# Whats's the most surprising work of art/culture that you'd never heard of? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2019, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490 "2019-01-09T22:09:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2019, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/1 "2019-01-09T22:09:09Z")
So, I recently learned that Wings’s “Mull of Kintyre” is one of the best-selling singles of all time in the UK and a big hit in many other countries. I also recently learned that Wing’s “Mull of Kintyre” exists at all. And on a quick listen, it’s not one of those “heard a million times but didn’t pay attention to” songs – I don’t think I’ve ever heard this song before. I’m somewhat baffled by that. Admittedly, I live in the US, where it was only a minor hit. But I’m also a big fan of British music and like Wings and solo McCartney enough that I have a few of their / his albums. Apparently I missed a big one. Heck, it’s one of only two songs (along with “Yesterday”) that are mentioned “above the fold” on Sir Paul’s Wikipedia page. So, Dopers, make me feel less lonely. Are there any wildly popular bits of culture that flew ENTIRELY off your radar much longer than should have, in retrospect, been possible? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2019, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/2 "2019-01-09T22:39:30Z")
I had never heard of _The Dream of the Red Chamber_. A [quick search](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_of_the_Red_Chamber) shows that it was first published in the 1790s, translated into English multiple times starting more than 200 years ago, has been adapted into at least two dozen movie or TV screenplays as well as an opera, and is one of the all-time best selling works of fiction. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/3 "2019-01-10T04:07:02Z")
Don’t mean to be rude, but this is another “I’m American and I don’t understand how I don’t know everything 100’s of millions of others know.” thread. There are countless movies, shows, songs, books, stories etc. that are know to hundreds of millions in India, China and elsewhere around the world that we’ve never heard of. You’ve probably at least heard his name westernized name, Confucious, but do you know his name is Kong Fu and that Tzu is an honorary title for Master\> And do you know anything about the _Analects_ which is collection of his sayings. Well, just about every one of the 1.4 billion Chinese knows at least of the verses from them and if they’ve had any kind of schooling, were thought to read the verses by rote. And over 1 billion Hindus around around the world know the Bhagavad Gita, if not by heart, the tenents of it. In popular culture, ever heard of _Produce 101 - China_? What about \*Rocket Girls[/I, the group formed by the reality program.]Well, over 340 million viewers (more the the population of the U.S.) watched the first episode. And 4.3 billion views combined of all it’s episodes. [https://pandaily.com/produce-101-begins-a-wave-of-interest-in-chinese-idol-groups/](https://pandaily.com/produce-101-begins-a-wave-of-interest-in-chinese-idol-groups/) On a global scale, how many of the Top 100 most viewed YouTube videos have you seen? [https://pandaily.com/produce-101-begins-a-wave-of-interest-in-chinese-idol-groups/](https://pandaily.com/produce-101-begins-a-wave-of-interest-in-chinese-idol-groups/). I’ve seen three (_Gangdam Style_, _Baby Shark Dance_, _Bang Bang_ only because of my recent interest in KPop. One of my favorite KPop groups did an amazing cover of _Bang Bang_. And have heard _Roar_ from this recent Top 15 list only because it was played repeatedly on the radio during my morning drive. [https://influencermarketinghub.com/15-most-viewed-youtube-videos-of-all-time/](https://influencermarketinghub.com/15-most-viewed-youtube-videos-of-all-time/) And of course there’s the mystery of David Hasselhoff’s popularity in Germany! :smack: BTW, I’m nearing my 6th decade on Earth and was born and raised in Hawaii, so no, I haven’t been living under rock. 🆒 Oh, I’ve known about the _Dream of the Red Chamber_ for decades, even have an English language version of it. I’ve tried reading it and watching various screen versions of it, but never got more than a few pages or minutes into it. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/4 "2019-01-10T04:14:06Z")
Edit: Link to Top 100 Most Viewed Youtube Videos: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_most-viewed\_YouTube\_videos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-viewed_YouTube_videos) ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/5 "2019-01-10T04:20:52Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > Don’t mean to be rude, but this is another “I’m American and I don’t understand how I don’t know everything 100’s of millions of others know.” thread. Nonsense. The OP is about things that you would _expect_ to encounter given your cultural background, but somehow do not. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/6 "2019-01-10T04:33:51Z")
Well, if we take the OP literally, it’s obviously unanswerable. 🙂 For me, apparently, it’s Walter Mitty. I just googled terms on this message board that would remind me of big gaping black holes on cultural knowledge I would have, and, apparently (I don’t remember this), I started a thread five years ago asking about how well known Walter Mitty is. And, apparently, I completely forgot about it, because I have no clue who he is now, after starting a thread about it. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/7 "2019-01-10T05:09:48Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Nonsense. The OP is about things that you would _expect_ to encounter given your cultural background, but somehow do not. Given that criteria, there are hundreds of songs on hundreds of albums, B-sides of records and CDs from popular American and British artists that were big hits overseas, but not in their native country. BTW, if you count the main members of Wings (Paul and Linda, and Denny Laine), Wings was a British, not American band. At most a British/American Band. Same with American movies that are big flops in America, but do gangbusters overseas, especially currently in China. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/8 "2019-01-10T05:17:34Z")
Edit: The OP stated Wings is a British band. I thought he/she claimed it was American. I stand by my assertion that the OP reads like “I’m American and should be aware of everything that’s popular anywhere in the world!”, especially if the band, movie, TV show, book, etc. originated in the West. _SIGH_ ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/9 "2019-01-10T05:30:16Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > Given that criteria, there are hundreds of songs on hundreds of albums, B-sides of records and CDs from popular American and British artists that were big hits overseas, but not in their native country. > [@lingyi](#): > > I stand by my assertion that the OP reads like “I’m American and should be aware of everything that’s popular anywhere in the world!”… Still nope. You just seem to want to talk about your hobby horse of cultural parochialism, but that’s not what the OP is about. Although OP is American, he said quite clearly that he’s a fan of British music / Wings / McCartney, and that’s why he’s surprised he never came across it before. The OP is about works that are generally extremely well known to everyone else _with your cultural background, whatever that is_, but that somehow (oddly) you never encountered until much later. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/10 "2019-01-10T11:20:27Z")
I was surprised that I didn’t know anything about the Beatles. I’d heard of /She loves you yeah yeah yeah/ in '68 (although I didn’t know it was the Beatles), but after that I just thought they were some historical group. Years later I found out that they broke up in 1970. Ok, I was pre-teen, my parents didn’t have any interest in that kind of music, and I was off-grid in 1969, but it was a surprise when I realized that I had overlapped with ??? one of the great music sensations of western music in the 20th century ???, whose music clocked a generation, I was there and didn’t even know it was happening. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/11 "2019-01-10T11:41:48Z")
I first heard the Queen song _Don’t Stop Me Now_ when it was used in the movie _Shaun Of The Dead_. I am very familiar with Queen, and I thought I at least had heard of, if not thoroughly enjoyed, all their successful hits, but I had absolutely never heard _Don’t Stop Me Now_ ever before then. I don’t know how I missed it, especially as it’s on their notoriously popular Greatest Hits album. ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/12 "2019-01-10T11:56:42Z")
That’s happened to me a couple times. Probably the most telling one would be the 1968 movie _Head_. It was a film that starred The Monkees that was made shortly after their TV series ended. I was unaware of its existence until I found a copy on video tape in the 90s. It has since become one of my favorite films. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/13 "2019-01-10T15:09:47Z")
**GuanoLad** , same! I was even in a bit of a Queen phase when that movie came out and had been listening to a bunch of their stuff. That song completely caught me off guard. **lingyi** , nope. For me not to know a popular work in China is completely unsurprising. I don’t know Chinese culture / literature very well at all. This isn’t “what’s the most famous work you never heard of.” It’s “what work is _most surprising to you_ that hadn’t heard of.” The song I mentioned in OP is a \*massive \*hit by an artist I like enough that I wrote a homework biography of him, dressed as him at a costume party, and actually own and listen to his lesser-known solo work. That’s flippin’ surprising to me. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/14 "2019-01-10T16:22:59Z")
A couple of years ago, I wound up working security for a Michael Jackson musical. Obviously, this featured a collection of his best known hits, but, oddly, this being after his death, there was one new one. This confused me (especially by the 5th show I worked). Maybe some obscure song never released in the UK? Possibly they’d dredged it up from some written-but-never released stuff? But the audience all seemed to know it 😕 Maybe they were all just huuuge fans (for all they seemed like a bunch of drunk hen nights, hence the security)? Alternatively, I somehow never heard ‘_Billie Jean_’ until I was in my late 20s. It’s everywhere. They play it all the time on local radio. I still don’t understand what happened there. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/15 "2019-01-10T16:34:06Z")
A few weeks ago my husband and I were listening to the radio and Billy Joel’s _Keeping the Faith_ came on. My husband had never heard it before. We are both Americans who don’t live underneath a rock; I have no idea how he freakin’ _avoided_ this tune since 1984. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/16 "2019-01-10T17:32:14Z")
OK, so it’s down to me to say that, until post #2 above, I had never heard of _Dream of the Red Chamber_. > [@pulykamell](#): > > Well, if we take the OP literally, it’s obviously unanswerable. 🙂 Yeah, but I think is a close as we can possibly get. j ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/17 "2019-01-10T18:50:57Z")
When Rickrolling first became popular I didn’t have a clue who Rick Astley was, although I think I’d heard the song before. I never heard of Roy Orbison until after he died. Re: Dream of the Red Chamber. Honestly I can think of at least three popular Japanese stories I’d be willing to bet a vast majority of Americans have never heard of. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/18 "2019-01-10T20:17:31Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > Re: Dream of the Red Chamber. Honestly I can think of at least three popular Japanese stories I’d be willing to bet a vast majority of Americans have never heard of. When did we land in Japan? 🙂 I hear _Legend of the Eagle-Shooting Heroes_ has finally been translated into English? If nobody translates these kinds of novels, then it is not surprising if they fail to capture a completely global audience like _Harry Potter_ which is even available in bad Latin. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/19 "2019-01-10T20:26:37Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > …even available in bad Latin. Istermay andway Issusmay Ursleyday, ofway umbernay ourfay, Ivetpray Ivedray, ereway oudpray otay aysay atthay eythay ereway erfectlypay ormalnay, ankthay ouyay eryvay uchmay. Eythay ereway ethay astlay eoplepay ou’dyay expectway otay ebay involvedway inway anythingway angestray orway ysteriousmay, ecausebay eythay ustjay idn’tday oldhay ithway uchsay onsensenay. (I’m amassing a collection, in everything from Welsh to Esperanto) ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490/20 "2019-01-11T03:40:24Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > When did we land in Japan? 🙂 > > I hear _Legend of the Eagle-Shooting Heroes_ has finally been translated into English? If nobody translates these kinds of novels, then it is not surprising if they fail to capture a completely global audience like _Harry Potter_ which is even available in bad Latin. Shh…we’re only supposed to talk about American / British-centric things. 😃 I just checked and yes, it’s available on eBay on Amazon. It’s only two volumes though, where the Chinese versions have four, so don’t know if there’s two more coming. Vol. 1 is reasonable st \<$10 used, but Vol. 2 is $20. I’ll wait until it’s available as an eBook anyway. As for Japanese stories, the only novel off the top of my head is _Tale of Genji_l and several short stories like _Momotaro, The Snow Woman and The Man with a Wen_, though I’ve read a lot more. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatss-the-most-surprising-work-of-art-culture-that-youd-never-heard-of/827490.md?page=2)