College music fanatics are a unique breed of people. They have an unquenchable appetite for new and cutting edge music. They rebel against pop music trends and leap at any opportunity to bash the corporate music industry.

They compete to see who can discover the most obscure bands, go to the most bizarre concerts and amass the largest CD collection filled with the most eccentric music imaginable.

College music is always ahead of its time, and its fans are bohemians, striving to feed their passion and find meaning in a pop-dominated music world.

This weekend, as the eyes of America turned to the Big Apple for the start of the Mets-Yankees Subway Series, over 1,000 bands converged in New York City for the 20th Annual CMJ Music Marathon. Artists like Moby, Jets to Brazil, Bright Eyes and At the Drive In performed at more than 50 live music venues.

I was there, and after taking in the experience, I can honestly say there couldn’t be a better time to be listening to college music. Sure, the 1980s saw bands like R.E.M. and the Pixies banging out some of the greatest music in rock history, but those bands have already made their mark. The new revolution is just beginning.

We arrived in New York Thursday afternoon, hopped in a taxi and headed into Manhattan. Assistant A&E editor Jon Dahlager and I had been anticipating our trip for weeks, and we’d spent time on the airplane planning which shows we were going to catch and what panels we’d attend. After settling into our hotel room on the Lower East Side somewhere between Chinatown and Little Italy, we took the subway uptown to check in at the convention and grab our admission badges. The badges would be our ticket into almost any club in the city.

The CMJ Music Marathon is hosted by College Music Journal, a company that publishes a trade publication for college radio, and a consumer magazine titled CMJ New Music Report. The convention features panels on college radio, music journalism, publicity, and nearly every facet of the music industry.

We came with the intention of catching as much live music as possible and of course to learn a few things from the daytime panels. But one of our primary reasons for going was to tag along with Ames rap funk band Mr. Plow, which was given the opportunity to perform at one of the festival’s showcases.

Plow played Thursday night at a club called Shine, and the band seemed to go over well with the New York crowd. It was a short but energetic 30-minute set. Most of the bands playing at CMJ are signed to record labels, and playing the showcase will surely provide Mr. Plow with a good amount of exposure that could conceivably land them a record deal.

A good portion of our trip was spent on the subway, navigating through the city from venue to venue. On Friday, we caught up with DJs from Iowa State’s campus radio station KURE to take in a showcase from DeSoto Records, and watched the Washington, D.C. post-punk bands. The Dismemberment Plan and Burning Airlines play a captivating show at NYU. Then it was on to the Knitting Factory, where Athens, Ga. band The Masters of Hemispheres offered up a cheerful set of indie pop that went on far past 2 a.m.

Saturday was highlighted by a late afternoon showcase from Drive Thru Records that featured emo-pop group A New Found Glory, who projected one of the more energetic performances of the weekend.

A spine-tingling emotional set from Boston-based indie-rockers The Sheila Divine followed across town at Wetlands. The Sheila Divine played the M-Shop last year, and they are definitely one to keep an eye on as they are on the brink of garnering national attention.

Next we tried to get into a show by Omaha band Bright Eyes, whose frontman Conor Oberst is writing some of the most intense profound songs in current college music. The buzz surrounding Bright Eyes is so huge, we couldn’t even get into the show because it was full long before we arrived.

Instead, we headed over to Threadwaxing Space, a SoHo venue that doubles as an art gallery, where feminist indie band Le Tigre were performing.

Hundreds of people crammed into the small space to catch former Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna’s feminist political indie rock machine. The crowd danced uncontrollably as the group punched through an hour-long set of politically-drenched songs.

It was the last concert we caught during CMJ weekend, and the night was capped off as Kathleen Hanna urged everyone in the audience to catch the do-it-yourself spirit of indie rock, launch new labels and convert the masses to cutting-edge music. I left New York with a renewed faith and a desire to spread the gospel of college music.

We’re living in tough musical times. More money is being made every day as record executives value pop sensibility and mass-marketing potential over quality and innovation. But soon enough, something will rise that will dethrone the ‘N Syncs and Christina Aguileras that now hold all the power in the music industry.

If you’re bored of the current state of popular music, there’s only one solution. Stay ahead of the game. Tune in to college radio. Support club shows. Surf the Internet. Do anything in your power to expose yourself to cutting-edge music.