Without Googling, asking a friend, or reading the responses in this thread.
A couple days ago I posted this on my FB page:
Suddenly, I started getting the most bizarre responses:
Now, I only have about 30 people on my FB list – just family members, with which I use FB to keep in touch. I wouldn’t have guessed there was that much ignorance in such a small group of people, especially considering that group of people is predominately college-educated 30-somethings.
Has it really been that long?
Anybody who has listened to rock music since the 70s knows who Freddie Fucking Mercury is. They may not know his cultural background, but the band was iconic and their hits many. It’s like saying you never heard of The Beatles.
Wasn’t he married to Venus Williams? I think he also was in Rare Earth with Kennth Mars, singing their version of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony that was used in ads for the 1994 Saturn.
This doesn’t surprise me. A few months ago I mentioned Dr. Who in a staff meeting. No one had any idea what I was talking about.
We had a thread a little while back on things people didn’t know. It can be shocking when you realize that things that are common knowledge in your social/intellectual/chronological stratum are unknown outside of it.
I wouldn’t say that, everybody knows Queen, not everybody is up on the names of the band members. While the Beatles are a special case, and while I’d be shocked if somebody didn’t know them, I’d be significantly less shocked if they didn’t know George or Ringo. I don’t really consider Mercury a name in the modern age. I would guess the following conversation is pretty plausible “You know Freddie Mercury?” “Who!?” “The lead singer and writer for Queen.” “Oh, yeah, I love Queen!”
I think you need to find less culturally deficient friends. Even my 70 year old gospel listening mother, when queried moments ago, could identify Freddie Mercury as “that British singer died of AIDS, didn’t he sing that Bites the Dust song?”
