I just hope I'm still around in 40 years to witness someone try to explain the significance of Panda Bear to a teen.

i'm sure Drinky has a review somewhere we can steal and just read off when the time comes.

or we could just be all '7.5'

try again.

Or the significance of any of the straight ahead rock bands who sound like millions of other bands who have done the exact same thing for the past 40 years. But you know, innovation and originality are really highly overrated qualities in music anyway.

You could have just said "someone forty years from now trying to explain Julian Casablancas to a teen".

Yeah, you're kinda missing the point, but it's the same point you've always missed so carry on, soldier.

What is this point I have always missed? Really, fill me in, I could use a good enlightening today dude.

he was in the beatles

...he hella old too.

too funny, dale. wow.

i am so sad

Perspective: How many years since Bill Haley? Elvis? Things are extremely sped up now, guys. To these responders, McCartney is 30 years away, and that's Wings.

I did the math and figured it was the same as me not knowing who Sinatra or Louis Armstrong were when I was 12ish, and I might have known a lot about them but I wouldn't be confused as to why they were on TV.

and also Beatles 1 was the top selling album of the 2000s, and the even have an enormously popular video game it's not like they are relegated to the oldies station.

mccartney looks like a golden girl.

Hell, I can't name any of the Andrews Sisters today, much less when I was 15.

McCartney = most historically successful / "significant" living rock star, no?

It's not really about 2012-[number of years] = Ok to not know who he is.

ABBA LIBEL!!!

My brother was born in 1989. He know who McCartney is, but Paul hasn't had a hit in his entire lifetime. I think that does make a difference. We aren't a good sample, but how many of our peers knew who Glenn Miller was?

I also think context is important. I'd bet a lot of these people are aware that the Beatles existed, though they can't name all four. Same would happen with the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin.

We also realize a big part of this is cultural. How many white folks could name a single member of the Temptations, Four Tops or Boyz II Men?

Thanks, Fu. That was really my point. We think it's unexcusable, but it doesn't change reality.

As an aside... it's sacrilegious to put B2M in the same category as the Temptations or the Four Tops. It's like saying no one knows who was in the Beatles or Badfinger.

I think what's most infuriating (if you want to let it annoy you, which I suppose I enjoy) is the pride (that is not limited to this generation) in not knowing something. But I'm glad I didn't have a soapbox when I was 14, I'm sure I had some incredible opinions.

I hate reading my posts on this board from 2005, so I'll try to not judge them too hard.

I think Elvis Fu basically summed it up. Still makes me kinda sad. But at least, thanks to name-dropping The Four Tops, I now have "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" in my head, and that's never a bad thing.


I hate reading my posts from yesterday.