So Much Music!

The other day, I spent about two hours talking with some young people (early 20's) who I met at a Japanese conversation group. I could barely understand anything because my knowledge of Japanese is quite rudimentary, but I could tell that the young American guy had begun listing his favorite groups, in response to my rudimentary question in Japanese, "What's your favorite music?". Whereas I consider myself "fairly" knowledgeable about pop music, I did not recognize one of his groups! The truth is that there has been an explosion of music in recent years. Many, many new groups have sprung up. And some of these groups are in secret little niches within certain narrow genres. "Indie" music is one such category. Some of the music I enjoy (Josh Woodward, Stereomovers, etc.) are not generally well-known. Then there are the super groups, like Coldplay, Green Day, etc. that everyone knows. As for me, I have become fascinated by lots of older groups, such as Cheap Trick, Crowded House, and Nirvana.