[Flipside]

I suppose, for my generation, we grew up with songs like 'I Wanna Dance with Somebody' being common at parties and things, and 'The Bodyguard' was a chick-flick that practically every boyfriend in the country got dragged to. Chances are that anyone in their early 20's only became aware of Whitney Houston after she married Bobby Brown and began the long slide, so were never really aware of her at the top of her game.

[karajorma]

Yeah, I'm sure there are some people out there who only liked her modern stuff but most of us who are old enough to remember the 80's well are going to remember her for that and The Bodyguard.

Maybe you need to get out from under Whitney Houston instead.

  Is that sentence meant to have a meaning or did you just paraphrase mine and trust your luck?

I remember her and her career, sure, but I don't remember any of her music. Apparently it was imminently forgettable.

As Starslayer pointed out quite eloquently, like her or not she was a very talented vocalist, so I don't know why you're persisting in this exercise in digging a deeper hole for yourself. If you didn't know who she was that simply meant you'd be ignorant of pop culture to a certain degree, but to claim you don't remember a single song by someone who topped the charts in your country for 14 weeks when you were at an age you should have remembered it, but do know all about her and her career, suggests a memory problem.

And that's before we get to the rather ridiculousness of your claiming that someone who was primarily famous as a singer with a reputation based almost entirely on her 80's and 90's hits sang songs that are forgettable.

[Bobboau]

I didn't like her or think she was so great, but I remember her, because everyone else did.

[NGTM-1R]

Is that sentence meant to have a meaning or did you just paraphrase mine and trust your luck?

Several, actually. First, that you should stop licking her boots or other bodyparts where you could be construed as under, since it's been over a decade since she was doing anything memorable. Second, that perhaps she's still important in the circles you move in and it would behoove you to come forward into the modern era. Third, she's dead, and judging by your reaction to general "so what" you're going to be a pallbearer at her funeral. (Nice work reinforcing that impression with this post, by the way.)

As Starslayer pointed out quite eloquently, like her or not she was a very talented vocalist, so I don't know why you're persisting in this exercise in digging a deeper hole for yourself. If you didn't know who she was that simply meant you'd be ignorant of pop culture to a certain degree, but to claim you don't remember a single song by someone who topped the charts in your country for 14 weeks when you were at an age you should have remembered it, but do know all about her and her career, suggests a memory problem.

I know about her career because there's this thing called a newspaper and I have a good memory for things I've read. I don't know about her singing because...

Actually I daresay because I simply didn't give a **** when I heard it. I was born in '85, at my age for most of her career interest in love songs is pretty minimal. By the time I was old enough to care about her music she was in the midst of breakdown, so learning about her was easy, but her music wasn't played very much.

Also, you have this weird conception that people will even necessarily hear music that tops the charts for 14 weeks. (Which charts?)  It's actually quite untrue, as I've discovered via the fact one of my radio station presets for the car plays the American Top 40 on Sundays. Charts track sales, not what is played on the radio or in public spaces. There is in fact a disconnect between the two that's quite noticeable.

And that's before we get to the rather ridiculousness of your claiming that someone who was primarily famous as a singer with a reputation based almost entirely on her 80's and 90's hits sang songs that are forgettable.

Sing Elvis. No, go on, do it. I could ask you to do the same for a half-dozen other singers or bands that have been famous, if you like. (What, you don't remember Tina Turner? YOU JACKASS! Charlotte Church! UNCULTURED BARBARIAN!) Whitney was a genre singer about love and heartbreak and the one-woman-wail. That makes her entirely forgettable to numerous segments of the population who just don't give a **** for her themes, her messages, her voice, her style of music, and about twenty-five other things. (I would probably hit at least two of those, for extra-not-giving-a-****.)

EDIT: I just find it amusing that Karaj is getting so amazingly about this to make such stupid pronouncements as he has.

[karajorma]

I'm not angry. In fact it seems to be you who is getting rather angry at a rather simple comment. Especially as you've had to resort to rather ridiculous comments about how I must really like Whitney Houston when in fact I really can't stand I will always love you.

Sing Elvis. No, go on, do it.

I ****ing ROCK at singing Elvis so you picked the wrong artist there!

I could ask you to do the same for a half-dozen other singers or bands that have been famous, if you like. (What, you don't remember Tina Turner? YOU JACKASS! Charlotte Church! UNCULTURED BARBARIAN!)

And I could name and sing bits of songs by all of them. Even if I don't like their music. I've heard their music because they are famous for it. It's pretty hard not to unless as I initially stated you live under a rock. If you can come up with someone about as famous as her who's music I don't know, I'd simply admit that was a lack of pop cultural awareness on my part.

 So again your inability to remember music by such artists merely says something about you. Something which apparently you can't handle without having to resort to a long diatribe about it.

[Dragon]

Well, I haven't heard of Whitney Houston. Guess that Poland officially counts as "under the rock" now. Now get me out of there. 

[Klaustrophobia]

I'm not angry. In fact it seems to be you who is getting rather angry at a rather simple comment. Especially as you've had to resort to rather ridiculous comments about how I must really like Whitney Houston when in fact I really can't stand I will always love you.

Sing Elvis. No, go on, do it.

I ****ing ROCK at singing Elvis so you picked the wrong artist there!

I could ask you to do the same for a half-dozen other singers or bands that have been famous, if you like. (What, you don't remember Tina Turner? YOU JACKASS! Charlotte Church! UNCULTURED BARBARIAN!)

And I could name and sing bits of songs by all of them. Even if I don't like their music. I've heard their music because they are famous for it. It's pretty hard not to unless as I initially stated you live under a rock. If you can come up with someone about as famous as her who's music I don't know, I'd simply admit that was a lack of pop cultural awareness on my part.

 So again your inability to remember music by such artists merely says something about you. Something which apparently you can't handle without having to resort to a long diatribe about it.

dude, what's the deal here?  WHAT does his 'inability to remember music by such artists' say about him?  that he doesn't like their music and therefore doesn't pay attention to it in the slightest?  he's certainly not alone in that.  and it does NOT equal "living under a rock." 

[karajorma]

So where do you draw the line then? Michael Jackson? Elvis? At what stage are you living under a rock?

Well, I haven't heard of Whitney Houston. Guess that Poland officially counts as "under the rock" now. Now get me out of there. 

I feel similarly about living in China. I'm not going to hear modern music unless I go looking for it here.

[Mongoose]

Kara does have a good point here.  Hell, The Simpsons spoofed Whitney Houston's Bodyguard role in a classic episode, where Homer has to protect Mark Hamill at a sci-fi convention.

[NGTM-1R]

So where do you draw the line then? Michael Jackson? Elvis? At what stage are you living under a rock?

At what stage is your idea this person famous and therefore you should know their work relevant? (Here's a hint, it's not.)

Like I said, I don't remember any of it. This doesn't mean I haven't heard any of it. So even in the end, your argument about rocks falls apart, because it requires ignorance as opposed to failure to care enough to remember. You're just getting for some inscrutable reason.

[Fury]

NGTM-1R, we already get it that you don't care about her. That probably goes for vast majority of people registered here at HLP, including me. But why is it YOU have to be such a huge immature dick about it? Would you stop it already, thank you.

[NGTM-1R]

NGTM-1R, we already get it that you don't care about her. That probably goes for vast majority of people registered here at HLP, including me. But why is it YOU have to be such a huge immature dick about it? Would you stop it already, thank you.

Karaj calls me out on supposed...actually I'm not sure what it was, to be honest. Regardless, he introduces factual wrongnesses and bad assumptions, so I will respond.

Honestly the immature dick behavior here has belonged to others. Deciding you are the arbiter of pop culture knowledge is pretty goddamn immature and dickish. (From whence this grand authority to judge?) Going on to say that it "says something about you" without specifying what is incredibly passive-aggressive.

And you think I'm the dick.

Dick.

[Flipside]

Now you can all go sit on the naughty step

Edit: Just like to add, getting a bit pissed off that I started two threads that I felt would be of some interest to the community and both of them had to be locked because people cannot behave themselves. That's pretty depressing.