this is inspired by something in The Automatic thread.

I often find myself in conversations ith people, at work for example, with people who don't listen to much music. They pretty quickly find out that I like 'indie music' and so then they often say something like 'oh yeah, I really love Keane and Orson!'. What do you say? Because I normally say 'oh yeah, they're pretty good, yeah, Somewhere Only We Know and that'. I want to encourage people to listen to and enjoy music, so is this wrong? I don't want to crush their enthusiasm.

Would any of the rest of you say 'oh, those bands aren't really my thing?' or alternatively, 'I really don't like those bands?'

I do the same thing when people who aren't really into music ask me which specific bands I like - I end up saying 'oh, I like indie music, you know, like...er...Razorlight? Coldplay?'. It feels a bit wrong doing this, but wouldn't it be worse to say 'oh, I like Broken Social Scene and Modest Mouse' and face an awkward silence?