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Jeopardy!' fans dumbfounded when contestants can't recognize legendary rockers: 'A complete societal failure'


Hackenbush

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It depends on the age of the contestants. I'd fully expect most Baby Boomers to know the answer, and at least half of Generation X, but beyond that all bets are off.

I remember about five years ago I asked a Millennial to name in reverse order the US Presidents. They struggled to reply "Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton"...silence...  
 
Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy was released 50 YEARS ago, but it's not so much like asking a kid in 2000 to name a number one album from 1950. Rather, the 
realization that there are fewer and fewer truly universal pop culture points of reference being established within the 21st century entertainment landscape. We had 
AM/FM and three main tv channels providing 90% of pop culture entertainment. These Tide pod eaters have 200 channel cable tv packages, streaming and the net.
 
Actually, I myself have noticed over the past ten years that whenever a so-called celebrity death makes the news I have no idea who those celebrities are. I'd be hard
pressed to name three shows on television right now, or a single hit song on any pop chart. It's strange because not only are the '70s-'80s right in my wheelhouse, as
expected, but I also have more than a fair amount of knowledge about pop culture from the '50-60s, whereas again the Millenials are completely self-referential. They 
think history began when they were born.          
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Let's see how many elderly folks on here can name hip hop artists of the last ten years. I'd guarantee if there was a contest between the two the younger generations could name more classic rock artists than vice versa.

You can chalk that up however you want but this is very much "people who don't share my interests are inferior".

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17 hours ago, SteveAJones said:
It's strange because not only are the '70s-'80s right in my wheelhouse, as
expected, but I also have more than a fair amount of knowledge about pop culture from the '50-60s, whereas again the Millenials are completely self-referential.

Totally agree, today I was playing the soundtrack to American Graffiti. It opens with Rock Around The Clock and is packed full of great 50's rockers.  

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11 hours ago, The Only Way To Fly said:

Totally agree, today I was playing the soundtrack to American Graffiti. It opens with Rock Around The Clock and is packed full of great 50's rockers.  

As I thought more about it I had the realization free form radio was in large part responsible for cultivating my broad knowledge and awareness of popular music. Nowadays, if younger listeners are tuned into radio at all, they're probably being fed a steady diet of programming lists that have at best a couple dozen different songs.

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