Do you know who Beyoncé is married to?

[Colibri]

@Skald_the_Rhymer

Why should I care with whom Barack Obama has personal (as opposed to political) relationships with?

Bebe Rebozo used to be in the news a lot, back in the day.

(I posted that just so I could get to say Bebe Rebozo again.:D)

[kevja]

Wow is this board showing it’s old age. It was a simple question.

If there were Internet message boards back in 1973, I would hope the reaction would be less hostile to the question of say, who is Diana Ross married to?

But the I remember my Grandfather back then. Who is she? What do I care?

I guess nothing changes.

[silenus]

Don’t know who Diana Ross was married to, either, and I was in high school in 1973. I listened to her music, but didn’t (and still don’t) give a flip about her personal life.

An artist should be evaluated on their art. To do otherwise is to sink to the lowest levels of prejudice and nosiness.

[Colibri]

@kevja

If there were Internet message boards back in 1973, I would hope the reaction would be less hostile to the question of say, who is Diana Ross married to?

Hey, I was 22 in 1973, and I doubt I knew then who Diana Ross was married to. And I probably didn’t know who many other music celebrities were married to, aside from John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

[brickbacon]

@Skald_the_Rhymer

Where are you making this about generations? As I wrote upthread I love Adele, who, I believe, is a considerably later entry to the pop culture scene than Ms. Knowles. The fact that I don’t like Beyonce has nothing to do with her youth. Hell, age-wise I’m a better match with her than with Bonnie Raitt or Adele.

Are you even reading what you are responding to? Both Jay-Z and Beyonce are considerably more popular with people closer to their age. Regardless, you are completely missing the point once again. I am not trying to dictate what others should like or spend their money on. I am saying one should at least know who both of those figures are. As in, one should be aware of who they are, what they do, and the cultural impact they have made. Clearly, you know these things. Why you seem to still be desirous to take offense to a comment not directed at you is beyond me.

@Skald_the_Rhymer

Oh, good grief. Knowledge of a pop singer’s personal life is not part of one’s education, or at least I hope it’s not.

I never said it was. In fact, I have repeatedly and explicitly said it wasn’t.

@Skald_the_Rhymer

In what way is Jay-Z going to influence the direction of the world? Is he working to cure prostate cancer? Trying to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict? Planning to assassinate Kim Jong-Un? Or is he simply an entertainer?

Entertainers do change the world. I don’t plan on writing out some essay about how Jay-Z has impacted music, clothing, culture, etc. So if you don’t feel like looking for yourself, or trusting people at Time magazine (who named him one of the most influential people), then there is not much I can do for you.

@Skald_the_Rhymer

I don’t demand that you like Iain Banks or JRR Tolkien or John Donne or Stephen Sondheim.

Geez. How hard is this to understand? Nobody is forcing or suggesting you have to like something. I am arguing that a bare minimum of cultural literacy is to be expected from otherwise educated and competent people.

@Skald_the_Rhymer

I don’t think the fact that I like those makes me superior to persons who don’t. It just makes me different. And what you are describing is an attempt to force conformity, not t

It’s not conformity; it’s having a common basis of understanding.

@Skald_the_Rhymer

Uninformed and ignorant have similar denotations, but different connotations. It was the latter I was referring to. “Uninformed” is neutral; “ignorant” is insulting. (The positive sense is probably “innocent.”).

This is debatable. But even if I grant your assertion, context matters. There is a reason I said willfully ignorant. Furthermore, I think it was clear I was not using the term to be deliberate pejorative given that I said:

[QUOTE=Me]
It’s one thing to be ignorant. I am sure there a plenty of Asian stars I have never heard of for example. However, it’s entirely another matter to actively avoid news presented to you on a regular bass, AND feel no urge to find out more about it just for your own edification.
[/QUOTE]

@Skald_the_Rhymer

Calling someone ignorant it implies that the subject matter is something valuable, important,or expected. I don’t believe knowledge of Beyonce’s husband is valuable or important, and I deny that it’s something that anyone should be expected to have.

Once again, you are misrepresenting what has been said. I do not think knowing who is married to whom is particularly valuable.

[brickbacon]

@silenus

OK, have it your way. It’s a conscious choice. So what?

It’s distinction is meaningful because it highlights the motivations of those people.

@silenus

I stay uninformed about them because I couldn’t give a shit about them, their “music,” their “lives,” or their impact on the great unwashed. Pop culture is just that - “pop.”

Lol, great unwashed? I think I’ll stand by original statements about elitism and entitlement in this case.

@silenus

So? At one time I heard their names, ascertained that they were popular musicians, and as such could be ignored completely. That they are “popular” means nothing to me. I don’t listen to pop music, I actively loathe hip hop, and tabloid fodder is just that - food for domestic animals.

Thanks for proving my point.

[silenus]

That your opinion on what is worthy of being known is worthless?

My pleasure.

[brickbacon]

@silenus

That your opinion on what is worthy of being known is worthless?

My pleasure.

Pretty weak and uninspired retort from someone with the balls to call people domestic animals.

[Lamia]

@silenus

So? At one time I heard their names, ascertained that they were popular musicians, and as such could be ignored completely. That they are “popular” means nothing to me. I don’t listen to pop music, I actively loathe hip hop, and tabloid fodder is just that - food for domestic animals.

I’m not sure what you’re “so”-ing here. If you’re aware that Beyonce is a pop singer then you know all I’d expect someone to know about her. I have no special interest in Beyonce, she’s just so widely known that I’d expect other people to have heard of her.

[Irishman]

@brickbacon

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.

Not knowing about one pop star is not participating in society?

Aside from maybe hearing some music you may enjoy,

Don’t worry, there’s no risk of that.

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.

Sure, we have much greater access to information, but that access comes with a much greater inundation of information. There’s far too much stuff floating around out there, we all have to engage filters if we want to function. Some of those filters include deciding certain genre’s are not worth our personal attention, and not bothering to pay attention or absorb things about those genres. Sure, if there’s something that wanders into our focus, we can look it up to get a basic understanding of who the person is. But what constitutes wandering into our focus, being of enough interest to go look that person up?

Honestly, I have not seen Jay-Z in the news. Maybe my filters are especially high. I don’t go look at yahoo or such for news. I don’t read Time. I heard it mentioned that Beyonce is pregnant, but didn’t hear or at least absorb mention of Jay-Z’s name in that context. I did not hear about them going to Cuba. I did hear about Dennis Rodman going to North Korea and I think Cuba.

What did I miss out on? The relevance of a comment in an SD thread where someone was watching an SNL skit with Beyonce and someone commented “Jay-Z won’t be happy”?

Maybe I am being willfully ignorant to, in the face of this thread and all the information presented about how “influential and important” Jay-Z is, still think I don’t care. Maybe I’m just being obstinate because of the tone of the conversation, and in another context being told the things about him mentioned in this thread would spark a desire to at least see why others find him influential.

But I can honestly say before this thread he was a nobody to me, someone that I probably had heard was married to Beyonce but did not actively remember that about him, and couldn’t put a song name or lyric to and had no idea about his involvement in sports. None of that registered to me, it is meaningless and unimportant to me.

But hearing he wrote the song “99 Problems” does not impress me about him. One more reason to not be interested in him.

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.

Wait, so is Jay-Z the person to blame for a generation of guys who don’t know how to wear pants?