Lack of Knowledge
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Many people my age have heard of the Beatles. They even wear Beatles shirts (some of them) But when I ask them to name the four Beatles, they're screwed! ("Uh... Joe... Um.... Um... Bob....") And when I told everyone I saw Paul this past weekend... NO ONE CARES!! It really irks me. But who do I blame? Them or their parents?
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My children like to joke with me ..WHO WAS THAT GROUP YOU LIKE? THE BEATLES..JOHN McCARTNEY?
I know they know better. But they love to tease!! 
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KingMacca:
Many people my age have heard of the Beatles. They even wear Beatles shirts (some of them) But when I ask them to name the four Beatles, they're screwed! ("Uh... Joe... Um.... Um... Bob....") And when I told everyone I saw Paul this past weekend... NO ONE CARES!! It really irks me. But who do I blame? Them or their parents?
I had a young woman who cut my hair years ago (in her mid 20's) who had no idea who Paul McCartney was - lol. Many people today can't tell you who the current VP of the US is so are you really surprised they don't know the names of individual Beatles. My daughters (age 24 and 22) love The Beatles and they "begged" us to take them to see McCartney when he came to Charlotte NC a couple of years ago. If people don't know The Beatles or appreciate someone seeing them live, does not bother me.
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Mind you do you think kids in 1963 knew who Al Jolson or Enrico Caruso were?
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Well, that's alright...it's not good to be "over-exposed"...in one of my Paul books, he said he digs it that new generations coming up won't know about him and can discover his music anew with a blank slate. Something like that. That they can discover the Fabs too I assume he meant. Some won't discover it at all and bypass all that, unfortunately. That's their loss.
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MaccaBeatles:
Mind you do you think kids in 1963 knew who Al Jolson or Enrico Caruso were?
I was a kid in '63 and I knew who they were!
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KingMacca:
Many people my age have heard of the Beatles. They even wear Beatles shirts (some of them) But when I ask them to name the four Beatles, they're screwed! ("Uh... Joe... Um.... Um... Bob....") And when I told everyone I saw Paul this past weekend... NO ONE CARES!! It really irks me. But who do I blame? Them or their parents?
I know what you mean... A LOT of young people in south FL give me this same reaction.
Another one I get a lot when I discuss Paul is "Oh, he's that guy from the Beatles!" I respond 'yes' and they go on to say "Wasn't he killed?" [facepalm] -
Okay, I just did a little experiment. Bear in mind that I was 8 in 1964 and in high school in the early '70s, so I just looked up the top hits of the year 1930, conveniently listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930_in_music I count four names that I might have heard of when I was in high school, and one of them -- Ozzie Nelson -- I would not have known was a musician. Yet many of these people were huge stars in their day. That's life. Popular culture is ephemeral. That the Beatles are as big as they are 43 years after they split is extraordinary.
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Bruce M.:
Popular culture is ephemeral. That the Beatles are as big as they are 43 years after they split is extraordinary.
Very true... As a unit, they are still universally known and their impact is immeasurable, which is extremely impressive.
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I cannot believe people don't know who the Beatles are, but it's true, many young people are idiots these days (and no, I'm not some crusty old 70 yr old fart, I'm only 33!). Luckily my 4 kids (ages 8, 7, 4, 2) are being raised right...they know all the names of the Beatles, albums titles and covers, loads of songs and lyrics...my wife and I are very proud of this
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Bruce M.:
Okay, I just did a little experiment. Bear in mind that I was 8 in 1964 and in high school in the early '70s, so I just looked up the top hits of the year 1930, conveniently listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930_in_music I count four names that I might have heard of when I was in high school, and one of them -- Ozzie Nelson -- I would not have known was a musician. Yet many of these people were huge stars in their day. That's life. Popular culture is ephemeral. That the Beatles are as big as they are 43 years after they split is extraordinary.
Yep, outside of Rudy Vallee, Guy Lombardo and Fanny Brice I would not have known anything else.
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Kids identify w/ music of their generation as did all of us & have fond memories that include the music of that time. .
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Being in my 20's myself, I have known about The Beatles practically since birth, even though I wasn't a fan until high school (and just a general fan). I didn't become a massive Beatles fan until after I discovered Wings and developed a whole new appreciation for Paul, which led me back to deeper immersion into the Beatles. I credit most of it to my parents. It is how I was raised, with that music playing in my house. And while my parents certainly encouraged me, they didn't force anything on to me. I was exposed to many types of music growing up, but I clung to Elvis, The Beatles, Sinatra, Neil Diamond, Elton John, etc. My personal experience is strange, to say the least, considering most of my friends my age know who Paul McCartney is (to quite an extent), but don't care for the music because they're into pop music or hip hop, etc. They appreciate the Beatles for who they were in their time, but find them irrelevant in this day and age, which is upsetting. To go with that, older people I encounter usually tell me that people they meet in their teens and 20's have never heard of Paul, which I only saw for the first time after the Grammy's when Paul did "Golden Slumbers" and Twitter was abuzz with "who's Paul McCartney?" and other unnecessary old man references - which came again with the Nirvana collaboration (and also raised some eyebrows of my friends - in a good way). Why I found that so strange is because I go to a lot of Beatles tribute band shows around Chicago, and its Beatlefest, and I've seen Paul in concert several times, and I see LOTS of young people. Very many people around my age. Which is awesome! In the end, my guess is it's some combination of the way individuals are raised, and of course, their own personal preferences. Being able to ignore stereotypes such as "old music sucks because it's old" is also important for people my age. For example, I have a friend who won't listen to Elvis or the Beatles because "Elvis is dead" and "the Beatles are old; Paul's old, etc.". Then one day "Jet" comes on the radio and he's jamming in the front seat, and blasting the volume, screaming "I love this song"! Found out he never knew who it was. When I told him it was Paul, he flipped.
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LetMeRollIt89:
Being in my 20's myself, I have known about The Beatles practically since birth, even though I wasn't a fan until high school (and just a general fan). I didn't become a massive Beatles fan until after I discovered Wings and developed a whole new appreciation for Paul, which led me back to deeper immersion into the Beatles. I credit most of it to my parents. It is how I was raised, with that music playing in my house. And while my parents certainly encouraged me, they didn't force anything on to me. I was exposed to many types of music growing up, but I clung to Elvis, The Beatles, Sinatra, Neil Diamond, Elton John, etc. My personal experience is strange, to say the least, considering most of my friends my age know who Paul McCartney is (to quite an extent), but don't care for the music because they're into pop music or hip hop, etc. They appreciate the Beatles for who they were in their time, but find them irrelevant in this day and age, which is upsetting. To go with that, older people I encounter usually tell me that people they meet in their teens and 20's have never heard of Paul, which I only saw for the first time after the Grammy's when Paul did "Golden Slumbers" and Twitter was abuzz with "who's Paul McCartney?" and other unnecessary old man references - which came again with the Nirvana collaboration (and also raised some eyebrows of my friends - in a good way). Why I found that so strange is because I go to a lot of Beatles tribute band shows around Chicago, and its Beatlefest, and I've seen Paul in concert several times, and I see LOTS of young people. Very many people around my age. Which is awesome! In the end, my guess is it's some combination of the way individuals are raised, and of course, their own personal preferences. Being able to ignore stereotypes such as "old music sucks because it's old" is also important for people my age. For example, I have a friend who won't listen to Elvis or the Beatles because "Elvis is dead" and "the Beatles are old; Paul's old, etc.". Then one day "Jet" comes on the radio and he's jamming in the front seat, and blasting the volume, screaming "I love this song"! Found out he never knew who it was. When I told him it was Paul, he flipped.
Do you know that WXRT 93.1 in Chicago has a Breakfast with the Beatles on every Sunday morning? It starts at 8am. Check it out. Terry Hemmert is host (she also hosts lots of stuff at Beatlefest).
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Bruce M.:
Okay, I just did a little experiment. Bear in mind that I was 8 in 1964 and in high school in the early '70s, so I just looked up the top hits of the year 1930, conveniently listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930_in_music I count four names that I might have heard of when I was in high school, and one of them -- Ozzie Nelson -- I would not have known was a musician. Yet many of these people were huge stars in their day. That's life. Popular culture is ephemeral. That the Beatles are as big as they are 43 years after they split is extraordinary.
Just a cursory glance, but I knew of about 8-10 of those artists.
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DrBeatle:
I cannot believe people don't know who the Beatles are, but it's true, many young people are idiots these days (and no, I'm not some crusty old 70 yr old fart, I'm only 33!). Luckily my 4 kids (ages 8, 7, 4, 2) are being raised right...they know all the names of the Beatles, albums titles and covers, loads of songs and lyrics...my wife and I are very proud of this
Maybe you should change that to "crusty old 80 year old fart" since our Paul is 70 (almost 71!)
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It's just the passage of youth. That and the fact kids now, generally speaking, live for the moment and have no interest in the past. It's an "instant coffee nentality" A You Tube, FB, social media world and they rarely have an attention span longer than 10 minutes.
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Nancy R:
Bruce M.:
Okay, I just did a little experiment. Bear in mind that I was 8 in 1964 and in high school in the early '70s, so I just looked up the top hits of the year 1930, conveniently listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930_in_music I count four names that I might have heard of when I was in high school, and one of them -- Ozzie Nelson -- I would not have known was a musician. Yet many of these people were huge stars in their day. That's life. Popular culture is ephemeral. That the Beatles are as big as they are 43 years after they split is extraordinary.
Just a cursory glance, but I knew of about 8-10 of those artists.
To be clear, I recognize about as many names as you do now, but I absolutely would not have known them in my teens, or even my twenties.
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Bruce M.:
Nancy R:
Bruce M.:
Okay, I just did a little experiment. Bear in mind that I was 8 in 1964 and in high school in the early '70s, so I just looked up the top hits of the year 1930, conveniently listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930_in_music I count four names that I might have heard of when I was in high school, and one of them -- Ozzie Nelson -- I would not have known was a musician. Yet many of these people were huge stars in their day. That's life. Popular culture is ephemeral. That the Beatles are as big as they are 43 years after they split is extraordinary.
Just a cursory glance, but I knew of about 8-10 of those artists.
To be clear, I recognize about as many names as you do now, but I absolutely would not have known them in my teens, or even my twenties.
I knew of them from the time I was a kid or teen.
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I work at a music store and anyone that wants to apply for a job needs to fill a music quiz. We used to have as one of the questions to name 5 Beatles songs... It was sad to see how many people made tons of mistakes (we didn't really take their applications though). We changed it to name all the Beatles, with a similar result. Most people can name Paul & John. We also added a question where people have to match the lead singer with the band and between the choices, there's Wings and Paul. You guys should see the amount of people who think there's a mistake in the quiz (because the Beatles aren't in the choices).
