I just finished reading this on the WSJ’s parenting blog:
But between work and family, I’m finding little time to keep in touch with popular culture. My iPod is mostly a mix of 80s tunes and bands that were popular when I was in high school and college in the mid-90s; I can’t remember the last time I purchased anything by a new artist.
Being in contact with single, sometimes hipper colleagues in the workplace often reminds me just how out of touch I’ve become. The other day I had to turn to Google to find out that Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty were singers after they came up in conversation with coworkers.
Things aren’t that bad in our household. Yes, my iPod has its fair share of tunes from the 80s and 90s (and also the 50s, 60s, and 70s). But I have plenty of 00s music on the server at home, including Amy Winehouse and a number of her contemporaries. Leah and I are still plugged in enough that we have a certain feel for what’s going on “out there,” and besides, information on cool new music is only ever a podcast away.
Whether we’ll be able to maintain any hold on pop culture going forward remains to be seen. Anything worth looking at is on the Web these days, it seems; it’s been years, literally, since I’ve seen a music video on MTV. I know people are still shooting them. Where are they being played? Remember when MTV first started, and you could sit for an entire day and see nothing but videos? Sure, you saw U2, The Fixx, The Buggles, and Huey Lewis about 18 times each, but at least it was videos. Huey, why hast thou forsaken me?