View Full Version : 20th Century Cultural Contributions
datachicane
10-15-16, 01:03 PM
The talk about Dylan and his Nobel got me to thinking about this, and I thought it might make for an interesting discussion for OC.
What cultural contributions of the 20th century do you think would still have any kind of relevance, that a non-specialist might know in 200 years? Given the amount of traction that a given work receives through cultural context that won't exist any longer, this would be a very different list than just a recounting of what's popular. Major works should be primarily in the 20th century, so otherwise obvious choices like Twain and Monet are out.
Here's my stab at it in no particular order:
Vladimir Nabokov
Bob Dylan
Pablo Picasso
Igor Stravinsky
Dave Brubeck
George Gershwin
Miles Davis
opinionated ow
10-15-16, 10:02 PM
Monty Python
Spitfire & Concorde
Eurovision
Superbowl
Monaco Grand Prix
Fawlty Towers
The Beatles
Woodstock
TKGAngel
10-16-16, 12:20 PM
Rogers and Hammerstein.
Andrew Lloyd Webber
And while I'm in theatre nerd mode, if Lin-Manuel Miranda keeps going, he's going to have a spot on this list. He's already written two Tony Award winning musicals (and is just an O short of the EGOT), won a Pulitzer and is only 36.
Been thinking about this since Data posted it.
Since this is cultural contributions, not necessarily restricted to literature or the arts...
Walt Disney
Ray Bradbury
Jimi Hendrix
Bill Gates/Microsoft
Steve Jobs/Apple
Henry Ford
Martin Luther King
Ernie Kovacs
Mohammed Ali
Elvis Presley
Salvador Dali
I may be back...
opinionated ow
10-18-16, 02:50 AM
Star Wars
I'm going with George Lucas in general. When you throw in Indiana Jones it makes a sizeable effort. I think you can most definitely add John Williams too for his myriad film scores. Ennio Morricone too.
I'll come at this from another angle...
Ansel Adams
Georgia O'Keeffe
Yousuf Karsh
John Muir
Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt
I could go on and on, but it would require another thread just for photogs. :)
Add Andy Warhol
And in addition to Walt Disney, Steve Jobs...you need to include John Lasseter. He's the brain trust behind the Disney/Pixar pix these days...as well as much of the Disney Parks renovations/operations.
:)
Chuck Berry; buy the way today is his ninetieth birthday.
200 years is a long time. Just think how little transferred from the 18th century to the 20th century.
You got your Declaration of Independence, you got your Star Spangled Banner, and you got your George Washington & Ben Franklin. That's about it. Everything else faded right out of memory.
Did some people still remember and appreciate the food, art, music, fashion, and literature of the era? Sure. Did everyone? No way.
My guess is the Happy Birthday song will be about all that is remembered.
I hope they still have birthday cake.
datachicane
10-19-16, 01:43 AM
200 years is a long time. Just think how little transferred from the 18th century to the 20th century.
You got your Declaration of Independence, you got your Star Spangled Banner, and you got your George Washington & Ben Franklin. That's about it. Everything else faded right out of memory.
Did some people still remember and appreciate the food, art, music, fashion, and literature of the era? Sure. Did everyone? No way.
My guess is the Happy Birthday song will be about all that is remembered.
I hope they still have birthday cake.
IMHO you're not far from the mark. 18th century cultural contributors like Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven are still household names (even if it doesn't go much deeper than the name), but when huge stars of the time like Liszt are known only to aficionados it makes me wonder how likely the likes of Hendrix, Elvis, or the Beatles are to make the cut. Novelty and innovation mean a lot in regards to short term popularity, but a hundred years from now? Those old jokes in Marx Bros. movies weren't old at the time. It needs to be something either absolutely unique or of stunning quality, maybe both.
WickerBill
10-19-16, 06:45 AM
HOWEVER...
If we had live recordings of Liszt on YouTube where he was playing to thousands and girls were screaming and swooning, his cultural significance would be more front-of-mind. Technology will make each century more and more documented, and therefore more easily remembered and taught.
opinionated ow
10-19-16, 07:40 AM
HOWEVER...
If we had live recordings of Liszt on YouTube where he was playing to thousands and girls were screaming and swooning, his cultural significance would be more front-of-mind. Technology will make each century more and more documented, and therefore more easily remembered and taught.
Yes I agree with that. What I looked at with my suggestions is stuff that people my age and younger know a bit about. Even most 10 year olds know who the Beatles were.
Even most 10 year olds know who the Beatles were.
You must not have kids. DDs 13 and 10...the airwaves are so dominated by the likes of Taylor Swift, Miley, Beyonce, Pharrell, etc....90s and maybe 80s are considered 'classic'.
Coincidently I had begun to reconsider my list based on the 200 year qualifier. I'm not sure many would survive the lens of time. We can't fathom what culture will be like in 200 years much less predict what will sustain from the previous century. It would have to be very significant. Based on that I have to eliminate
Ray Bradbury
Jimi Hendrix
Ernie Kovacs
Mohammed Ali
Elvis Presley
WickerBill
10-19-16, 09:39 AM
From the realms of technology, I think I'd probably go with
Henry Ford
Wright Brothers
Bill Gates
Tim Berners-Lee
I dearly hope that Gates will make a 21st century list too, as a philanthropist who helped eradicate disease.
Insomniac
10-19-16, 11:04 AM
I'm not sure who will be associated most with the popularization of rap/hip-hop between NWA or Tupac, but I think the music has stood the test of time, which is why I'm hesitant to mention Nirvana or Pearl Jam.
Robert Frost
Maya Angelou
Andy Warhol
Banksy
datachicane
10-19-16, 12:37 PM
Wright Brothers
Weird semi-hijack of my own thread. I just got back from a quick trip to Dayton, where I have a close cousin who's a fairly important research scientist at Wright-Patterson. She'd arranged for my science-geek college-shopping daughter to have a chance to play with an electron scanning microscope, futz around making samples in their advanced composites lab, play with a gigantic additive materials printer, have a personal panel discussion with some brainac women engineers, etc., etc. Very cool.
We did some sightseeing with my cousin around Dayton, including the Wright bicycle shop, Huffman field, the air museum, etc. We drove by what looked like an abandoned college campus and stopped to look around. My cousin had heard that it used to be a theological seminary. I seemed to recall that our grandfather had graduated from a seminary in Ohio (we come from a ridiculously long line of clergy), and a bit of googling revealed that this was, in fact, the former Bonebrake Theological Seminary, alma mater of both our grandfather and great-grandfather. Weirder yet, it was founded by Milton Wright himself, father of the Wright bros., and later housed a portion of the Manhattan Project on campus.
Very small world. /endhijack
One more: I think the smiley face might survive. :)
Fermi, Oppenheimer, and the boys.
nissan gtp
10-20-16, 07:56 AM
http://xkcd.com/1748/
TravelGal
10-21-16, 01:00 AM
Fermi, Oppenheimer, and the boys.
If we're out of culture into other fields, it's definitely Watson and Crick.
And I rather like Amelia Earhart for breaking lots of barriers.
If we're out of culture into other fields, it's definitely Watson and Crick.
And I rather like Amelia Earhart for breaking lots of barriers.
I think that the atomic age changed humanity's culture - the bomb changed our cultural DNA, if you will.
It gave us hippies and the bikini, for example.
(That example is like a metaphor, that doesn't quite work.)
Insomniac
10-23-16, 12:38 PM
Stan Lee
TravelGal
10-23-16, 12:44 PM
Stan Lee
As much as I shake my head at that one, I think you're onto something. Even TravelGuy and I watch the movies and the current TV series.
Insomniac
10-24-16, 10:43 AM
As much as I shake my head at that one, I think you're onto something. Even TravelGuy and I watch the movies and the current TV series.
I think he's late to the party. Comic books/graphic novels certainly are creative/art, just not as mainstream until the films (and to some extent TV) have really capitalized on the content worldwide. I think Stan Lee is probably the best known (for good reason). So he didn't create it all, but I think history will look back on him as the godfather of it all.
Another take on this...
Charles M. Schulz
Berkeley "Berke" Breathed
Bill Watterson
Gary Larson
:)
opinionated ow
10-25-16, 03:36 AM
I think more of the 20th century will be remembered purely due to the much better recording formats of the era. Records, CDs etc. are a lot better at storing media than say wax cylinders
Raymond Loewy (http://www.raymondloewy.com/)
You may not know the name, but you've seen his work.
I think more of the 20th century will be remembered purely due to the much better recording formats of the era. Records, CDs etc. are a lot better at storing media than say wax cylinders
BUT, vinyl is having a big renaissance. :)
opinionated ow
10-25-16, 08:56 AM
BUT, vinyl is having a big renaissance. :)
yep that's what i meant by records. no complaints from me. there's something special about a vinyl record
BUT, vinyl is having a big renaissance. :)
http://design-milk.com/mag-lev-audio-levitating-turntable-uplifting-concept/
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