# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Tempe\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tempe_jeff/32/7328_2.png) [@Tempe\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tempe_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/82 "2019-12-25T03:00:33Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > 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. Born in 1961 but, my parents Records included Dave Brubeck and Pete Seeger. My folks were pretty subversive. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/83 "2019-12-25T03:25:48Z")
It seems easier, cheaper, and more convenient than ever before for anyone today who cares about, say, classical Chinese music, to go online and gain an encyclopedic knowledge of it. Same for classic rock, rap, or whatever. So, if anything, I would argue that the younger generation has a better knowledge of “older” anything. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/84 "2019-12-25T06:57:53Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > “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 not a Van Halen nutswinger or anything, but they are not an '80s hair metal band and they had commercial relevance at least through the '90s via the Van Hagar version and still commanded plenty of press and attention with their DLR reunion and subsequent recording and tours. EVH at least for some time was considered the best current guitarist and way up there in discussions as an all-time great, DLR was everywhere throughout the 80s, and Sammy is a celeb (and accomplished musician and entrepreneur) in his own right with and without the brothers. Even to the extent they would get lumped in with '80s hair bands (though their output preceded and outlasted that genre) no one would refer to them as a “random” one. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/85 "2019-12-25T08:59:55Z")
The number of people who get it when I say: “The answer is 42, you just have to figure out what the question is” is dwindling compared to those who got it in the '80’s and 90’s. Not about a movie, but from a movie that I can’t remember the name of. I worked with a guy in his twenties who lead a very sheltered life because of his Mom. We were talking about a movie in which a dorky white guy gets into a rap battle in a black club and is doing well until he pulls up the hood on his jacket and it’s a cone. My co-worker said it was funny because the white guy looked like a Conehead the the black audience was scared of Coneheads! :smack: Gobsmacked, I corrected him and said it was because he looked like he was in the KKK. My co-worker had no clue what the KKK is! 😕 ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/86 "2019-12-25T09:13:55Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > It seems easier, cheaper, and more convenient than ever before for anyone today who cares about, say, classical Chinese music, to go online and gain an encyclopedic knowledge of it. Same for classic rock, rap, or whatever. So, if anything, I would argue that the younger generation has a better knowledge of “older” anything. At least for me, the power of the internet has caused me to lose knowledge of “newer” things that I have no interest in because I’m able to find so much about things that do interest me. Last week, three Hollywood celebrities, Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, & Adria Arjona (had to look up their names) appeared on my favorite Korean variety show. Of the three, the only one I recognized was Ryan Reynolds. I know his name and face, but have no idea of any movie he’s appeared in. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/87 "2019-12-25T09:18:06Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > What on earth was going on here? They must have known, surely? “Don’t call me Shirley!” 😃 ---
**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 25, 2019, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/88 "2019-12-25T13:43:09Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > My co-worker had no clue what the KKK is! 😕 In a similar vein, and even older, when **DesertWife** and I were active in the Libertarian party the county organization was putting on the state convention one year. We wanted the Saturday banquet to be memorable but were struggling to bring it in under budget, food-wise. Somebody on the committee made a quip about loaves and fishes and everybody laughed but one fellow who had no clue what it meant. His parents were free spirits\* and apparently he’d been exposed to Christian stories even less than the rest of us heathens. \*Both were the basis for two characters in _On the Road_. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/89 "2019-12-25T17:16:10Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > When I got to the Beatles, the oldest piped up: _Yeah! They were a boy-band from England_. He’s not _wrong_… ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/90 "2019-12-27T05:00:50Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I’m by no means making an argument about anything. It’s not that ABITW _deserves_ more attention (or that I even like it that much) it just seems like one of those songs that “everyone” will have heard. I realize that’s possibly just my perception because it came out during my adolescence but that’s why I posed the question. Does Sinatra’s New York, New York \*deserve \*more attention? I can’t remember a time when I and everyone I know wasn’t aware of that song and it’s not as if our parents played it at home. I wonder if there are any iconic songs today that most people of all generations would know. You do realize that if ABITW came out during your adolescence, so did Frank Sinatra’s \*New York, New York \*? Both came out in 1979. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/91 "2019-12-27T07:13:07Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > You do realize that if ABITW came out during your adolescence, so did Frank Sinatra’s \*New York, New York \*? Both came out in 1979. More more-or-less forgotten history: One of the last Traditional Pop songs (if not the last) to chart was “Hello, Dolly!” by Louis Armstrong, which was the number three song of 1964, behind the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You”. “The Ballad of the Green Berets” isn’t even a novelty song these days. It’s almost completely forgotten. _It was number one for five weeks in 1966._ It’s up there with “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas and the Papas for being the top song of the year. The younger generations don’t know all of the old stuff. The older people don’t remember all of it, judging by what’s made it into the Consensus History of the Rock Era. It’s lucky if the next generation knows the high points of the previous era, as the era recedes into the past, the high points become fewer and fewer. We can sum up whole eras in a few works, once they’re distant enough. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/92 "2019-12-27T08:10:51Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > The Sex Pistols, who were almost a parody of the genre and had more influence on style and fashion than on the music. I’m sorry, but that’s rubbish. \*One \*Sex Pistols [concert](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/14/sex-pistols-lesser-free-hall)probably spawned more worthwhile bands than the entire Ramones _oeuvre_. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/93 "2019-12-27T08:20:00Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > There were some memorable, culturally important movies that were released in 1976, including _Carrie_, _Taxi Driver_, _Rocky_, _All the President’s Men_, and _Network_. And the only two of those \*most \*young people might know or care about are \*Carrie \*and _Rocky_. And only because of the CGM redo and _Creed_, respectively. “Culturally important” is a moving target. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/94 "2019-12-27T08:25:56Z")
> [@whitetho](#): > > 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)). I think this is an inborn predator reflex. Now, if you played Madonna to a bunch of \*Malawian \*children… ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2019, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/95 "2019-12-28T01:43:31Z")
Of course as time goes on people know less about previous decades. Time is limited and the amount of new stuff is large and being made at a faster rate than the old classics. How much do most adults know about jazz, silent movies or classical music? Not so much. Same idea. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2019, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/96 "2019-12-28T03:09:24Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I’m sorry, but that’s rubbish. \*One \*Sex Pistols [concert](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/14/sex-pistols-lesser-free-hall)probably spawned more worthwhile bands than the entire Ramones _oeuvre_. The Sex Pistols was a boy band created by Malcolm McLaren. He turfed Glen Matlock out in favor of Sid Vicious purely for the image of the thing, and then proceeded to fuck around with them until the whole thing ended up in court. All over a band with precisely one real album. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2019, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/97 "2019-12-28T14:20:59Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > The Sex Pistols was a boy band created by Malcolm McLaren. Doesn’t make (some of) them) not real musicians, and at least one of them was brilliant at doing what he did - as evidenced by the greatness that is PIL. Also doesn’t make them any less influential. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2019, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/98 "2019-12-29T21:20:56Z")
How much knowledge did younger generations in the '70s have of ‘30s music and entertainment? I suspect more young adults today would recognize ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ than young adults in the 70s would recognize "Puttin’ On the Riz" by Fred Astaire (this was before the 80s cover) or more socially conscious songs from that time like “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday or Lead Belly’s “The Bourgeois Blues”. > [@Smitty](#): > > I worked in a high school about 15 years ago. I was talking to another teacher about music and I used the word “album”. One of the students said, “Those are those things like big CDs, right?” So did you correct them and point out that an album is a collection of multiple 78rpm records stored in a single book of folders, much like a photo album? Or did you stick to the newfangled format that you grew up with, where an album was a single 33rpm record stored in a cardboard sleeve, with only the occasional ‘double album’ or ‘boxed set’ containing more than one record? I’m guessing you tend to stick to the definition of album that was current when you grew up instead of the older one. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2019, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/99 "2019-12-30T00:51:02Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > How much knowledge did younger generations in the '70s have of ‘30s music and entertainment? I suspect more young adults today would recognize ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ than young adults in the 70s would recognize "Puttin’ On the Riz" by Fred Astaire (this was before the 80s cover) or more socially conscious songs from that time like “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday or Lead Belly’s “The Bourgeois Blues”. As I said, Rock is still a popular genre, whereas Traditional Pop isn’t. Therefore, good Rock songs hang in there, and good Traditional Pop songs fade out, and were fading out as early as the 1970s. > [@Smitty](#): > > I worked in a high school about 15 years ago. I was talking to another teacher about music and I used the word “album”. One of the students said, “Those are those things like big CDs, right?” Counterpoint: More stores around me specialize in selling vinyl than CDs. The CD store is a general tchotchke store which has a few racks of CDs, whereas the vinyl stores either sell only vinyl or sell vinyl and CDs. Also, Barnes & Noble, a major chain bookstore, sells vinyl now, although I don’t know if it did when this post I’m replying to now was made. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2019, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/100 "2019-12-30T01:52:43Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > As I said, Rock is still a popular genre, whereas Traditional Pop isn’t. Therefore, good Rock songs hang in there, and good Traditional Pop songs fade out, and were fading out as early as the 1970s. OK, so you’re saying that you agree that the generation that was the ‘younger generation’ in the 1970s had significantly less knowledge of ‘older’ music than what qualifies as the ‘younger generation’ to them now? That’s the question asked by the thread, after all, and you seem to be agreeing that Boomers defnitely qualify as having less than the ones that are ‘younger’ now. That they aren’t as interested in traditional pop as people today are in rock is true, but isn’t really relevant to the amount of knowledge of older music. Also Billie Holiday is generally considered ‘Jazz’ (which often gets lumped into R&B) and Lead Belly is solidly in the ‘blues’ category, neither of which are Traditional Pop, so I’m not really sure what the decline of popularity of Traditional Pop has to do with those songs being unfamiliar to the young adults of the 70s. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2019, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621/101 "2019-12-30T03:03:21Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > At least for me, the power of the internet has caused me to lose knowledge of “newer” things that I have no interest in because I’m able to find so much about things that do interest me. I believe we were discussing the effect on the _younger_ generation 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-younger-generations-have-less-knowledge-of-older-movies-songs-etc/763621.md?page=4)