What the Kids Were Listening To

Last weekend, I went to my first college football tailgate in years. OK, truth be told, I simply walked through the parking lot while others were tailgating. There was a large group of fraternity and sorority types, all in crazy costumes, and as we walked by they were all dancing to a song I didn't recognize. It had folksy-sounding verses offset by a stadium-dance chorus. It sounded popular enough, so I went to billboard.com and it took me all of two minutes to discover what it was: "Wake Me Up" by Swedish EDM DJ Avicii. And that shows you just how out of touch I've become with mainstream pop music. I mean, this song was huge around the world all summer, and somehow it eluded me.