Dang, I Am Officially Old

This week the Music Machinery blog, which is apparently a thing, posted this item of interest. It's a map of the U.S. listing the most popular singers and/or bands in each of the fifty states.

Interesting. The most popular entertainer in my home state of Indiana is Blake Shelton. I think I've heard that name before. It sounds vaguely familiar. Is that a man or a woman? Maybe I haven't heard of them after all.

Funny that upper New England seems firmly entrenched in the past, as their favorite bands-- Phish, Grateful Dead, R.E.M., Neil Young, Nirvana and Rush-- are all at least twenty years old. Far more in some cases. Some of them aren't even together anymore!

I suppose it's inevitable that The Boss is the favorite band of Jersey.

Looking over the rest of the map, I recognize just a scant fifteen of the country's favorite bands. I've never even seen the names of the rest of them before, much less heard their music.

I fully admit that I don't listen to music much anymore. At least not any new music, the majority of which I think is utter crap. Still, you'd think I'd have a passing familiarity with a few of these bands just through osmosis. I don't watch reality TV but I've heard of the Kardashians and Honey Boo Boo.

I don't even think some of them are real bands. Ginger Kwan? J Boog? Hinder? I think someone just took some of those magnetic poetry tiles and tossed them at their refrigerator door and wrote down whatever stuck.

Dang, I'm getting old.