# Do you keep up with current music?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598>\
**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:** 9\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/61 "2011-10-25T01:17:42Z")

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I’m 35 and said yes. I do listen to pop (Billboard hot 100-type stations), but not so much to modern rock anymore. I’ve definitely stopped listening to adult contemporary stations. I don’t need to hear Nickelback and Nickelback clones five times an hour. My favorite current pop star by far is Kesha.

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**Author:** ![Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunshine_and_Smiles)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/62 "2011-10-25T02:24:49Z")

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I’m 22 and I said yes, although there may be a song or two on the radio that I would draw a blank on.

But I can talk anything that would be on Pitchfork all day.

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**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/63 "2011-10-25T03:39:23Z")

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> [@Maserschmidt](#):
>
> I think some of us may have ignored that, because we only read the first sentences of OPs. 😉
> 
> I’m 48 and listen to a lot of what programmers call “college radio”, which means not so much pop. And that also means I’m interested in **Elfkin** ’s list, because I see a lot of things I recognize on it, but some I don’t…

Some of what you don’t recognize is probably from the Industrial, Electronic/Dance, Darkwave & Christian(rock & metal) stations I listen to. _Some_ Rap, Folk, Pop, and Country on there too, but not as much as the others mentioned and Indie, Alternative, Rock, Singer-Songwriter & Lo Fi stuff you would hear on college radio. My tastes are…eclectic.

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**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/64 "2011-10-25T03:47:58Z")

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> [@elfkin477](#):
>
> Some of what you don’t recognize is probably from the Industrial, Electronic/Dance, Darkwave & Christian(rock & metal) stations I listen to. _Some_ Rap, Folk, Pop, and Country on there too, but not as much as the others mentioned and Indie, Alternative, Rock, Singer-Songwriter & Lo Fi stuff you would hear on college radio. My tastes are…eclectic.

If you already explained this on your blog I apologize (I didn’t see it), but are those lists of random streams (like .fm), or a sample of things in your collection that shuffled to the surface, or what? I’m trying to figure out how I might pick through it for something interesting

[And on a tangent, I see you’re in NH: are you familiar with the Maine collective Big Blood?]

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**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/65 "2011-10-25T12:17:55Z")

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I think I’m fairly current. I like Adele, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry (I know, I know.) Some groups I like are the Sheepdogs (sound '70s,) Civil War and the Old Crow Medicine Show.  
This looks like a pretty mellow list now that I see it.

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**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/66 "2011-10-25T12:22:42Z")

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> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> I was doing pretty good for a short while there. We had a new local radio station that played 90s alternative music interspersed with new music that people who like 90s alternative would like (Arcade Fire, Black Keys, Panic!, Airborne Toxic Event, etc) so I got exposed to new music that way.
> 
> But now that station is gone. Replaced with sports talk (srsly) and now there’s nowhere for people like me to go on the radio. So yeah I’m back to just listening to my CD collection.
> 
> I do pick up info here and there. I’m not ignorant to Jay Z or Kanye or Lady Gaga, but I don’t know many if any of their songs. I look stuff up.
> 
> But “follow” or “intentionally keep up with”? Nah.
> 
> I do watch both episodes of [Pop Up Video](http://www.vh1.com/shows/pop_up_video/series.jhtml) every day now so I am filling in the gaps when it comes to my knowledge of pop music.
> 
> I’m 32.

I was really looking forward to seeing Pop Up Video again, but since my stroke and partial vision loss I can’t keep up with it. Looks confusing and chaotic to me.  
But that doesn’t mean I can’t watch Beavis & Butthead. 😛

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**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/67 "2011-10-25T19:45:48Z")

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I don’t keep current - but never really did.

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**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/68 "2011-10-25T19:49:27Z")

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1. I stopped keeping up when rock bands started having DJs and rappers stopped having DJs.

…and my car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that’s the way I likes it!

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**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-keep-up-with-current-music/600598/69 "2011-10-25T20:00:52Z")

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> [@Alessan](#):
>
> [Cornel West.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_West) I actually thought it was pretty awesome that this aging Harvard professor and civil rights activist had succeeded in his second career as a rapper, and was definitely planning on listening to his music at some point in the future. Imagine my disappointment.

Actually, Cornel West _has_ recorded two rap/spoken word albums, although they weren’t successful enough to give him a second career. You can read about the first one in the Washington Post [here](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20011106/aponline142029_000.htm). It was a pretty big deal at the time, him being a Harvard professor and all.

As for the OP, I used to keep up somewhat by listening to the local college radio, but they constantly reshuffle their programming schedule (and graduate their DJs) and lately, all they seem to have on is old people jazz, old people blue grass, old people polka. Fully half the DJs are old-timers from the community instead of, you know, college students.

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