“Amy Winehouse? Who?” - What’s your “surely everyone knows who/what” moment?

[hotpotina]

I was with some fairly new Canadian friends recently and "Valarie" by Amy Winehouse came on. I immediately started humming/singing along and one of them asked “what's this song?” I said (probably with a confused expression) “ It's... Valerie... by Amy Winehouse...” and they both said they'd never heard of her.

Now, I KNOW. I KNOW there are massive cultural, generational and geographical differences in what people know. Obviously I do. But for some reason Amy Winehouse is just so completely embedded in my personal schema that for a second I genuinely couldn't compute someone not knowing who she was. She feels (to me) like one of those people who are simply there in people's consciousness; whether you actually like them or they were ever particularly relevant to your life seems almost beside the point.

It made me realise how funny these little cultural blind spots are. There must be many things that are ubiquitous to one person, that another person has somehow just never encountered.

Have you ever had this happen, where someone didn't know something/person that you genuinely presumed consciously or subconsciously was universal known? And do you have a “surely EVERYONE knows who/what they are” person (or thing etc) that you'd be surprised if someone had no knowledge of that thing?

I thought that Amy Winehouse and that song was well known all over the English speaking world, but clearly not. My late parents often didn’t know many well known singers or actors though. Simply not that interested in them.

I had a penpal in America when I was about 20-ish - early 1990s, (she was 19,) and inexplicably she had never heard of Abba.

I was like WTAF?!

If they're younger, they'd probably be more likely to know Oasis etc. It does seem odd how they know some older acts, but it's like with Traitors-some I've never heard of, that the younger people in my family know really well, and the other way round too.

I thought everyone had heard of Abba ! They had a bit of a resurgence in the early 90s with bands sampling their music and so on. That is a shock , but I guess some people are just not into music at all.

My Canadian mil had never heard of Homer Simpson.

Haha , I hope you did your duty and introduced her ! Every girl needs ABBA in their life imo

My late dad asked me who David Bowie was when he died and it was all over the news!

I can’t imagine there is anyone who hasn’t heard of The Beatles and also Princess Diana.

Ask them if they know Alessia Cara.

I love that Phil Collins is now big on tik tok and the young are discovering what a great track ‘ in the air tonight ‘ is!

In the hairdresser's, about 20 years ago, I was having my hair cut from long to short and layered.
I jokingly said to the hairdresser, 'Please don't make me look like Cilla Black. She said, 'Who is Cilla Black?'.

Meatloaf. So when he died I was doing covid vaccinations at the council. Lots of youngsters working with me
Us oldies were all "oh nooo", one poor little 17 year old said " what's meatloaf". Shrieks of laughter etc.
Then I pointed out to the rest of us oldies that none of us had heard who he listens to, and played him Bat out if Hell. He loved it.

It is weird when I say a name and my sons go ‘ who?’
However, they know who Abba, Amy and David Bowie are and even Cilla black!

I’ll be honest, I only ever heard of Amy Winehouse after she had died!

I think age has a big bearing on this kind of thing. I was recently listening to the music quiz that’s on weekday mornings on radio two and the contestant was missing so many things that to me were ‘how could you not know that?!’ But then there was a question around a song, big hit in last couple of years and I didn’t have a clue.

I'm not sure if it's a Canadian thing or a them thing, I thought the same as you!

I am useless with music from 2010 onwards to be honest. Modern day singers I haven’t much idea who they are.

Can I ask where you're from? (I'm trying to gauge how much of my assumption comes from it being a British thing )

But, had they heard of the Zutons?

I prefer the Zutons version.

Happens to me all the time at work as I mainly work with people 10-30 years younger than me. I was of a mind to say "Jeffrey Archer's died" when I went to work this morning just to see all the eyes glaze over.

I had a conversation with DP this morning about Jeffery Archer and DP said he didn’t know who he was - even when I showed him a picture, he said the face wasn’t familiar. DP is in his 60s so I thought he’d know.

A group of about 6 of DD's teachers (some of whom were in their late 40s) had never heard of Bob Dylan. I find that odd!

Our 17 year old cat is named after Fry in Futurama, dh’s work colleague who is about 15 or 20 years younger than us had never seen it so didn’t know the character reference.

As you get older, all the time.
It is depressing. What I find depressing is the lack of curiosity in yesterday. Not just in music but anything really. By too many.
Who is John Lennon ? That sort of ignorance makes me cross.
There are some people who have influenced globally and who, if you have an interest in a topic ( music here), should have heard of.