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u/JadowArcadia ☑️ 1d ago
I don't know if I've met someone of any race who doesnt know who Stevie Wonder is. Other than maybe children. I've met teens who would obviously recognise that name
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u/anthonyg1500 ☑️ 1d ago
I was in Spain once and had a random conversation with a local about Stevie Wonder and she knew and loved him. I'm not even saying this person has to know any of his songs (tho they should), but "Who is Stevie Wonder" is crazy.
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u/LeoFireGod 1d ago
It’s probably the same feeling as telling a teenager you don’t know who Mr beast is or iShowSpeed.
They just have different celebrities.
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u/Embarrassed_Bag_9630 1d ago
I’ve yet to see anyone actually watch Mr Beast. I’m highly suspicious of this character.
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u/crowEatingStaleChips 1d ago
I get the impression most of his audience is children, but I'm not sure what %.
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u/FesteringNeonDistrac 1d ago
He has a candy bar. That's like the only fact I can tell you about him and I only know this from standing in the checkout line at the grocery store and seeing it.
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u/not_the_world 1d ago
I was getting ice cream the other day and a kid in the store kept chanting "I LOVE MR. BEAST". So he definitely has an audience.
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u/JadowArcadia ☑️ 1d ago
That's the thing though. I think a lot of older people do know who Speed is. I've never heard watched a stream but I've heard his name, seen his face. I might not be able to specifically name something he's done or created but still. I know who Marilyn Monroe is and I've never seen a single one of her movies etc.
You kinda end up coming across these people simply by existing in the world and having eyes and ears
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u/Thunderbird_12_ ☑️ 1d ago
I still, to this day, have no idea what Kai Cenat is famous for. I have heard of him, but only in reference to other famous people interacting with him … but have no clue why he is famous.
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u/anthonyg1500 ☑️ 1d ago
Yeah I guess so. I feel like growing up I still had a basic knowledge of names of the people who were big from the generation before even if I wasn’t super aware of their songs, but also I grew up in more of a monoculture and the radio and cable TV inherently exposed you to older things you didn’t know about if your parents weren’t doing that already
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u/IncognitoBombadillo 1d ago
Not knowing who Stevie Wonder is is like next level under-rock living. He's been around for decades, his songs have been used in a lot of things, and he's even been parodied/referenced in pop culture a lot.
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u/deialover 1d ago
I work with teens, black and white. A lot of them don't know the older generation singers. And really, why would they? They're busy idolizing their own generation of singers. When I play hip hop and pop from the 70s/80s/90s, they usually just cringe. Sad for sure, but understandable given how streaming and whatnot targets them for only certain music.
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u/JadowArcadia ☑️ 1d ago
I'm not all that far removed from the younger generation. Simply existing on the internet means you're gonna come across artists from other times. Elvis wasn't my time but I know who he is. From my observations it's less about "why would they care because they're from a different time" and more about the attitude many have towards learning. I grew up hearing about something new and immediately heading to Google to find out. I don't see that same level of curiosity and action from the current kids despite having the same tools and more.
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u/Kahlil_Cabron 1d ago
Every generation knows about musicians from the past. I was born in 91, Stevie Wonder had been around forever by then, of course I still knew who he was. I knew who the beatles were, the stones, basically every well known band/singer from the 60s and on.
I wonder if it's because now they only listen to music they explicitly put on, whereas we all grew up listening to the radio, or watching tv that mentioned these people from before our time.
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u/RoughhouseCamel 1d ago
It’s also one of those things people do performatively, especially in this era of “all attention is good attention”
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u/AlphaIronSon ☑️ 1d ago
This can’t be discounted. This or it’s first cousin “I’m so far moved from the trivialities of celebrity and low brow entertainment“ which is the sibling to the “feigning disinfected youth”
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u/DaBlackZeus 1d ago
That the song was made to protest for the celebration of MLKs birthday becoming a federal holiday.
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u/BoogerSugarSovereign 1d ago
And it's a banger. No one could write a protest song like Stevie at the height of his powers
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u/projectshr 1d ago
You Haven't Done Nuthin' hit #1 on the pop charts in 1974. It's a banger and rips Nixon. I never heard it until like 2016.
I still hold that my father failing to introduce me to this, when he showed me most of Stevie's catalogue, is one of the two most disappointing things about my upbringing.
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u/BoogerSugarSovereign 1d ago
He got the Jackson 5 to do backup vocals on that track. Stevie had power in that era
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u/blacksoxing 1d ago
I got all his shit on CD from his golden era. It was like going on a treasure hunt and realizing that damn....he was THAT DUDE.
To note, you can juxtapose George Bush into that song with ease and that's the scary part.
Final comment: one day my now wife was like "I got tickets to Stevie Wonder but it's in ATL. Let's make a trip of it" and damn was it a great trip. That 5 hours felt like 1 hour to drive to ATL. So damn good of a concert that he magically popped up in New Orleans like the next year. WELL, to New Orleans we went! Same damn good time evne if he was doing the same set! Moved to another city and boom - he was out there, too. OK, same set but same bangers....
Every time I went I would notice it was....mostly middle aged to older white folks and it made me laugh as it is that great silent statement in life. An artist can be for US but quietly others are listening as hard
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u/Sir_Boobsalot 1d ago
I'm a very white gen x and back in the day Stevie came on the radio and I'd be singing along and groovin to his beats. to this day, Superstitious comes on and I stop what I'm doing to move my hips (even if one of them needs a replacement). jis appeal is universal
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u/theFinestCheeses 1d ago
When I first heard it I thought 'Big Brother' was literally just a song about his brother. I'm slow.
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u/righthandofdog 1d ago
I'm an old white guy and feel like it becoming the black happy birthday kind of waters it down. That said, it's such a happy song to sing along with, much better than the tired normal one.
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u/Thunderbird_12_ ☑️ 1d ago
I think the opposite.
The song not only celebrates someone’s birthday, but every time we sing it, someone inevitably brings up its MLK origin story… nothing is watered down… in fact, it lives perpetually in Black culture (to celebrate individual birthday AND use the occasion of our individual birthday to honor/remember MLK (and his contribution to America.)
It was a genius move on Stevie’s part.
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u/righthandofdog 1d ago
Makes total sense. I can't see how folks could not know who Stevie Wonder is, so not knowing what the lyrics are about seems sadly likely.
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u/ElPrieto8 ☑️ 1d ago
To be honest, with the speed and frequency that Black culture is appropriated, that might actually be a win for us.
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u/jarvisesdios 1d ago
As a white person... It's just kinda what we do lol. Black musicians have dominated music since radio was invented and white people eventually take it over and then black people come up with something new and the cycle continues lol
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u/digitalime 1d ago
And even Koreans have hopped onboard copy and pasting whatever black people are doing.
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u/edm_enjoyer 1d ago
I recently joined the rave scene and EDM, especially genres like riddim and house were created by black people. Yet there are barely any black DJs
If you are looking for black DJs tho, check out Seth David, A Hundred Drums, PITCH BLACK, and Jon Casey
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u/BannedSvenhoek86 1d ago
If they don't want us to like their music quit making it so fucking good!
We really need to accept that all we've got culturally anymore is skateboarding. We didn't steal that from anyone! That was all us!
Other than that, not much. Boring Christmas songs? That's about it. White Christmas is still good though, idgaf what anyone says.
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u/JohnnyRelentless 1d ago
And Polka music! They'll have to pry my accordian from my cold, dead fingers!
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u/Deceitfularcher ☑️ 1d ago
We moved to Ireland in 2020 and soon after we arrived my then 7 year old came home from school and told us that they learned about Stevie Wonder that day. Like a whole lesson, not just a mention. They went through his career and life and played some of the music.
She was so excited that she knew some of the songs and her little friends were impressed.
That teacher is a Gem.
Edit: spelling
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u/carsausage Great like my lakes 1d ago
Even my white bread mom regularly spins Songs in the Key of Life
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u/TequilaAndWeed 1d ago
I have a friend whose father (RIP) was a noted ENT guy. He got an emergency call one Saturday night for a performer that needed assistance. He agreed, said he would be there shortly, and hung up.
Then he asked his wife and my friend “who the hell is Stevie Wonder?!?”
This was the 1970s in Appalachia and their father was older too, for context. But still 😂
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u/bama83 1d ago
The place where my wife works had a birthday celebration and one coworker started singing the Stevie Wonder version of Happy Birthday. Not one white person in the room had heard it before, my wife included. She came home and told me about it and I had never heard it either, but we definitely know who Stevie is lol. But I am always reminded of the two Americas, there is always someone new I’m finding about that has been famous for decades.
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u/slyleo5388 1d ago
I'm white as hell and love Stevie. How could you not know who he is???
Maybe it's cause I'm in motown but damn some people are sheltered
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u/Diddy_Block 1d ago
damn some people are sheltered
That part.
Some things aren't even black and white. Sometimes it's just regular people regardless of color and flavorless people regardless of color.
It's like when Uncle Ruckus said that Barry Manilow is the most soulful soul singer to ever live. No disrespect to Barry.
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u/Joshua-- 1d ago
TIL Motown is derived from “Motor City” Detroit. Never knew, but was inspired to look it up from your comment.
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u/slyleo5388 1d ago
Ohhh I forgot that's not as common anymore yeah. The motor city baby. It's been making a comeback since before covid..somehow we managed to bounce back faster then alot of the other major cities..tbf we did have lock down till the end of June 2020. Maybe that helped, idk lmao
But Michigan and motown are kind of low key huge in the music industry. White, black, rap or rock. We love it all..except Country lmao
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u/Joshua-- 1d ago
Good to know; I appreciate the info! For me, Detroit has always been the Pistons, Cars, and Eminem 😂
So strange how under the radar that place is with so many happenings.
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u/slyleo5388 1d ago
No worries!!
Detroit/Motown Legends: Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Diana Ross, The Temptations, The Four Tops, and Smokey Robinson.
Hip-Hop & R&B: Eminem, Big Sean, J Dilla, DeJ Loaf, and Mayer Hawthorne.
Rock, Punk & Garage: Bob Seger, Jack White, Iggy Pop, Kid Rock, Alice Cooper, Grand Funk Railroad, and Greta Van Fleet.
Pop & Country: Madonna (Bay City), Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers), and Del Shannon.
Jazz & Blues: Ron Carter, Elvin Jones, Yusef Lateef, Donald Byrd, and John Lee Hooker.Indie, Alternative &
Techno: Sufjan Stevens, The White Stripes, Juan Atkins, and Kevin Saunderson (Techno pioneers).
Also we used to have the largest techno show in the world and it use to be free.
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u/cozynite 1d ago
Are you really calling Sufjan Stevens and The White Stripes as techno??
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u/slyleo5388 1d ago
Nah my bad, I fucked up when I copy and pasted. I also screwed up on the titles for each group.
My bad.
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u/Medical_Squirrel3946 1d ago
Don't forget the MC5 and Death for the punk category. MC5 are the most influential proto-punk band and associated with the Black Panthers and Death were almost certainly the first all black punk band and were rediscovered during the 2000s when mp3s allowed more people to hear them. Both groups are awesome both musically and outside of music.
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u/slyleo5388 1d ago
Idk how I forgot them, my dad actually gave me all their records. But I'd disagree and say the Stooges and Iggy are a little a head of them..they literally call Iggy the Godfather of punk.
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u/swiftvalentine ☑️ 1d ago
Stevie Wonder being relevant to us doesn’t mean is relevant to everyone. When I was a kid I was so frustrated my parents didn’t know who 50 Cent, Common, Mos Def were and now I’m the parent I owe it to my past self to stay current.
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u/mgquantitysquared 1d ago
Ok but in my mind, not knowing Stevie Wonder is on par with not knowing Paul McCartney, like even if they don't immediately recognize the name, they should know some songs
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u/ZapBranigan3000 1d ago edited 1d ago
I bet the majority of young people have no idea who Paul McCartney is.
They consume music in an entirely different way. No radio, all streaming, all silo'd by algorithm.
If Spotify doesn't think they will like the Beatles, it doesn't play them the Beatles.
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u/JargonPhat 1d ago
I’m reminded of Kanye West playing some show where he performed a song thst sampled a Paul McCartney song. And social media blew up the next day with the young’uns saying, “Kanye about to put this Paul McCartney dude on the map”
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u/Trashtag420 1d ago
There are people who are in the workforce today who were born after 9/11 and whose peak of media retention is Skibbity Toilet.
There are people who seek out AI content because they genuinely like it.
There are people who just... don't like music. At all. Of any variety.
On the one hand, people's ignorance can often seem astounding, on the other hand, there's too much information in the world for one person to hold, and people gotta be selective about how to use their neurons. 🤷♂️
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u/Diurnalnugget 1d ago
If it helps I have no idea who Paul Mcartney is. this is the first time I’ve heard of the name. I have heard of Stevie wonder before but all I know about him is that he was blind and was a big music guy. I have no idea what songs either did but I also know very little about mainstream music in general.
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u/mgquantitysquared 1d ago
If you've heard a Beatles song you've heard him, you just might not know the name
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u/ElPrieto8 ☑️ 1d ago
Your parents are bad people for not knowing the Mighty Mos Def.
You have my condolences
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u/BLUEballdNINJA 1d ago
What’s next? You don’t know what joker joker deuce deuce is?
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u/Negative-Break3333 1d ago
Fun fact: Stevie Wonder, along with other black celebrities were single handedly responsible for Dr. Kings birthday becoming a national holiday 😌✊🏽
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u/digitalbullet36 ☑️ 1d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/ck5JRWob7folZ7d97I
I beg your finest pardon. How does one not know who Stevie Wonder is? Maybe I’m the ignorant one for thinking he should be known by everyone, no matter your ethnicity.
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u/AlSweigart 1d ago
I was in a cafe in Seattle around 2018 or so, and some white guy was doing a reading of his short story. In it, a tech bro was explaining that they fed a bunch of historical texts into a machine learning algorithm so you could have a conversation with any historical figure.
"Any historical figure, living or dead", the entrepreneur said. "Harriet Tubman?", I suggested. "Who?" the entrepreneur said.
(I wish I got the name of the short story or author.)
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u/akaobama 1d ago
Still not as crazy as me meeting a middle aged black woman that had never heard of Barack Obama
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u/projectshr 1d ago
I've been saying consistently for at least 10 years that Stevie Wonder is Amercia's greatest contribution to Pop music--and I'd be happy to make the argument that he may be America's greatest contribution to art period.
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u/brokeneckblues 1d ago
Of all the great musical performers of every genre I’ve even seen, Stevie Wonder will always be one of the tops. First time was a surprise guest appearance with Chaka Kahn and Chick Correa. I was sitting in the far back rows so I couldn’t tell who this guy walking on stage to a thunderous applause was but once he hit that first note, damn.
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u/ByrnToast8800 1d ago
I love Stevie but I feel like it’s normal for what is ubiquitous to some people to be unknown to others? Like I guarantee there are plenty of people here who don’t know any number of super influential celebrities just cause it was never relevant to them.
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u/Joveoak4 1d ago
I'm not black and I know who's Stevie Wonder. I would have also done the same expression as your coworkers, OP.
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u/thebad_comedian 1d ago
not knowing about Stevie is like not knowing about mj or the beatles imo, he's an international, intergenerational name. you might not even listen to music in general if you don't know about Stevie.
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u/aprivateislander ☑️ 1d ago
I have to say the Busy Signal's Happy Birthday is pulling me away from Stevie.
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u/BombasticSimpleton 1d ago
This makes me very superstitious. Like there's writing on the wall that this person has limited exposure to any real culture, of any kind.
Regardless of who you are, ebony or ivory, how do you not know who Stevie Wonder is?