I've always made a point of trying to keep up, stay current, be in the know. Among other things, it is the baby boomer's classic way of trying to feel young - or at least feeling not as old as his or her parents seemed when they were his or her age.

So I try to see the important new films, watch the excellent new TV programs, read the important new books, see the important new plays, visit the important new art exhibits. And even when I miss important new films, TV, books, plays or art - and it happens continually, of course - I make a point of reading about the work and its creators.

Knowing in a general way that you're clueless about current music is like knowing in a general way that you've put on some weight over the last decade or so. Actually getting on the scale can be a shock. So I decided to do the equivalent, to measure myself against the Billboard magazine chart of the top 100 selling albums in America right now.

To my surprise, I'd actually heard of two-thirds of the artists, if only in some stray magazine caption or newspaper paragraph somehow, somewhere, without even really being aware of it. But knowing the names of the artists is nothing more than a measure of being conscious in a media-soaked age.

More to the point, I'm afraid I could identify the music of maybe a quarter of the 100. And a plurality of those are the grizzled veterans on the chart, performers with current hits who are nonetheless old enough to be their fans' grandparents - Eric Clapton, U2, Elton John, Sting, BB King, Madonna, and, the almost-elderly Beatles.

My ignorance follows a predictable pattern as well. Of the 30 or 35 artists I've never heard of, a majority are hip-hop performers, artists with fantastic names like Shaggy, Memphis Bleek, and Lil Bow Wow. I suppose if I were familiar with the music of Lil Bow Wow, it would mean that something was pretty deeply awry - if hip-hop had a mission statement, staying off the radar of 46-year-old white guys, unless they happen to work for record labels, would probably be part of the mission.

Like it or hate it, hip-hop is the truly new musical form of the last quarter century. Hip-hop is a huge, complicated, and enduring cultural force that I want to be able to understand… whether or not I ever actually become a regular listener of tunes like "Party Up" by DMX or "Big Pimpin'" by Jay-Z. Which candidly, I doubt. But like every baby boomer, I don't ever want to feel clueless. I want to feel, in some general cultural sense, forever young.

I'm Kurt Andersen, in Studio 360.