I'm also a fan of stylistic diversity in music. It seems more common here on Audiogon than in most places, which is one of the joys of this community. While the world seems to be moving inexorably toward catering to narrow tastes, many of the members here seem more likely to embrace the new and different.
As radio and internet station programming has generally (tho not always) gotten narrower over time to accommodate more efficient advertising economics, it's getting harder to find satisfying outlets that wander around genres. The diversety of the material is probably the main reason that I really like American Idol. Even if the performances are sometimes lacking, it's one of the few mass outlets that promotes stylistic diversity in music. In this age of narrowcasting, anything that features stylistic breadth is IMHO a good thing.
On another front, I'm a guitar student and my instructor laughs at some of the ground I've asked him to cover in the 4-5 years we've been doing this. We've touched on rock, blues, jazz, classical, fingerstyle, bluegrass, mainstream country, funk, rockabilly, western swing, etc. He came recommended by a friend who had also taken up the guitar at just about the same time. That student has rarely strayed from Metallica.
OTOH, that guy is a wildly successful hedge fund manager who has just built an insane 18,000 sq. ft. house that includes a performance stage w/PA and lighting in the back yard, a huge ornate theater room, a dedicated guitar room, a dedicated listening room, a video game-pinball room, and an amazing indoor/outdoor pool to go along with the full-blown observatory for computer tracked star-gazing. Hmmm, maybe I should re-focus exclusively on Metallica going forward. Upon reflection, I'm not so sure about this diversity thing after all....
Marty