I listen to current pop music, but as someone who believes that it’s not music if the words are spoken menacingly and you need a computer operating certificate to play the instruments (sorry, I think rap sucks!), I find that the current “pop” acts I like aren’t actually popular, because the traditionalist acts of today, except for the odd performer such as Adele or Mumford & Sons (whom I both like) don’t reflect the mass tastes of today’s kids. A kid who listens to Kanye West on a CD player is far more hip than anyone who listens to the Alabama Shakes on a Smartphone. I get the impression that rock and roll is circling the drain and today’s rock acts can’t prevent that. One current artist I like is Matthew E. White, even though his latest single tells a truth about 21st-century rock and roll that most people don’t want to hear. It’s called “Rock and Roll Is Cold.”