You're hopelessly out of touch if you've never heard of...

Cafe Society
21

I’m going to see if I can recognize these in some way, any way, just off the top of my head. I’m 41.

Gwen Stephanie
No clue. Ok, this isn’t starting off well.

P Diddy
Hip hop artist? Feel like I should know this one.

Maroon 5
No clue. Not looking good, here.

Christina Aguilera
Pop singer. Heard of her, maybe I’ve heard a song or two.

Katy Perry
No clue.

Justin Timberlake
Pop singer. Exposed Janet Jackson’s boob. That’s all I know about him.

Beyonce
Pop singer. Blingy.

Justin Bieber
Pop singer and teeniebopper heart throb. To be avoided like the plague.

Nikki Minaj
Never heard of her.

Snoop
Hip hop artist. Decent actor. Hilariously ripped The Donald to shreds. Numerous run-ins with law enforcement.

Jay Z
Nope. I got nothin’ here.

Black Keys
Things are going wrong fast.

Adele
Glee
Huh?

Florence and the Machine
Feel like I’ve heard of this.

Ok. I’m hopelessly out of touch with the current Top 40. Somehow, life will go on.

22

Nope, unlike Quasimodo his face rings no bells. (and I googled to check that you were actually showing me real pictures of him…I know what this board is like!)

Thing is…where would he be that I would see him and take notice of him? what would I watch or listen to that would ingrain him in my memory?

23

All the 12 year-old girls I follow on Tumblr are into a band called “One Direction” now. I guess they’re the next big thing.

24

Internet culture in general. Facebook. Twitter. Farmville. Google. Tumblr. Youtube. LOL and BRB and OMG and STFU. Nigerian scammers. Lolcats and memes.

25

I realize why you included it but it was a tv show in a list of singers, and I wanted to clarify that in case anyone was thinking you were talking about some pop star going by Glee rather than the tv show.

26

Agreed on this - not so much the memes, but I think an understanding of why people value social networking is integral.

27

A lady at work in her 30’s had never heard of Fiddler on the Roof.

28

Of the list of current pop performers I recognized over half of the names but would only for a few of them be able to associate them with a song/songs or a photo. I’m out of touch, but I know and accept that.

29

Meh, I’ve worked with people that never heard of the Beatles.

30

Let’s see if I can give you a hand here:

Gwen Somewhat NSFW, a few swears
Here it is queued to the more famous line that came out of that song.
Here she is in a more recognizable role to some of our older members

You may know him as Puff Daddy

An older song
A current one with Xtina

This is just a fun video to watch.

Super Bass

Married to Beyonce
Can I get a

31

Television talk shows (day and nighttime), Saturday Night Live, magazine covers in the grocery checkout line, when you sign into certain email pages, the commercial for Google Chrome, music stores, Christmas specials, the nightly news, his movie or ads/trailers for it. Amazon.com, the paternity suit, a glut of Bieber-related merchandise in the stores, singing for the PRESIDENT? He’s literally unavoidable, which in itself is memorable.

32

Well I’m in the UK, get my news mainly from the BBC and Guardian, don’t listen to music radio, don’t watch ad-hoc tv as everything is PVR’d.

And I assure you he most certainly is avoidable…by me at least.

33

Except for Black Keys, I am proud to say I recognize all of the other names and things mentioned; and I even actually know something about 95% of them, I don’t just think ‘huh, yeah, saw that name in a tabloid’.

34

I heard a new insulting slang for a particular clique type today: Chav. Seems to be synonymous with poseur, only perhaps more arrogant and stupid.

Anyone familiar with this? And is it pronounced as it’s spell or more like ‘shav’ or ‘chave’ or how exactly?

35

I heard it here a few years ago accompanied by this picture. It seems to be the UK version of douche bag.

36

I’m in the US and he’s only vaguely on my radar. Most of the references cited I wasn’t aware of either.

37

FWIW I have a coworker in her late 50s who’d never heard of Lady Gaga until I mentioned her in passing once. I’m sure this coworker would be the first to admit she’s out of touch with pop culture, but I was still pretty surprised that she didn’t recognize the name at all. My best brief explanation of Lady Gaga was “She’s basically Madonna, but wears much stranger costumes.”

I later asked my mother, who’s about the same age, and she did know that there was a singer named Lady Gaga but she had the vague idea she was a hip hop singer. I’d really only expect an older person to know that there exists a popular singer called Lady Gaga, though.

I’m pretty sure “chav” has been in use for several years…in the UK. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered the term in the US. It’s my understanding that that Sasha Baron Cohen’s character Ali G is a broad caricature of a chav and Catherine Tate’s character Lauren is a somewhat more realistic chav[ette].

38

The edit window closed before I realized I hadn’t actually answered the OP’s question. I think that’s because I’m a little confused about what exactly is being asked.

Do you mean pop culture figures who’d be well-known to 20-somethings, or pop culture figures a 20-something would consider so famous that they’d expect older people to know about them? I’m 30, so older than you’re asking about, but looking at Joey P’s list there are a lot of names there I’d expect a 50 year old not to have heard of. The ones I’d assume were known at least by name to people around my mother’s age are Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Adele, Justin Timberlake, the TV show Glee (which is at least partially targeted at middle aged viewers), and maybe Justin Bieber.

39

43, almost 44 and to give a run at knorf’s experiment:

Gwen Stephanie( Stefani ) - Recognize, know the early No Doubt hits, could probably pick her out of a lineup.

P Diddy - Know him by reputation and am vaguely aware of his significance. Not very familiar with his own ouevre, but could probably pick him out of lineup.

Maroon 5 - No clue.

Christina Aguilera - Aware of her, might be able to pick her out of a lineup. Couldn’t name a single song.

Katy Perry - As per Aguilera. Unfamiliar with her work except in the most passing way, but she is slightly recognizable to me from media exposure.

Justin Timberlake - Know him, don’t care for his music, but I have a friend who was once a fanatic fan and thus am reasonably familiar.

Beyonce - Similar to Aguilera and Perry, except I also know her from that Austin Powers film.

Justin Bieber - Reputation only. Couldn’t pick him out of a lineup.

Nikki Minaj - No clue.

Snoop - Somewhat familiar.

Jay Z - Know by reputation, can’t picture his face.

Black Keys - Nope.

Adele - Nope.

Glee - TV show I never watch. Not my cup of tea by description.

Florence and the Machine - Another one for the “not a clue” pile.

I will note that I’ve never been a big pop music/Top 40 guy. At least not in the modern era ( I listened to some 1960’s and 1970’s pop rock stuff ). I was into funk and some rock in my early teens, classic rock + blues + hard bop & fusion jazz into my twenties, alternative/punk rock + oldies + folk + world music + old timey country/bluegrass + classical in my thirties.

So I suspect even if I was a teenager today, this stuff would mostly be outside my interest range, with the possible exception of No Doubt, who I thought did some catchy stuff ( though apparently her biggest fanbase at the time were tweener girls ).

40

The first part of my list are names that I think a 20 something would expect a 50 something to have heard of. Remember, the question isn’t “Who would a 50 year old have heard of?” it was “Who would a 20 year old think a 50 year old would know of?” The wording changes the question.
The second list in my post are people that I think some 20 year olds might mention but I think most would be smart enough to know a 50 year old aren’t going to know who, for example, Nikki Minaj is.