jonvech

it all really depends on who YOU are. If you want to talk current music then things we have going today that are pretty popular are indie rock/alternative, straight radio mainstream rock, there's the punk/emo thing, there's hip hop (good and bad haha) so on and so forth. If i had to personally recommend things it would be like this:

you have your indie rock bands/artists: bright eyes, white stripes, spoon, elliot smith (R.I.P.), the national, and many more

you have alternative: Radiohead, smashing pumpkins, Coldplay, muse, nirvana, oasis, the smiths etc. (mind you there are many subgenres of alternative such as alt-metal, alt-rap, britpop etc.)

you have punk and post punk: the pixies, joy division, the clash, ramones, etc.

you have classic rock and oldies: led zeppelin, the who, pink floyd, queen, u2, the beatles, beach boys, bob dylan, neil young etc.

you have metal (older and newer subgenres): black sabbath, metallica, tool, mastadon etc.

you have rap ( also with its various subgenres): nas, public enemy, N.W.A., kanye west, outkast,

then there are more underground genres like electronica, ambient, post rock etc.: aphex twin, squarepusher, sigur ros, explosions in the sky

most of these artists are artists i listen to, however i am a music LOVING 20 year old, you may be of a different age group, for the most part i hope those genres help, once you find a genre you like, then you go from there finding different bands in that genre, it all really depends on what type of person you are, radiohead in my opinion is a step in the right direction though