Music from This Century

I think it's important to stay abreast of the music scene--or at least have some familiarity with it--to avoid terminal old fogeydom. As delightful as a stroll down 1960's memory lane can be, at some point one has to escape from the museum and live today.

So--I spent some quality ear time on The Pulse--SiriusXM bills it as "The 2000's and Today." That seems about right. It doesn't play hip hop or anthing too intense but you do get a nice sampling of today's artists. On The Pulse, an "oldie" is from 2002.

Appealing songs by female singers included Michelle Branch's Are You Happy Now, Sara Bareilles' Uncharted, and Pink's F'n Perfect.

Groups of guys entertained me: Switchfoot's Your Love is a Song, The Fray's Syndicate, Maroon 5's Misery and the amusingly named Fitz and the Tantrums, with MoneyGrabber--which sounded like an old Hall and Oates song.

After my sampling, I think the retro period of choice now has become the 1980's. For pure '80's, you can visit Channel 8 on Sirius or XM, of course, too.

Uncharted is my top pick, and I got a nice "Cold Play" feeling from the Switchfoot song, but I liked them all. Makes me feel young.