http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011 ... everythingImagine if you'd seen everything good, or if you knew about everything good. Imagine if you really got to all the recordings and books and movies you're "supposed to see." Imagine you got through everybody's list, until everything you hadn't read didn't really need reading. That would imply that all the cultural value the world has managed to produce since a glob of primordial ooze first picked up a violin is so tiny and insignificant that a single human being can gobble all of it in one lifetime. That would make us failures, I think.
I personally make the strongest effort to be "well versed" in modern music and, despite focusing almost entirely on music of the last 50-60 years and mostly a handful of genres within that time span, the daunting realization that you'll never hear (much less absorb) even a small fraction of the good stuff is at times quite overwhelming.