Please.... don't label me an 'expert'!

It's just one of the styles we occasionally have to deal with at the studio, and there are others there FAR more knowledgeable than me. I just try to have a very open attitude about what I listen to, and if it makes my butt move, that's good enough for me!

The hardest thing we have to deal with as older musicians (I'm 51) is the patience to wade through the rivers of cr*p music to find the nuggets of gold. I don't believe that river is any deeper or flows any faster than it did in our youth, but our tastes weren't as finalized by then, and we just listened to everything and made our minds up afterwards. It is MUCH harder, now we have an idea about what we like and dislike, to listen as extensively (especially as now we have satellite and iPods, where you can choose what you listen to [and NOT listen to!]) as we used to.

To not get 'generation gapped' into irrelevance, you almost have to FORCE yourself to listen to general radio, warts and all. Or you NEVER get to hear the new, good stuff until it is SO mainstream, it's practically passé...