So That's What the Kids are Watching?

In my first class when the students are asking me questions, I always get a number of questions about various American pop stars and TV shows. While I was never that familiar with many of the people they like here, I've noticed that more and more I have no idea who or what they are talking about. Living outside the US for nearly four years now has left me sort of disconnected from pop culture. I still watch a number of American shows, mostly HBO stuff and a few comedies, but I don't watch the network shows that they like here. I only new the "Vampire Diaries" was a thing because I saw an add for it somewhere on the internet. I actually try to keep up a little with US pop culture, I read Gawker which talks a lot about that sort of nonsense. It's just weird to have someone ask me what's popular in America and I have to answer that I don't really know since its been so long since I lived there. For music it's worse, but than again I probably wouldn't know any of the popular musicians if I did live in the US so I guess that's a wash. The other thing I've learned is that if someone could find a way to sell these shows in China, instead of everyone just downloading them from the internet, they'd make a ton of money since it seems like every student wants to ask me for my opinion on some US sitcom I've never heard of.