A Poll: The Most Famous _______

In My Humble Opinion
121

That said, what do you believe is the Most Famous

  1. Painting - Mona Lisa
  2. Piece of Sculpture - Winged Victory
  3. Instance of Classical Architecture - Parthenon
  4. Instance of Medieval Architecture - St. Peter’s Cathedral
  5. Instance of Modern Architecture - Empire State Building
  6. Piece of “Classical” Music (the genre, not the period) - Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
  7. Piece of Jazz Music - ?
  8. Piece of “Pop” Music - Moon River
  9. Piece of Rock Music - ?
  10. Piece of Blues Music - ?
  11. Piece of Folk Music (English language) - Alice’s Restaurant
  12. Piece of Latin Music - Livin’ La Vida Loca
  13. Novel - Don Quixote
  14. Poem - ?
  15. Movie - Casablanca
  16. Stage Play – Drama - Romeo and Juliet
  17. Stage Play – Musical - The Sound of Music
  18. TV Drama Series - Law & Order
  19. TV Comedy Series - Seinfeld
  20. TV News Program - CBS Evening News

After you’ve answered all 20 and Submitted your answers, go ahead and see how closely your picks are to those of the other Dopers who have replied.

122

Just time for one:
Jazz: “These Foolish Things” with John Coltrane
Can’t be beat.

123

Some of these I really think are “The Most Famous” examples of the subject.
Others are “The First Thing That Came To Mind”.

  1. Painting
    The Mona Lisa
  2. Piece of Sculpture
    David
  3. Instance of Classical Architecture
    The Coliseum of Rome
  4. Instance of Medieval Architecture
    St. Peter’s Basilica
  5. Instance of Modern Architecture
    The Eiffel Tower
  6. Piece of “Classical” Music (the genre, not the period)
    Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
  7. Piece of Jazz Music
    “Take Five”, by Dave Brubeck
  8. Piece of “Pop” Music
    “Beat It”, by Michael Jackson
  9. Piece of Rock Music
    “Johnny B. Goode”, by Chuck Berry
  10. Piece of Blues Music
    “I’m a Man”, by Bo Diddley
  11. Piece of Folk Music (English language)
    “If I Had a Hammer”, by Pete Seeger
  12. Piece of Latin Music
    “The Macarena”, by Los Del Rio
  13. Novel
    “A Tale of Two Cities”, by Charles Dickens
  14. Poem
    “Hiawatha”, by Longfellow
  15. Movie
    Gone With The Wind
  16. Stage Play – Drama
    The Mousetrap
  17. Stage Play – Musical
    Phantom of the Opera
  18. TV Drama Series
    Law & Order
  19. TV Comedy Series
    Seinfeld
  20. TV News Program
    60 Minutes
124

…

125
  1. Painting ------------------The Scream by Munch
  2. Piece of Sculpture — Venus de Milo
  3. Instance of Classical Architecture —Parthenon
  4. Instance of Medieval Architecture
  5. Instance of Modern Architecture --Sydney Opera House
  6. Piece of “Classical” Music (the genre, not the period) Rossini- William Tell Overture
  7. Piece of Jazz Music
  8. Piece of “Pop” Music Beatles- Yesterday
  9. Piece of Rock Music Rock around the clock
  10. Piece of Blues Music
  11. Piece of Folk Music (English language)
  12. Piece of Latin Music
  13. Novel Catch 22
  14. Poem
  15. Movie Titanic
  16. Stage Play – Drama Hamlet
  17. Stage Play – Musical
  18. TV Drama Series CSI
  19. TV Comedy Series Friends
  20. TV News Program
126

Ah, a *second *person who doesn’t think the Mona Lisa (AKA La Joconde, La Gioconda) is tha most famous painting. Our consensus is starting to crumble!

And, on retrospect I would substitute the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris for St. Peter’s Basilica in the “Medeival Architecture” category.

127

I counted 11-15 but somehow ended up with only 51 votes. So I missed 7 people.

I don’t know how that happened, but here are the results from 51 randomly selected samples:

Folk Music

This land is your land (12)
Blowin in the wind (11)
Scarborough Fair (6)
Greensleeves (3)
O Danny Boy (2)
If I had a Hammer (2)
Bridge over troubled waters (2)
Puff the Magic Dragon (2)
Kumbayah (2)
She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain
Whiskey in a Jar
Camptown Races
We shall overcome
Happy birthday to you
I’ve been working on the Railroad
Alice’s Restaurant
Yankee Doodle
The Wild Rover

Latin Music

La Bomba (7)
Abstain (6)
La Macarena (5)
Oye Como Va (5)
La Cucaracha (5)
La Vida Loca (5)
Guantanamera (3)
Black Magic Woman (2)
Ave Maria (2)
Adeste Fideles (2)
Girl from Ipanema (2)
Babalu
Something by Selena
Feliz Navidad
Tequila
Besame Mucho
Conga
Lambada

Novel

War and Peace (11)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (6)
Catcher in the Rye (3)
The Great Gatsby (2)
The Three Musketeers (2)
A Tale of Two Cities (2)
Ulyssses (2)
Lord of the Rings (2)
Crime and Punishment (2)
Pride and Prejudice (2)
1984 (2)
Abstain (2)
Les Miserables
The old man and the sea
Don Quixote
David Copperfield
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Catch 22
Tom Sawyer
Gone with the wind
The Grapes of Wrath
Dante’s Inferno
Harry Potter
Great Expectations
Count of Monte Cristo

Poem

Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” (9)
Rudyard Kipling’s “If” (5)
Homer’s “The Odyssey” (3)
Twas the Night Before Christmas (2)
Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (3)
There once was a Man from Nantucket (2)
Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken (2)
Shakespeare’s Sonnet XVIII (2)
Abstain (2)
Homer’s The Illiad
Blake’s “The Tiger”
Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est”
Shel Silverstein’s “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout”
Matsuo Bashō’s Frog Haiku
Carl Sandberg’s “The Fog”
Joyce Kilmer’s Trees
Here I sit, All Broken Hearted
Mary Had A Little Lamb
She Walks in Beauty
Footprints in the Sand
Song of Solomon
The 23rd Psalm of the Bible
Leaves of Grass
The Wasteland
Ozymandias
Longfellow’s Hiawatha
Flander’s Field
There was an old woman from…
Leaves of Grass
To a Mouse

Movie

Gone with the Wind (13)
Casablanca (12)
Wizard of Oz (5)
Star Wars (4)
Citizen Kane (3)
The Godfather (3)
Titanic (3)
Psycho (2)
Animal House
Passion of the Christ
Lawrence of Arabia
Shawshank Redemption
Lord of the Rings

128
  1. Painting Mona Lisa
  2. Piece of Sculpture The Thinker
  3. Instance of Classical Architecture Acropolis
  4. Instance of Medieval Architecture Basilica
  5. Instance of Modern Architecture Guggenheim Museum
  6. Piece of “Classical” Music (the genre, not the period) Beethoven’s 5th
  7. Piece of Jazz Music I Got Rhythm
  8. Piece of “Pop” Music Yesterday
  9. Piece of Rock Music Rock Around The Clock
  10. Piece of Blues Music God Bless The Child
  11. Piece of Folk Music (English language) If I Had A Hammer
  12. Piece of Latin Music La Cucaracha
  13. Novel Tom Sawyer
  14. Poem The Raven
  15. Movie Gone With The Wind
  16. Stage Play – Drama Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolf?
  17. Stage Play – Musical Sound Of Music
  18. TV Drama Series Bonanza
  19. TV Comedy Series I Love Lucy
  20. TV News Program Edward R. Murrow
    Forgive spelling errors above.
129

Many thanks, Lakai for the summary. Nicely done. I’d say the numbers are not all that important after 50 or so, as the “consensus” (if any) ought to start settling out after that many opinions have been registered.

I can only hope that the Dopers who have posted after the summaries went up can do their own estimating of how their posts fit in with the overall results.