Yes, I'm this ignorant of pop culture

While growing up, my musical tastes were very simple: Carnatic music first, Hindustani music next, old Bollywood, then new Bollywood, and finally, towards the end of high school, Santana. Dire Straits was a bad situation to be in, Led Zeppelin was an unworkable flying contraption, Nirvana was a state that Buddhists aspired to, and Boyzone was not a place I wanted to be. Even my mom knew more about the Western music of her time—the Beatles, the Ventures, the Beegees, even Abba. I found pop music fluffy and not enjoyable at all, and I regarded most rock music as noise.

Well, this summer, I've been trying to change that. I've started listening to a couple of rock music channels to try to get a handle on this entire world of music I've not been exposed to. I want to keep a record of how my tastes evolve, and also to be able to get feedback on what groups or songs to check out. If you're not me and you're reading this, please don't kill yourself laughing at my ignorance; take pity instead and try to enlighten me. As they said during Vedic times (in a wholly different context, but we'll ignore that): tamaso mā jyotir gamaya. 

Bands / Songs I've (not dis)liked so far

1. Dire Straits
   
2. "Losing My Religion", R.E.M., and most other songs by them
3. just about all the unplugged Nirvana clips on Youtube
   
4. "Even Flow" and "Jeremy", Pearl Jam
5. "Rockstar", Nickelback 
   
6. All of the album "Final Straw" by Snow Patrol (I need to listen to this on repeat to really pick out the songs I like)
7. "Here Without You", Three Doors Down
8. Almost everything I've heard from Led Zeppelin so far, even though some songs sound a bit dated! "Kashmir" is great though.

Bands / Songs I've disliked so far

1. everything (i.e., two songs) I've heard by Limp Bizkit
2. everything other than "Rockstar" by Nickelback

Okay, more later.