Don’t know, don’t really care either.
Yes, well, I think it’s techically sampling but it does include some talentless girl shrilling through the chorus of the Annie song. Why? To torture us.
My point was not that people of your ilk are particularly uninterested in non-White artists, but rather that you don’t feel obligated to participate in society because of many of the reasons I mentioned above.
Let me clear, I am not talking about trivia like who is married to whom. I am talking about have no idea who two (or three if you include Prince) of the more popular and influential musicians of the last 25 years are. Particularly when they both have put out albums recently, are constantly in the news, hang out with the current president of the US, and are utilized by some of the world’s biggest companies for advertisements. To me that is not just ignorance by happenstance; it’s actively deciding that certain things and people are not worth knowing about or researching despite the fact that said things are influencing the world around you with your without your appreciation and/or understanding.
Aside from maybe hearing some music you may enjoy, you get to better understand our culture, the world, and your fellow man. Like it or not, both Beyonce and Jay-Z, shape the world we live in, and the culture we have to a relatively large extent. There is a generation of people whose dress, musical taste, etc. were shaped in large part due to the two of them.
Like I said, time and circumstances don’t always allow for everyone to have a deep interest in every popular person or fad. However, I do expect people who can to care enough about what motivates, moves, excites, entertains, and influences their fellow man to feel somewhat obligated to brush up on trends and important people. Especially since actively not doing so is a privilege most people don’t have, and because doing so requires less time and effort than ever.
Maybe, but you have to wonder how different the choices you would have had to make in order to have “accidentally” avoided knowing anything about The Beatles in decades past.
Well, I think it is kinda shameful that as Americans in this day and age, we have access to near instant access to information that gives us the ability to understand, communicate, and empathize with one another in ways we never would have before, yet we spend more and more time happily walling ourselves off from anything we might find unpalatable. That kind of outlook has demonstrable consequences that are largely deleterious IMO. Yes, the world will not crumble because some guy doesn’t know who Jay-Z is, but it might when a critical mass of individuals are completely oblivious to the things others around them care about. When there is no expectation of basic cultural literacy, society suffers.
I know a good amount about most of those things; particularly those that have had the impact of a musician like Jay-Z. That said, I don’t claim to be an expect on those things, or that you couldn’t compile some list of things that would not be on my radar. But I would bet that they are not nearly as visible as either Jay-Z or Beyonce, and that if they were, I would not feel my ignorance was some source of pride.
Because these people impact the world around you. Not only by influencing trends, but also changing the perspectives people have. I am not saying you need to memorize his lyrics or even buy his album, but knowing who he is is part of recognizing the people who affect real and lasting change in this country. Society function and evolves in large part on people having a common basis of understanding. Even if we all have different tastes and hobbies, I expect others to make and effort to understand what makes America what it is.
Didn’t know she was married, much less to whom. I also only had the shakiest idea whom Beyoncé is; “some singer I think” summed up my knowledge of her.
I barely know who Beyoncé is, let alone her spouse.
Lighten up, Francis.
Frankly I preferred the girl chorus to Jay-Z’s arhythmical ramblings in that song.
I can’t stand the music of either but I did know they were married. Because I live in this world and I try to pay attention to it. Not really that hard since they are right there on the homepage of the top websites so often.
Hate to quote myself but I decided to test it. First page I try, yahoo. Right on the front page there is a link to an article. “Beyonce shares an adorable photo of Blue Ivy. There have been reports that Beyonce and Jay-Z are expecting another child-and another that says they are not but one thing is clear…,”
That’s without clicking on anything. It’s kind of like your parents (grandparents whatever) sticking their nose in the air and saying “Beatles? Never heard of em.”
Well, back in a smaller world, my grandmother astonished me one day when visiting, pointing to Brian Jones in a newspaper picture of the Rolling Stones I had taped on my door, and taking him to task for knocking up some girl! It had been in the paper, she read it, she knew who these Rolling Stones were. I think a whole lot of people knew who each individual Beatle was, that they were from Liverpool in England, and the oldest, John Lennon, was the married one. It was a smaller world, and the Beatles took up a lot of it. Newspaper articles, magazines, teen fan magazines, the huge important appearance on Ed Sullivan (everybody watched that!).
Now the world is larger, there is the internet, twitter, hundreds of TV channels, and I dunno what else, but there are also groups and sub-groups and sub-sub groups, cult groups, all attracting different audiences. There is no one big phenomenon like The Beatles, that just about everyone knew something about. Someone who likes country hat acts is a fervent fan of country hat acts, and is surprised that society at large doesn’t recognize or know much about Garth Brooks or whatever. Someone who likes rap or hip-hop is dumbfounded when society at large doesn’t recognize or know much about rappers or hip-hoppers. “But Jay-Z made a billion dollars in his career! He’s married to Beyonce who made millions in her career.” OK, that’s nice, so? Why should an older lady stuck in the music of the 80’s know or care? Other than seeing them on TV once in a while or mentioned on the cover of a tabloid, Jay-Z and Beyonce just don’t mean that much.
It’s like knowing there are rich women in NYC who wear jeans that cost $1,000, chenille sweaters identical to Target sweaters except they’re knitted from silk yarn and cost $800, and carry $25,000 pocketbooks. You know they are out there. You leaf through Star and People and fashion magazines. But unless you are a huge fan of fashion…just doesn’t mean that much.
For the most part I agree. And for almost anyone else in the music business it would apply. But Jay-Z is on a different level. Ever hear of Elvis Presley? Jay-Z beat Elvis for the most #1 albums of all time for a solo artist. He is second behind the Beatles for most #1s of any group or artist. And now he’s married to one of the biggest superstars on the planet. There is a front page story about them on every major website just about everyday. Its part of the current culture in America. As someone else said their influence is helping to shape the world around you. These are people who take a trip to Cuba and the White House has to answer questions about it.
There is nothing wrong with being willfully ignorant of current American culture. But its not something to take pride in either.
See, I did not know that! I’ve never heard, to my knowledge, one of his songs. I’m just out of his demographic! I know his name, I know Beyonce’s name, and … that’s it. Not being willingly ignorant or taking pride in ignorance (I HATE that, it’s so so maddening in other people. I take an interest in other things outside my tiny world, why don’t they??) If I am at the dentist office and read all about them in People magazine, then I will know. If I’m reading gossip sites online, I will skim an article about them, maybe, but…that’s it. I’m ahead of the game, no one I hang with (over the age of 25) knows anything about either of them, except that pretty Beyonce was on the superbowl halftime show in a skimpy outfit. Mention Jay Z’s surpassing Elvis, and the conversation immediately turns to a heated discussion about the best Elvis song.
That trip of theirs to Cuba attracted some attention, though. Even the dullards I know are aware of Cuba and why Americans don’t travel there, and who is that rich famous couple who did so?
Sure, Jay-Z. If you turn on the TV or browse the Internet more than a little you will find that out pretty easily. The last thing I remember hearing about them is they attended a rock/alternative music festival which I think is pretty cool.
I’m not a rap fan since the “white kids liking Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre” craze of the 1990s, but some of Jay-Zs stuff is listenable to me. He did an album with Linkin Park which is good, and DJ Danger Mouse did a cool mash-up of Jay-Zs Black Album and The Beatles White Album.
:eek::eek::eek:
It makes me wonder what parts of the internet you haven’t been visiting that you didn’t know that.
It also makes me a tad envious. I wonder if there is some kind of Beyonce-screening app that would keep Beyonce news out of my internet.
I would have liked to have kept her out of my Superbowl too but no such luck.
I think all those no. 1’s have more to do with the dearth of competition. Being no. 1 in America in the 2000’s is like being no. 1 in Finland in the 1960’s. It’s nice, but it doesn’t mean much.
The New York Times and “Morning Edition” are not TV news. I am pretty sure Beyonce’s name has popped up more than a few times in other non-television news sources as well.
If they habitually ignore any news story that involves a person with an unfamiliar name then that does mean they’re not well-informed about current US news. Someone who already knows that Beyonce is a famous pop singer may conclude that her trip to Cuba is unlikely to have a major impact on US-Cuba relations and skip the story, but someone who’d truly never heard of Beyonce* would have no way of knowing how important this mysterious Mr. or Ms. Beyonce’s trip to Cuba might be without reading the story, or at least Googling “Beyonce”.
*If I didn’t know who Beyonce was, I’d assume that the name was a (French?) last name. I just checked Wikipedia, and it turns out Beyonce was given her Louisiana Creole mother’s maiden name as her first name.
But see, again, what did I miss out on by not knowing any of that? Seriously, I hadn’t known of any of it until I opened this thread. I doubt any of my band members or most of my co-workers know it now. Going to Cuba is a publicity stunt. Album sales aren’t what they once were in importance, and haven’t been for a long time. There’s more people to sell albums to, and besides, the numbers are easily manipulated. Even if they weren’t, Pink Floyd had an album on the Hot 100 for 20 years; and I have no idea who any of them were ever married to or even if they were ever married, ever had sex, or just thought about England for the fun of it. I still know how to play several of their songs.
And since I browsed the top 100 albums to verify Jay-Z didn’t have an album on there currently, I now know that Journey’s greatest hits are on there again. My faith in humanity is now drinking beer with me.
We disagree about what “well-informed” means.