningloveletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Monthly%20Music%20Roundup). Uhm, sorry for this stupid question, but are you a music reviewer? ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/14 "2011-10-24T05:45:04Z")
I hire a man to [do it for me](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRJILK3NxSM&ob=av3n). Actually, I’m constantly discovering new artists, but few of them are going to the top of the charts. Radio has become useless as a source of new music because, if I find a song that appeals, I know it will be repeated every half hour, all day, for weeks. And I will soon hate it. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/15 "2011-10-24T05:46:54Z")
> [@Ephemera](#): > > I’ll be 30 in January, and listen to a lot of music, but almost none of it is through the radio. I mostly use online sources to try to find stuff similar to what I already like, as well as friends, and TV and movie soundtracks. > > Most of what I like are recent acts, just not hugely popular mainstream ones. I’ll be 33 in December and this is what I do. The only radio I listen to, if I can help it, are my Pandora stations. I love Pandora. It’s turned me on to so much great stuff, old and new. I wouldn’t know what exactly is popular. ---
**Author:** ![GovernmentMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@GovernmentMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GovernmentMan)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/16 "2011-10-24T06:22:43Z")
Under 25 and no I don’t. Here’s what I listen to : [http://www.last.fm/user/solecontroller](http://www.last.fm/user/solecontroller) As you can see, not much new stuff. I haven’t heard a single album released in the last several years and very few from the last 5 or so. I don’t pay attention to music at all. I don’t read any music sites, magazines, blogs, or visit any music forums, and I don’t listen to the radio. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/17 "2011-10-24T06:29:10Z")
I’m 37 and until a year ago, I thought Kanye West and Cornel West were the same person. So… no. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/18 "2011-10-24T06:49:03Z")
Actively? Not so much, ever have. But I run into new music through various venues - the fact that a lot of the stuff I like is anime and video game soundtracks helps - but I never listen to the radio if I can help it, and since we switched cable companies, and thus lost Much More Music and Cliptrip (a show on MMM that play(ed/s) music by artists from around the world), going to ordinary music feeding channels is out of the question. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/19 "2011-10-24T06:50:05Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I’m 37 and until a year ago, I thought Kanye West and Cornel West were the same person. So… no. Heard of Kanye, never heard of Cornel, but I’m not into rap/hip-hop or R&B. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/20 "2011-10-24T06:59:49Z")
I use to think I was becoming like an old man, “All modern songs suck.” Until I realized that I liked plenty of songs on MTV and VH1 and it’s just that most Oregon rock and top 40 stations suck (sorry fellow Oregonians, but they do). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598.md?page=2)