Sunday, August 19, 2012

is Bob Dylan Fading into Irrelevance ?

Yesterday I met a person who had never heard of Bob Dylan.

27 years old.
Malaysian university graduate.
Listens mostly to English songs.
Never heard of Bob Dylan before.

Maybe if she ....
only knew a little about Bob Dylan; or
had heard the name mentioned in conversation somewhere; or
knew that Bob Dylan was Somebody, but didn't know what he was known for ....
but No.
Never heard of Bob Dylan in her entire life.

How is this even possible ?



Maybe if it had been some remote native village where nobody speaks English. Or somebody who doesn't listen to any English songs or radio stations. Or some young child still singing Sesame Street songs. But a 27-year old university graduate ?

How is this even possible ?

I wonder how much of it is self inflicted as in the 'katak bawah tempurung' syndrome; but more importantly, I wonder how somebody could have gone through 3-4 years in a Malaysian university without ever hearing of Bob Dylan ?

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