She’s enormous in rural and urban Ireland. Huge star, married to Jay Z of course.
It’s not so odd. Think about it- Prince sold a LOT more albums after he dropped the “Charles” from his name.
Yeah, I knew that Jay-Z is married to Beyoncé Knowles. I’m with Biggirl on this one. Their names are out there enough on a week to week basis that one requires a very specific kind of media exposure NOT to have heard both of their names. I’m not sayin’ I don’t believe those who don’t know who this couple is. I’m just sayin’ that it’s fairly common knowledge.
I’m just sayin’.
Wait. his first name is Jay, like Jay North, the wonderful actor who brought Dennis the Menace to life on the small screen, okay, that’s legitimate; but his last name is . . . Z?
Does the “Z” stand for something, or is he just trying to piss me off?
And their baby is named Blue Ivy Z? WTF? Shoulda named her Ellen Ivy. Then her name could be on a really small charm bracelet . . . L N I V Z.
Maybe if they have a boy next, they can name him WTF.
Again, wait. I know this one. “Hard Knock Life” was a song in Annie, sung by the orphanage kids. Did it get covered by a rapper? Good heavens, why?
By the way, what does ONTD stand for?
you might have been half joking, but I agree with your statement that pop culture is culture is a creaky late 20th century concept. It might have been true when Andy Warhol was still relevant, but now we can each construct our own sub-subculture, blissfully unaware of anything we find tedious.
I didn’t know she was married, and I am a fan of her music, in the sense of being reduced to a little puddle of drool when she appears on the screen.
I have heard of Jay-Z, but I don’t think I could name any song he performed. (Or whatever the correct term is for rap.)
Male, 57, FWIW, but I don’t watch a lot of TV.
Regards,
Shodan
I did not know whom Beyonce was married to before reading your spoiler. Nor can it be truly said that I know who she is married to now, as I do not know who Jay Z is. A rapper or singer, I assume, given the silly name.
Are you for real? Is this a whoosh or do you honestly not understand the concept of a stage name?
And if it is a whoosh, I don’t think you got the desired response. Your reply just comes across as crazy old man rantings.
I’m pretty sure kayaker was just mocking the stage name as stupid. Hence the remark about the Z pissing him off. I feel the same way about Will.I.Am (whom, admittedly, I only know from one of the X-Men movies.
I know who Beyonce is, though I don’t follow her music. I’m sure I’ve heard it. Seen her on TV and commercials and that movie.
I’ve heard the name Jay-Z before, and am aware he’s some kind of musician. Couldn’t name a song or know lyrics or anything.
I’m sure I’ve heard they’re married, but I filed that under “things I don’t have to remember because I don’t care”. So you ask me the question, I don’t know until I read the thread and then realize I think I heard that before.
Meh, you’re the ones lecturing us about how better you are for knowing who’s doing who. Do I see tabloids on the news stands? Sure. Do I hear more than I care to about Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston, the Kardashians, Honey Boo Boo? Sure, but I tend to tune most of it out, or not bother committing it to memory. I don’t care what Beyonce’s kid’s name is. I don’t care if Jay-Z is the greatest hip-hop artist of all time or some 2 bit hack. I think Beyonce might be pregnant again, but it’s not something I’m tracking, it was on the news last night.
I’m not claiming moral superiority, I’m just claiming that I don’t care.
To be fair, he’s not the first to question Jay Z’s stage name. The first I heard do that would be his former arch nemesis…the one who came thisclose to ending his whole career with just one dis track, the incomparable Nas.
In hip hop, it is common to change your name to something that has some kind of meaning to you, or is clever or describes your personality or is kind of like the name that you already have. Jay Z seems kind of random, because it wasn’t really a clever pun on anything, it is nothing like the name Sean Carter and it doesn’t really say anything about a personality. Back when Jay was first coming up the ranks, an artist by the name of Jaz-O used to get a lot of respect. Jay looked up to him and Nas accused him of kind of stealing the name.
“Sean Carter to Jay Z; damn, you on Jaz dick!”
I know this crap because I love Nas, not Jay. Never been a fan of Jay, but respect his longevity and blah blah blah.
Just for clarity…I haven’t noticed anyone condemning anyone for not knowing that Beyonce was married to Jay Z. I didn’t know that myself. I knew that had a baby (yes, Blue Ivy, I know her name) but I didn’t realize they were married, or I knew it but it didn’t register maybe. No, I think people are just pointing out that not knowing is nothing to brag on or be proud of. Some people sound as if they think knowing pop culture and classic literature and physics is mutually exclusive. And then there are those who are saying they don’t even think their coworker have heard of friggin PRINCE!! Those are the things that people are posting in amazement about.
I’m in Panama (and I know who Beyonce and Prince are), but my friends live in the US. They don’t own a television (I don’t think they’ve ever owned one.) I don’t know if they get their news from newspapers or the internet, but I’m sure that they don’t read the entertainment news. They don’t listen to pop music. I’m sure they hear it in passing in airports or stores, but they don’t know who the artists are. (Although I know who Beyonce is, offhand I couldn’t name a single one of her songs or albums either. I might recognize her songs if I heard them, but not who performed them.) They see an occasional movie, but none that Beyonce would be likely to appear in. They don’t watch the Superbowl or other sports. (Their major exposure to sports is when they stay at my house and I have a baseball game on. Their interest in it seems to be more as an anthropological phenomenon than anything else.:))
For recreation they go hiking or white-water rafting. Otherwise they prefer conversation to more passive entertainment like TV or movies. But most of their time is spent in doing scientific research, writing and reading journal articles, or teaching.
They don’t “shun” popular culture, they simply have no interest in it. Whatever exposure they get to it in their daily lives is not absorbed because it’s of no importance to them.
While they are somewhat on the extreme end, I think there are a fair number of my other colleagues who might not know who either Beyonce or Prince are (incredible as that seems to be to some people).
They know pop music exists, and that there are various celebrities involved in it. They just don’t know their names.
[QUOTE=Nzinga, Seated]
And then there are those who are saying they don’t even think their coworker have heard of friggin PRINCE!! Those are the things that people are posting in amazement about.
[/QUOTE]
Your cultural world is not everyone’s world, even within the US.
Yes, I see that. But once you hit my Prince hot button, it is on and poppin’ with me, no matter where you’re from, jive turkey.
ETA: I know I may catch a warning for the “jive turkey” but I did it for you, Prince!
I have always wondered if the name was a pun on the J/Z subway line that connects lower Manhattan to Brooklyn and Queens.
At the risk of sending you completely around the bend;), I have to say that I am aware of Prince mainly because of the incessant playing of “1999” in the run up to Y2K, and the whole “Artist formerly known as…” business. Maybe “Purple Rain.” That’s all I got.
My tastes run more to Venezuelan ska, Finnish folk-punk, Manu Chao, Sundanese fusion, andjit.
You could be his ghost writer. Send him that post, and if he uses it as an excuse for his name, you may start getting royalties!
I have always prided myself on being very open minded about music. I was almost snobbish with it, delighting in the fact that I could love and appreciate all genres whilst my closed minded friends just couldn’t deal. I felt, well read, well traveled…I thought I had broad horizons…
Then, I just googled Sudanese Jazz Fusion and tried to listen to more than 30 seconds of it and I feel like an uncouth, uncultured street urchin slob.
Beyonce’s name was all over the news – not the entertainment news, but the “news news” – last month because of her trip to Cuba. The New York Times ran several stories about it. There was also a brief piece about how ubiquitous she is on NPR’s “Morning Edition” just a couple of weeks ago. If your friends keep up with current events as reported by respectable mainstream news sources in the US, they know Beyonce is a famous pop singer. They may not know her songs, they may not know what she looks like, they may think her name is pronounced “Bay Once” or “Fiancee”, but if they are totally unaware that such a person exists then they’re not actually very well-informed about recent US news.
What I linked to was Sundanese fusion, from Sunda province in western Java.
That Sudan Jazz Fusion didn’t sound that different than regular jazz. (Was that the one?)
For Sudanese music, I much preferAli Hassan Kuban (Walk Like A Nubian).