As to the lower part …
I cannot imagine giving two shits if any celebrity died. Current or past. Not that I have any animosity towards any of them individually or the concept of celebrity in general. But they’re strangers to me, not friends or even acquaintances.
The idea of their death hitting me, much less hard, is simply foreign to my nature. Their individual product may be kinda unique, or may be pretty generic within its genre. In the case of almost everyone on the OP’s list, they are making no new product. Whether e.g. Ringo Starr is dead or alive, I can listen to everything he ever released whenever I’m so inclined. Be that often, seldom, or never.
Whether a celeb is dead or alive means just about exactly zero to me. No different from anyone else in the phone book who I’ve never met, be they famous, a fat-cat, or a humble laborer.
I’m not trying to call you out or say you’re wrong and I’m right. You did a nice job of outlining a position very different from my own, so I just wanted to comment from the other end of the spectrum. Vive la différence!
Sir Paul is way ahead of everyone. He had the most widespread personal impact and he’s stayed in the public eye. Dylan may have a huge impact to musicians of a certain age but he’s tried to hide from the world for decades.
I don’t know if you dropped Ringo’s name next to the previous sentence on purpose, i.e. an example. But both he and Macca still produce new music. In Ringo’s case it’s, IMO, totally forgettable but nice pop. But he does make new stuff.
As for affecting me - No, I don’t know them. Many who are past their prime as creators and still put out stuff are not at the level they once were. But I’m still sad that Prince died too young. Even though his output over the years has been, um, varied in quality, there was always a hope that he had one more really great album in him. Same with Bowie. And Macca still makes really good stuff, as this colab with Beck proves:
Ringo was a mostly random choice, with a bit of name recognition and not needing to look up how to spell it . I had no idea he was still releasing new material.
It’s also a big part of why so many people now have no idea who he is or what he did. Possibly he helped popularize the name ‘Dylan’ further adding to his obscurity.
I feel similarly, but there’s a difference when the celebrity is an artist who is still creating. Most of the people on the list are not doing much that’s new or groundbreaking, but some are. (Dolly Parton was excluded, but she’s a good example.) Their death is not just the death of an acquaintance you’ve never met, but the loss of any future material from them.
Personally, with musicians, I find that they have a range of about 20 years, max—either they stop producing good material, or they evolve as artists but the good new material they produce doesn’t speak to me in the same way that their early career stuff did.
Which I find interesting, given that I saw him in concert in 2018 or 2019, on what was billed as his retirement tour. Even then, I figured that odds were high he wasn’t going to be actually and fully retiring.
I could imagine a young phenom with his/her best days ahead of them dying young and me semi-lamenting what they never had a chance to do / never did.
For somebody 60+ or 80+, any new work they do will mostly be obsolete & derivative, or mediocre. Or both. Missing on that sort of potential work after they kick it seems little loss.
In any case, IMO the personal connection so many fans seem to feel for “their” artists is simply the triumph of marketing over any sort of sense.
I’ve seen him in concert many times. At one show in particular he was classic Dylan; halfway through a song he glanced at his watch and immediately stopped singing. He was supposed to play until 10 and it was 10. Thank you and goodnight!
Some places have really harsh penalties for playing past curfew, though 10 seems really early for that. He likely was just contractually obligated to play a set amount of time, and did.
Yep, classic Dylan. I and everyone around whooped&cheered when he slammed on his brakes at 10. People around us who didn’t get it wondered what was going on.
I think Elton John would be on a few people’s list; he’s currently 76 and just did his last concert tour (yeah, right). There was that other recent thread somewhere here with many people loathing him, but his death would be a leading news story.
Every ranking is subjective. It is also has to have one bizarro entry so that instead of people nodding and going to the next thing, they stop in fury and amazement and respond endlessly. Rolling Stone made a career of those rankings. If blogs still exist I’m sure they’re filled with scorn at the Top Hundred Guitarists from 2015.
No matter what your personal feelings are, the fact is that huge percentages of the population everywhere feel personal connections. To celebrities in general, to musicians in particular. Music fills countless hours of our lives. For many people its a near constant background. This creates not merely a connection, but awe and wonder around the creator. Nor did this connection start with rock music, although that had the amplification function of television and dedicated radio stations. What we now call classical music and opera developed fan bases that appear identical to today’s veneration.
My personal top ten would look different from what I posted. I thought it would be more fun to have a guessing game about the world. I’m a little disappointed that none of the UK crowd submitted a list. I’m sure that it would look different. People will go bananas when Cliff Richard dies, even as the Americans go who?
C’mon, any UKians out there? The rest of the world? I want to hear from you.
The thread is about the biggest splash that would happen upon someone’s death. Not your personal feelings about him.
I didn’t know that. Which illustrates the point. Sir Paul does interviews, he goes on late night talk shows, he still gets followed by paparazzi. Just Bob…doesn’t. He released an album to his niche audience and has a quiet tour. McCartney will have a much bigger splash.
. I had no idea he was still releasing new material.