University Challenge (Monday 4th January 2010)

[Pedro]

I really don't know why people are getting upset. What you witnessed on UC was typical of the calibre of those attending University today. The fact that they did not recognize 'Apache' does not surprize me.

[RayL]

the kids were rioting

Ah, shades of Blackboard Jungle, the film that heralded the era of rock'n'roll!

Every new generation that comes along wants their own music. They'll live in houses that were built in the past and eat food that was developed in the past, but they want their own styles in clothing and in music. And as that generation grow older so they cling to the music that meant so much to them as they were growing up. They also listen to the music of the generations coming up behind them and say "Awful rubbish! The music was so much better when I was young". Well, maybe. Or maybe it was just different.

Never mind. Strap on a guitar. Plug it in and . . . two, three, four . . .

Ray

[David Martin]

Never mind. Strap on a guitar. Plug it in and . . . two, three, four . . .

Ray

Designed in the late 40's and early 50's?

[damart]

What do you expect from Paxman. He's a snob and probably knows nothing about the pioneers of British R&R.

[neil2726]

you learn alot more form watching Eggheads!

[MeBHank]

I've just watched it back (Mum had recorded it due to being out at the time). What Paxman said was: "No cause for for shame, not knowing this rubbish!"

What has happened to people's sense of heritage?

J

[JimN]

(Devil's Advocate hat on!). Suppose we go back 50 years. It's 1960 and a group of university students are being quizzed about the music of 1912 (the equivalent in time that Telstar is from us in 2010). Would you expect them to be as familiar with the Turkey-trots and other popular music of a bygone age as they would be with Move It? Would these 1960s students be expected to be familiar with Nora Bayes, Gaby Deslys, Mary Garden, Geraldine Farrar or Lillian Nordica (all popular in 1912)?
Ray L

Ray...

The answer to that would depend on the people asked the question (I'd expect Oxbridge under- and post-grads to have awide general knowledge), though it would also be conditioned by changes in the media (there weren't any to speak of in 1912) and technology. In fact, I'd expect them to have heard of artistes from not only 1912, but even earlier: Dan Leno, Charlie Chaplin, George Formby (Snr and Jnr), Marie Lloyd, Harry Champion, Dame Nellie Melba, Enrico Caruso. The record-making singers among that lot are the correct comparators in sales terms.

Obviously, my reaction to all of this is personal - and I was never at either Oxford or Cambridge. However, I can make a fair fist of answers about twentieth century popular music from any of its decades (not much about the 1980s or 1990s admittedly, as I was taking care to filter most of that out). But as an historical phenomenon, I have always taken more than a passing interest, whether it was listening to my parents and grandparents reminiscing about the 1940s and 1920s respectively, or more latterly via the considerably-enlarged media to which we now have access. I expect that many others here (let alone at the nation's top two universities) have enough curiosity to have absorbed some sort of overall impression of what was happening twenty or thirty years before they were born.

My 2p worth...

JN

[Pedro]

It is probably an age thing but I would have thought 'Apache' was one of the most instantly recognizable tunes in the latter half of the last century.

[RayL]

It is probably an age thing but I would have thought 'Apache' was one of the most instantly recognizable tunes in the latter half of the last century.

What? Ahead of the James Bond theme or the Pink Panther theme?

Ray L