Wolfgang Van Halen defends Billie Ellish for not knowing Van Halen

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Grant, Dec 3, 2019.

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  1. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me! Thread Starter

    This is not a thread for music and artist bashing. Take it somewhere else.
     
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  2. Synthfreek

    Synthfreek I’m a ray of sunshine & bastion of positivity

    So ridiculous. She’s 17 and has been a full-time professional musician immersed in her own music for at least the past three years and doesn’t know an old band. And anyone wanna make the witty “Who is Billie Eilish?”quip for the third time in less than two pages? EVH famously said in an interview that So by Peter Gabriel was the last album he purchased and that wasn’t that long ago. What an idiot he must be for not really keeping up with other musicians.
     
  3. JoeRockhead

    JoeRockhead Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Why? There's no college entrance exam to become an artist. She likes who she likes. Studying up on Van Halen is not a prerequisite.
     
  4. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    Bollocks. I was under zero obligation to know of previous generations' pop idols when I was her age.
     
  5. JoeRockhead

    JoeRockhead Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    The thread is ALL about bashing an artist who had the audacity to not know who Van Halen was. Give your pious BS a rest.
     
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  6. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me! Thread Starter

    And, you notice it's never the other way around? Just as I predicted, there are lots of boomers and gen-x'ers who don't know or care who Billie Ellish is. She must be pretty damn noticeable because she landed a spot on Jimmie Kimmel. [Moderator edit]
     
  7. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    You miss the point. Her generation often doesn’t know who Led Zeppelin is, who Elvis is, are clueless about Clapton and Bowie, Peter Gabriel, etc. They recognize The Beatles as a trademark on t-shirts. They are unfamiliar with some of the most important and influential music of the past 25-50 years, music and artists that in a number of instances changed the world and influence culture to this day. We aren’t talking about something 200 years old here. Sorry, but it is a bit disturbing. If one is a casual listener at 20, they may not know much, but a general familiarity with major historical artists that produced major works should not be outside the realm of possibilities, especially for a contemporary artist. I may not have listed to much jazz at 15, but I knew the name Miles Davis.
     
  8. altaeria

    altaeria Forum Resident

    More importantly-
    What does Lizzo think about either of them.
     
  9. Frangelico

    Frangelico Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    For Van Halen maybe, but for music overall a definite no. I’m Gen X - should I not know jazz or classical or the Renaissance or the Harlem Renaissance, for that matter ? A really absurd and ignorant notion. Try this with science, math, medicine.
     
  10. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    Who said you were obligated? And by the way, Edward Van Halen was hardly a pop idol, but his guitar work and music pioneered an aspect of music for a generation of musicians and the public. He made a slightly greater mark than Frankie Avalon.
     
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  11. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me! Thread Starter

    Once in a while, a young co-worker will ask me what an old song from the 70s or 80s is. My instinct is to go off on them but I control myself, remember that I am older, and simply answer the question. I have to remember that they didn't grow up in the same world as I did. Just last night we heard "She Blinded me With Science" and someone asked me who it was. I told them it was Thomas Dolby and was a huge hit single in 1983. Then, a teenager thought it sounded more like the 70s and I mentioned that the technology for the song was way different than the early 70s. He got offended by the correction, though.
     
  12. kdd21

    kdd21 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta
    She grew up like 2 miles away from David Lee Roth. Pretty strange she doesn’t know who Van Halen is
     
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  13. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me! Thread Starter

    Good thing you just now fixed your post from Pat Boone. I was going to suggest you talk to someone older.:D
     
  14. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
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  15. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me! Thread Starter

    Same here. But, personally, and as a music geek and musician, I was interested. I have gone through three or four major periods of discovering the music that was made before I was born. To know what came before my time gave me a better insight to how we got to where we are today. But, not everyone is like me.
     
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  16. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me! Thread Starter

    Good point. Just don't tell the flat-earthers that.:)

    I remember that interview. I was kind of shocked when I first read it. I originally chalked it up to his being a Dutch immigrant, but then realized that he spent his formative musical years in Pasadena, and his father was a jazz musician.
     
  17. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    I'm not sure I agree with @ralphb where it's "how it should be". But it's certainly not disturbing or atypical of young adults. Not sure why this is all that surprising to anyone.

    Music isn't science, math, or medicine. It's arts and entertainment. Completely different discussion. I barely knew Miles Davis in my youth and John Coltrane was just a guy referenced in a U2 song. And my classical didn't extend farther than what I heard in commercials, TV shows and Loony Toons cartoons.

    And in the reverse, there's plenty of modern artists that people on this very forum have no idea about. Simply because they're younger than the age of 30 and they fossilized two decades ago. Should we be disturbed at that? Not really, because that's pretty commonplace also and has been for as long as I can remember.

    Kids don't know older artists, and older people don't know younger artists. Shocker!
     
  18. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    I don't know what Eilish's history is, but as a music lover at 12 and musician at 14, by seventeen I knew most of the historical names, even if I hadn't heard their music.

    I am not faulting her for not knowing Van Halen, frankly, I don't care, but the whole generation bashing from both sides here is stupid.
     
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  19. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    "Disturbing"? Why? It has zero relevance to what she is doing. She"s 17! Maybe when she's 40 she will have learnt about (God help us) classic rock. Plenty of time for that.
     
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  20. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    lol

    Eddie Van Halen, in that finger pointing pose, was on the bedroom wall of at least a third of the girls I knew in junior high and high school. Try again.

    And if I wasn't obligated, why do you think Billie is obligated to know who Van Halen is?
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2019
  21. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me! Thread Starter

    Celebrity thing to do? Wolfgang Amadeus? Wolfgang Puck? Just because you don't know anyone named Wolfgang doesn't mean it's esoteric.

    And, people retain their cultural heritage. Show me an Italian, German, Asian, or Mexican who didn't retain some part of their cultural heritage when they emigrated here.
     
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  22. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    I actually equate "disturbing" more along the lines of

    I'm getting older, young people don't even know the artists I grew up with and when my generations dies, they are going to be part of the 95% of all things that eventually gets forgotten.
     
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  23. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me! Thread Starter

    It's MY thread. Read the OP!
     
  24. BeardedSteven

    BeardedSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern Indiana
    Van Halen is not the Beatles or the Stones. They have not been relevant for a long time. There is absolutely no reason someone her age has to know who they are. I don't think I could name one VH song apart from Jump! This whole "controversy" is ridiculous. :doh:
     
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  25. Bluesman Mark

    Bluesman Mark I'm supposed to put something witty here....

    Location:
    Iowa
    Precisely! And I say this knowing full well that by age 18 I was deeply into full blown music geekdom. The year before I'd gotten into Otis Redding & was just barely beginning to learn about Southern Soul beyond him, & at age 18 I discovered Thelonius Monk. I've mentioned before my exposure to different musical genres & eras due to my parents & their love of music, & my older sister who had been a Stones & CCR fanatic. Even then my knowledge of music outside of the sphere of what I'd grown up with & been exposed to, (especially from the age of 12-13 on, when I really got into it), at the time paled next to what it became once I got in my 20s.

    At 18 other than Otis & some Motown, I knew little to nothing about Soul music, which became & has remained my favorite musical genre, I was 4 years away from discovering P-Funk, (& Funk in general outside of what I'd heard on the radio), I was just beginning my exploration into Jazz, & Blues? My idea of Blues was the Allman Brothers Band, the Stones, the J Geils Band, & the 1st Paul Butterfield Blues Band album.

    It was my choice to explore all these different musical avenues, & if I hadn't done so, that would have hurt or affected nobody.
     
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