# Do younger generations have less knowledge of "older" movies, songs, etc? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 22, 2016, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621 "2016-08-22T13:41:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Garak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d78d45/32.png) [@Garak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garak)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/62 "2019-12-23T05:46:17Z")
I don’t think so. Thanks to the internet it’s easier than ever to find old media ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/63 "2019-12-23T06:46:37Z")
> [@Garak](#): > > I don’t think so. Thanks to the internet it’s easier than ever to find old media It’s also easier to find completely strange crap as opposed to works from The Popular Canon, by which I mean works popular enough to make it into your local video store. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/64 "2019-12-23T07:33:08Z")
There were some memorable, culturally important movies that were released in 1976, including _Carrie_, _Taxi Driver_, _Rocky_, _All the President’s Men_, and _Network_. _Logan’s Run_ isn’t one of them. I saw it when it came out, but I’m sure that many people my own age don’t remember it. In other words, if you’re asking whether young people today are ignorant of older works, try looking at things that are significant enough to be remembered by the people who are old enough to have encountered them when they were new. I know thousands of songs from the sixties and seventies because I grew up with them. Some of them (like _Me and Bobby McGee_ and _Superstition_) are so well-known that I’d be surprised if a large proportion of young people today didn’t know of them. Others (like _Angel of the Morning_ and _Oh, Babe, What Would You Say_) are obscure enough that I’d be surprised if even 10% of young people today had even heard of them. I’d say that young people today know more of their parents’ and grandparents’ music than my generation did when we were young. My parents grew up in the swing and big band era, and that music was considered hopelessly square by most kids in the sixties and seventies. Kids these days don’t find their parents’ and grandparents’ music to be unlistenable. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/65 "2019-12-23T07:42:28Z")
I’ve never actually seen _Gone With the Wind_ because every time I try, the shrieking of the various female characters drives me from the room. I am, however, entirely too fond of the Carol Burnett parody. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/66 "2019-12-23T08:24:32Z")
this is reminds me of a few weeks ago when billie ellish had said she didnt know who van halen was and was getting so mch crap that eddies sone tolld everyone to knock it off and offered to send her a box set so she could take a listen to ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/67 "2019-12-23T08:55:42Z")
So, do kids these days know [ul][li] Any of the original series of Star Wars movies?[/li][li] Or even the Lord of the Rings movies for that matter?[/li][li] Yellow Submarine?[/li][li] The Wizard of Oz?!?![/li][li] Who Framed Roger Rabbit?[/li][li] Any of the earlier Disney animated movies? [/li][li] Fantasia?[/li][li] Any Fred Astaire, or George Burns, or Marx Brothers type of stuff?[/li][li] ETA: Fiddler On The Roof?[/ul][/li]Kids these day. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/68 "2019-12-23T09:00:38Z")
And not to mention Alice’s Restaurant (either the song or the movie). ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/69 "2019-12-23T09:42:43Z")
We only think these thing were important because we were young. Some day our kids will be all like “you don’t know who Lizzo is‽” The purpose of pop culture is to be both deeply relevant for the moment and ephemeral on a macro level. The important masters - mozart as just one example - is that they come back to matter again someday. Expecting kids of 15 to 30 or so to care about what the previous cohort (gen x) cared about is an exercise in folly. Let them love their own stuff. It all means nothing as we, and they, age out of relevance. That’s the way the world is designed to be. They’ll get their own turn to be pushed aside. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/70 "2019-12-23T10:17:28Z")
A year or so before The Last Jedi came out I was talking with a (now former) co-worker who was about 20 and somehow mentioned Star Wars. I was informed that **they** did not watch movies that old- it was from like the 1940s, right? I said 1977! Them: same difference. But that indifference was also a pattern for them: if it wasn’t something they were interested in it might as well be from 1200 B.C. and in Sumerian. And I’ve run across 50 year olds with that same indifference. To be fair I’ve also run across 18 year olds or older who love old movies or Big Band songs or… who, sure, might not have gotten a chance get to hear or read or see something yet but they had that interest. And that interest often spirals out to include more than just their initial focus. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/71 "2019-12-23T15:30:35Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > this is reminds me of a few weeks ago when billie ellish had said she didnt know who van halen was and was getting so mch crap that eddies sone tolld everyone to knock it off and offered to send her a box set so she could take a listen to “Seventeen-year-old doesn’t know random 1980s hair metal band” shouldn’t be a huge shocker to anyone. I’d be surprised if she didn’t know about the Beatles (and utterly unsurprised if she didn’t know about Wings) but Van Halen didn’t reach the Valhalla of sustained cultural relevance and, what’s more, it isn’t even her genre. I’m a bit careful when I try to gauge how well-known old acts are, though: I grew up with parents who took my family on a lot of car trips, and they controlled the radio. I therefore grew up listening to plenty of Oldies and Classic Rock (back when Oldies was still a viable commercial format on terrestrial radio) so I know more about music from the 1950s to the 1970s than most modern 35-year-olds do, most likely. Heck, my first favorite band was The Beach Boys, back when I was just a baby, and I still actively seek out doo-wop every so often. That said, I went to a high school where Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin were still hot. Again, some things just have sustained cultural relevance. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/72 "2019-12-23T16:04:13Z")
> [@Hedda\_Rosa](#): > > Let them love their own stuff. It all means nothing as we, and they, age out of relevance. That’s the way the world is designed to be. They’ll get their own turn to be pushed aside. A few months after we were married in 1986 and my wife’s daughter of 13 had moved in, I came across her kneeling by the big box of records sorting through them win an inch-high stack by her knee. “What are you doing?” I asked. “I was gonna put these on cassettes,” she replied. “Boy, I wouldn’t have been caught dead going through my parent’s record collection!” “Music today sux. Yours is so much better.” “Really? I have a low opinion about music today but just figured I was getting old.” In a similar vein, a few years ago when I was transporting a young couple\* to Burning Man they commented on how good the music on my mp3 was. I reminded them it was with all the dross filtered out. \*A good fifteen years younger than **DesertDaughter**. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/73 "2019-12-23T16:24:26Z")
Certain genres fade in and out. As a result, if you’re into a genre that’s currently on the outs, like rock is, you’re going to be into music from the last time that genre was big. Therefore, modern fans of rock are listening to music from decades ago. This bemuses people who were young when that music was new, because for them, listening to their parents’ music would have meant listening to Lawrence Welk stuff\* and other Traditional Pop, which would have been utterly unthinkable. \*(Not counting when [Lawrence Welk featured a nice, clean-cut duet performing the “modern spiritual” “One Toke Over The Line” in 1971](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8tdmaEhMHE).) ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/74 "2019-12-23T20:50:36Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > So, do kids these days know > [ul][li] Any of the original series of Star Wars movies?[/li][li] Or even the Lord of the Rings movies for that matter?[/li][li] Yellow Submarine?[/li][li] The Wizard of Oz?!?![/li][li] Who Framed Roger Rabbit?[/li][li] Any of the earlier Disney animated movies? [/li][li] Fantasia?[/li][li] Any Fred Astaire, or George Burns, or Marx Brothers type of stuff?[/li][li] ETA: Fiddler On The Roof?[/ul][/li]Kids these day. :rolleyes: My kids are 15 and 16. They know Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, (also Harry Potter), The Wizard of Oz, other Disney animated movies. They don’t know Yellow Submarine or Fred Astaire, etc. Nor Fiddler on the Roof. Not sure about Fantasia, I’ll have to ask them. > [@Senegoid](#): > > And not to mention Alice’s Restaurant (either the song or the movie). I don’t even know this. ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/75 "2019-12-24T16:21:04Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I work with a bunch of twenty-somethings and while some are more well rounded than others, I was amazed that no one recognized the phrase "if you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding. . . " I mean, even if one isn’t in to the genre, shouldn’t they have heard \*Another Brick in the Wall \*at \*some \*point? I’m 31 and I haven’t heard that phrase before. Other popular phrases from famous older movies I do recognize, as they’ve likely been meme’d to death, but haven’t bothered to watch the movie because I’m not really interested in older movies to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/76 "2019-12-24T19:58:25Z")
I watched a kids react video, where not a single one of them recognized a Madonna song. I also talked to a 20 something who never heard of Gilligan’s Island. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/77 "2019-12-24T20:59:07Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > I’d be surprised if she didn’t know about the Beatles A few years ago, when the kids were mid- to late-teens, I found out that none of them had heard of _Gilligan’s Island_. What, really? So I quizzed them on other touchstones. When I got to the Beatles, the oldest piped up: _Yeah! They were a boy-band from England_. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/78 "2019-12-24T21:37:43Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > I watched a kids react video, where not a single one of them recognized a Madonna song. It was slightly better than that, although Sydney (age 10) was the only one who after watching the videos remembered the name of the all-time best-selling female artist ([Kids React to Madonna](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMClXZ0jQU0)). In contrast, the kids were VERY familiar with Michael Jackson ([Kids React to Michael Jackson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maVR5RNIs_o)). The kids were also very knowledgeable about the Beatles (11 year old Elle even chose Ringo as her favorite) ([Kids React to The Beatles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M9US-cXJMo)). ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/79 "2019-12-24T21:52:05Z")
From a practical standpoint, this is almost certainly true, and you’d expect it to be: Turn on Netflix/Hulu/Amazon/whatever and look at the vast, vast sizes of the catalogs there. Sure, most of that is fluff, but if we assume a relatively stable percentage of produced materials become “classics” in some sense, there’s still an ever-increasing amount of “classic” materials. The (mass availability) recording industries as a whole are 80-100 years old now, with an exponentially increasing amount of material being produced. If we consider a “generation” to be about 20 years, it’s not at all unreasonable to believe that any given generation has about twice as much “classic” material to care/not care about than the one before it. The total number of things that you can be knowledgeable about is increasing, too, given the Internet and such, but human capacity is pretty fixed, and we’re wired to fill our space with new information before old. It seems like this is an almost “obvious” outcome of the amount of material available today. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/80 "2019-12-24T22:51:03Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > \*(Not counting when [Lawrence Welk featured a nice, clean-cut duet performing the “modern spiritual” “One Toke Over The Line” in 1971](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8tdmaEhMHE).) What on earth was going on here? They must have known, surely? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2019, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/81 "2019-12-24T23:04:33Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > That said, I went to a high school where Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin were still hot. Again, some things just have sustained cultural relevance. Zep and Floyd still have currency among the young team. Miley Cyrus does [Black Dog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XLaGBI5tzM) and [Comfortably Numb](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNOWcoImDQQ) live these days. (the latter isn’t great but her Black Dog is pretty good, imo, at least her Glastonbury performance was. This indoor one isn’t as good)) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621.md?page=5)