“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 must be a complete idiot because I know nothing about the structure of an atom. I only did very basic science and dropped it at the first opportunity along with history as I hated them both.

About 20 years ago my cousin started seeing a girl. Lovely she was, but he finished with her because she’d never heard of John Lennon.

Yes, I agree, although things extend the realms they originate from too, like Freud, I’m pretty sure most people have had at least some peripheral knowledge or familiarity with him or the eodopus complex , no matter if you’ve studied psychology

I am a scientist and have to google Schrodinger's Cat every now and then because for some reason the knowledge never sticks, it's not my field. We all have gaps in our knowledge even when we are well acquainted with the wider subject. I do know the structure of an atom though.

Are you sure they weren't just generally singing the blues because of the drudgery of their jobs... and lamenting seeing so many raw hides because of those institutionally inadequate hospital gowns?!

After Dylan heard Hendrix's cover he liked it so much he started performing a cover of Hendrix's cover.

Never heard of the Zutons (I’m 58) but I do know Valerie wasn’t an original by Amy.

My 16 year old son is great like this. He doesn’t care how old a song is just whether he likes it. His friends parents have said what an excellent taste in music he has!

Isn't that how we all like music? Obviously we're probably going to gravitate to music of our youth or times when we had the opportunity to listen to current music but do people really not like something just because of when it was recorded?

Excellent in this context just means that he likes what they like surely

Not the same thing at all, but Creedence Clearwater Revival started to actually deliberately sing "There's a bathroom on the right" when performing Bad Moon Rising live after they realised that that's what everybody thought they were singing!

I know that Valerie - as performed by the Zutons and then by Amy Winehouse - is the same song; but I don't think it easily lends itself to easy side-by-side comparison.

The Zutons' male lead singer sang it as a rueful, heartfelt, plaintive song of lost/unrequited love to an ex-girlfriend; whereas Amy sang it as a funky dance song in the context of which the lyrics - presumably kind of about a friend - don't 100% actually make sense, but which are normally just seen as largely irrelevant, with the strong musical groove (and Amy's voice, of course) being the main attraction.

Yes, of course it's the same essential song, but I think it's far too simplistic to just try to say which version is 'better' than the other.

I think that mostly applies to the music of your youth because that is often associated with you forming a distinct identity that is not aligned with adults if you are under 18 or older adults. Liking older bands or singers can feed into that notion of identity but I personally think it is uncommon to like acts that are the generation that follows you which if you were in your 30s when Amy Winehouse became relevant you would probably wouldn't have that connection with the music.

My kids were both born in the 90s but really love 80s music - a lot more than I do!