“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 knew who Maya Jama was , not from love island ( I don’t watch that) but from the masked singer tv show and also Stormy’s ex too.
There are lots of new celebs around I don’t know though.

I've no idea who Maya Jama is but I'm old

Was chatting to someone years ago who had never heard of Led Zeppelin or that the top of the pops intro music was one of their songs.
Same with ‘ the chain ‘ by Fleetwood Mac that was used for formula one intro music and that didn’t know it was a song with lyrics as well.

Saw her at an airport once drawing attention to herself but claiming she was trying not to be noticed 🙄

Did you find that surprising? I wouldn't at all, a few bars taken from songs that you haven't heard, why would you bother to try and find out where they came from?

I like to know stuff but I don't Google the samples of theme music of TV programmes especially ones I don't watch

As it happens I do both of your example but thats because of my musical tastes

It's the same for me when a famous film star is appearing on a TV show - I have zero interest in films so have absolutely no idea who the actors are! This is completely true!

@PistachioTiramisu I'm exactly the same with any "Celebrity" version of a programme. The celebrities are usually people who've appeared on reality shows and as I don't watch those I've no idea who anyone is.

I've never heard the mouse lived in a windmill song and I'm late 50s. Also never watched Futurama or Family Guy and only occasional episodes of The SImpsons. I don't know who Adam Baxter is either.

You wouldn't know who Puccini was, by your argument.

Not with music, but I have a friend who is the same age as me (early 40s) and had never heard of the films The Goonies and Wayne’s World

I came across someone of my age etc (late 40s/50ish, Brit) who hadn't heard of Rudolf Nureyev.

My friend same age as me early 50s with young adult kids like me, had never heard of Only Fans…..

I was with a couple of people 10 years younger than me that didn't know who Blue were. The first asked and I was saying you must know Blue, they were a huge boy band. Other chirps in and says they've never heard of them either. I know they weren't the Beetles or even Take That level but they still pop up on the radio and have done recent performances and documentaries so I just couldn't fathom how someone wouldn't know who they are.

I didn't know who Maya Jama was. Reality show presenter ?

My ex was - not thick exactly but he must have gone through school with his head in a bucket. He'd never heard of Oliver Cromwell or the Civil War. Given that we live in an area with a lot of castles which were 'put beyond use' during the Civil War, I had to assume that he had basically no intellectual curiosity whatsoever.

I told my Pilates instructor (mid 20s) that I was watching The Pitt. She said she hadn’t heard of it so I said it was the guy from ER. She didn’t know what that was. Then I said that the show is kind of like 24, in that it’s an hour of time per episode. She didn’t know what that was either….

I remember my friend being incredulous that I didn’t know who Stephen Hawking was. This was 20 odd years ago when I was in my 20s. She was gobsmacked.

The Sunday night of Glastonbury 2024 was headlined by SZA. I had genuinely never heard of her or heard any of her music. I don’t listen to R1 or pretend to be up to date with today’s music but the fact that I was completely oblivious about an artist big enough to headline Glastonbury shocked me & made me feel very old & out of touch indeed.

I was working on 9/11 this year and me and some colleagues were having the usual chat, where were you when etc… and I turned to a younger colleague (didn’t know her exact age tbf) and asked where was she on 9/11. She didn’t know what I was talking about. After I explained she did infact know about 9/11 but the fact she didn’t immediately know exactly what I was talking about and needed it explained completely shocked me! Turns out she wasn’t born yet!

I’m a massive Pulp fan and my friend recently bought me this necklace. A colleague (30ish) asked me what it meant and I explained it came from Common People. She’d never heard of the band or the song! (Fortunately another colleague, who’s even younger knew exactly what it was about as it’s one of her favourite songs. My faith in young people was restored!

Love that necklace ! I do like how Jarvis says those words .! Lol

She was clearly an extra terrestrial!

I can understand why younger people don’t know who Blue are. Firstly, they were crap at the time and secondly the radio stations that are still playing them aren’t the stations that the ‘hooves’ are listening to!

Went to the Elvis Costello concert in Portsmouth earlier this year. Chatting to two young men on the train journey down, they’d never heard of him. Even after I’d sung them half the back catalogue!

Brilliant !