posted
Here I am filling out Xerxes' baby book. Lately these darn things ask for current events and pop culture references. The sad thing is, I'm out of touch with pop culture!
Help me out, O great and wise Hatrack! Could you give me some possibilities on the following?
Popular music groups
Popular songs
Famous actors and actresses
Current sports figures
Popular movies
Best-sellers
Thanks a bunch! I think I've got the other categories OK, but I was drawing blanks with all these. Xerxes and I appreciate it! Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
I dont know much about the others, but I could touch up on some sports figures ----
Tennis: Roger Federer (Switzerland) - Considered by some to be the best player .. EVER . His record last year was like 75-3. His record in Grand Slam finals is 5-0 (or 6-0 I can't remember)
NBA: Two rising stars are Dwyane Wade (24 years old on the Miami Heat) and Lebron James (21 years on on the Cleveland Cavaliers) both having phenomenal seasons in only their 3rd year in the NBA. (Wade is better )Kobe Bryant scored 81 points in 1 game earlier in the year.
MLB: Dont watch much baseball, I just know that Johnny Damon, a star of the Boston Red Sox signed with their biggest rival the New York Yankees.
College Basketball: JJ Redick (Duke) and Adam Morrison (Gonzaga) are considered to be the best college players around. They were also selected to be on the US Olympic team.
NFL: Terrel Owens known for his selfishness recently got traded to the Dallas Cowboys after ruining the season of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Thats all I can think of atm.
Posts: 2756 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Heh, if anyone wants to do the same for two years ago-- plus what clothes were in fashion, ans some world leaders-- I never got around to that for Emma's baby book... Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Judging from Hatrack, things that are currently in vogue include The Princess Bride, Sesame Street, Ender's Game, and American Idol.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Tante Shvester: Judging from Hatrack, things that are currently in vogue include The Princess Bride, Sesame Street, Ender's Game, and American Idol.
Judging from some people's post counts....
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
Well, I at least American Idol works for mainstream America. ^_^
Kaioshin: Thanks so much! The sports arena is the one I am least knowledgable in. Neither Porter nor I follow sports at all. And for all we know, this son of ours will be a sports nut and really appreciate the info.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
I take popular to mean mainstream pop, so here's some stuff I hear all the time on the radio:
Sean Paul: Temperature Mariah Carey: Don't Forget About Us Fallout Boy: Dance, Dance James Blunt: You're Beautiful Beyonce: Check On It Natasha Beddingfield: Unwritten Ne-Yo: So Sick Cascada: Every Time We Touch Nelly Featuring Paul Wall, Ali & Gipp: Grillz Eminem Featuring Nate Dogg: Shake That The All-American Rejects: Dirty Little Secret The Pussycat Dolls: Stickwitu
That's pretty much the lineup around here. Hope that helps. Posts: 378 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
KQ, I looked at the little girl I babysit's babybook. (she turned two last week) and they haven't filled it out much either, but it was my senior year so I should be able to think. Michael Phelps broke the olympic swimming medal record, Lord of the Rings won best picture at the oscars, UConn won the NCAA basketball. Ugg boots, beachy looks, and linen were in in 2004.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Thanks so much! That should be enough to get us through. If anyone has more, though, feel free to contribute.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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I've got Billboard listings for popular music.
December-February, Hot 100 Tracks (rated by airplay, sales, and downloads):
Nelly - "Grillz" Beyonce feat. Slim Thug - "Check On It" Chris Brown - "Run It!" Mariah Carey - "Don't Forget About Us" Kanye West - "Gold Digger" James Blunt - "You're Beautiful" D4L - "Laffy Taffy" Mary J. Blige - "Be Without You" Black Eyed Peas - "My Humps" Nickelback - "Photograph" Eminem - "Shake That"
I can keep going indefinitely...I love this Billborad search feature. I can also search by peak date, if you want a more narrow time frame. *bounces*
posted
With the exception of the Kanye, all those songs suck. And the Kanye is plaaaaaaayed out.
Please, beverly, do not let the words 'Paris Hilton' appear anywhere in the baby book. That's all I ask.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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JT, lower on the chart there are songs that I like a lot more and that aren't...uh...the other ones.
#27 Gorillaz - "Feel Good, Inc." #57 System of a Down - "Hypnotize" #72 Rob Thomas - "Ever the Same" (boy's gonna get dropped , I bet) #75 Avenged Sevenfold - "Bat Country" #90 Nine Inch Nails - "Only" #95 Disturbed - "Stricken"
There are more...Coldplay, My Chemical Romance, Foo Fighters, Korn, Death Cab for Cutie, Goo Goo Dolls...all of them had tracks that peaked in the top 100 between December 2005 and February 2006.
posted
OK, that's better. I can't think of any time in the last 60 years where the Billboard Top 100 was comprised of worse music than it has been the last 5 years or so.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
It depends on which charts you're looking at and how you're reading them.
The modern rock charts are pretty awesome and, for this period, include Depeche Mode.
Going back ten years, the top 100 tracks (of all genres) include: Whitney Houston - "Exhale" Everthing But the Girl - "Missing" Mary J. Blige - "Not Gon' Cry" Boyz II Men, LL Cool J - "Hey Lover" Mariah Carey - "Fantasy" Joan Osborne - "One of Us" The Tony Rich Project - "Nobody Knows" TLC - "Diggin' on You" Deep Blue Something - "Breakfast at Tiffany's" Goo Goo Dolls - "Name"
That's the thing. I don't think that music as a whole is getting worse. I think that when people look at the popular tracks today vs. in the past, they tend to only think of what was popular in a particular genre in the past. I mean, Kriss Kross? Backstreet Boys? R. Kelly? Coolio? Who the hell is All-4-One?
posted
There's an online site called Facebook, which is basically a social network for college students. On it, among other things, you can list your favorite artists, books, and movies - and then Facebook does a count of the most popular things right now based on that.
Music: DMB, Jack Johnson, Coldplay, The Beatles, Green Day, Led Zeppelin, The Killers, Incubus, Sublime, Fall Out Boy
Movies: The Notebook, Wedding Crashers, Old School, Anchorman, Fight Club, Boondock Saints, Napoleon Dynamite, Lord of the Rings, Garden State, Office Space
Television: Family Guy, Grey's Anatomy, Friends, The OC, Simpsons, Desperate Housewives, CSI, Lost, Sex and the City, Seinfeld
Books: The Da Venci Code, Harry Potter, The Bible, Catcher in the Rye, Angels and Demons, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice
Not all of those are new, of course, but that's what's hot among the college set. Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Wow, I think those Facebook lists completely summarize the reasons why I refuse to join sites like that (and MySpace, whatever that actually is).
Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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1. All 4 One stole that from John Michael Montgomery! And their other real hit on that same CD, was a remake of an old R&B hit too. Though I do love R&B from that time frame. Boyz II Men, All 4 One, Shai, etc. Now THAT was R&B! I also love country from that time period, and not the pop country crap that's all over the place now. That list of the top songs from a decade ago brought me back (to a time when I was 11, but still, good music!)
2. Shani Davis isn't the first African American to win a gold medal, Vonetta Flowers is. Shani is just the first to win an individual gold medal.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Ha! I was going to ask if you wanted to add Brokeback Mountain to your baby book. Then there is the Torino Olympics. The World of Warcraft meme penetrated my media isolation zone from several directions a few weeks ago.
Um, also people excited for there to be a draft so they can dodge it?
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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In looking through my baby book, which had some of the same categories, I noticed that my parents left a lot of them blank (of course, they left a lot of the book blank, but that's beside the point). I think for me, I'd rather have it blank than filled in with pop culture stuff that my parents didn't really care about. I mean, they filled in the movie category, (Spaceballs) but that's in their personal opinion as opposed to the most popular stuff in the nation. I think that's more meaningful... I could always go online and look up the highest grossing movie in 1987, but I think it's more interesting to see what my parents' favorite movie was.
posted
Just saw this ad for Time magazine covers and thought it might be an interesting addition to a baby book. Similarly, one can obtain copies of eg the NewYorkTimes to match birthdates.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:1. All 4 One stole that from John Michael Montgomery! And their other real hit on that same CD, was a remake of an old R&B hit too. Though I do love R&B from that time frame. Boyz II Men, All 4 One, Shai, etc. Now THAT was R&B! I also love country from that time period, and not the pop country crap that's all over the place now. That list of the top songs from a decade ago brought me back (to a time when I was 11, but still, good music!)
Well, not quite. Both songs came out in about the same timeframe (I actually thought the All 4 One version was first, but billboard said JMM's was on the charts a few months before). But JMM didn't write it, so it's hardly his song. And he himself has a history of covering pop tunes. I liked all the R&B from that period, and a lot of the country too, though. I'm with you on that.
quote:2. Shani Davis isn't the first African American to win a gold medal, Vonetta Flowers is. Shani is just the first to win an individual gold medal.
I knew it was something like that. Thanks.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Groups: Pussy Cat Dolls, Black Eyed Peas Singers: Kelly Clarkson, Hilary Duff (unfortunately), Ashlee Simpson Movies: Memoirs of a Geisha; The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; King Kong
Sorry, I'm not very hip. Posts: 63 | Registered: Feb 2006
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Dragon, thanks. I think that is good advice. And I have tried to favor adding things to my book that I've actually had experience with and liked. That hasn't held true for everything, but all my answers (so far) are skewed in that direction. Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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