Are questions on pop music legit. for University Challenge?

[ardcarp]

Mrs A and I groan in unison when a pop-music question gets...er...popped on UC, as it was last Monday.
Is this because we are totally ignorant of the genre? Yes.
Is it because we are awful cultural snobs? Possibly.
But thinking about it more seriously, we wonder if any of the other areas of knowledge mined for UC questions are comparable.
Fine art, history, ancient myth, religion, literature, science (many branches), mathematics, geography....these are subjects based on some lasting body of mankind's knowledge. The said body may evolve, but is surely not based on ephemera as we would argue fashions in pop-music are. Why not questions on body-piercing, lipstick or....well, you get our point.
Is there a bedrock of rock?

[french frank]

It's a reasonable question. Do/Would they have questions on Harry Potter, Terry Pratchett, Doctor Who?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Well - considering that the questions posed yesterday were some years old (the earliest, I think, thirty years so) they were hardly "fashionable" - and the students were as stumped by them as others are by Donizetti! (I identified three of the four questions correctly - it would have been four if I hadn't for some reason said "Lou Reed" instead of "Iggy Pop"! )

[Old Grumpy]

Why not - they give Paxo a chance to practice his sneer at the banality of the question and makes FoR3 Forum members feel superior. Win-win!

OG

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It's a reasonable question. Do/Would they have questions on Harry Potter, Terry Pratchett, Doctor Who?

Harry Potter featured last night - the "howler" question. Dr Who, and Terry Pratchett of course feature - History and Literature have always done so.

[Alison]

I occasionally get invited along to quiz nights, normally of a fund raising nature, and despair at the predominance of pop music questions. And soap ones.

[french frank]

Harry Potter featured last night - the "howler" question. Dr Who, and Terry Pratchett of course feature - History and Literature have always done so.

History? But it begs the question: how do you define 'literature' as distinct from 'fiction'? Or what is meant by 'literary fiction' as distinct from 'popular fiction'?

[Petrushka]

I occasionally get invited along to quiz nights, normally of a fund raising nature, and despair at the predominance of pop music questions. And soap ones.

If a team quiz it's worth picking the members with care in order to provide for a wide range of subjects. I used to sit back and let the others get on with the sport and pop music while I could cope reasonably ok with pretty well anything else.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

History? But it begs the question: how do you define 'literature' as distinct from 'fiction'? Or what is meant by 'literary fiction' as distinct from 'popular fiction'?

I personally would say that individual and inventive use of language, fully-formed characterisation, ingenious plotting are pointers towards a distinction between "Literature" and "Fiction" - popular fiction and "literary fiction" can be one and the same thing, of course (Dickens? Shakespeare?). If you like, I can give a lengthy appraisal of Pratchett's work demonstrating that he is one of the finest wordsmiths and story-tellers in the English language, and pointing out the three-dimensional characterisation - a far finer writer than many of the established, "serious" novelists.

[Lat-Literal]

Some of the key words not yet mentioned although a few are alluded to - cinema, television, radio, newspapers/magazines, cartoonists, pop art.

[Alison]

If a team quiz it's worth picking the members with care in order to provide for a wide range of subjects. I used to sit back and let the others get on with the sport and pop music while I could cope reasonably ok with pretty well anything else.

You do get the occasional racing question. Any classical music question is invariably very very easy.

You're home early Pet.

(Shame about Thistlecrack).

[gurnemanz]

"Is this because we are totally ignorant of the genre? Yes."

Ignorance of the subject matter of the questions rules out just about all science and maths questions for me. At least I know and appreciate some rock music. If I still like listening to the Beatles and Dylan songs I liked 50 years ago as a teenager and enjoy them as much as I enjoy Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Reger, Beethoven, Berg, Zemlinsky, Brahms, Mahler, Liszt, Pfitzner, Strauss R, Hindemith, (Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern?) and other "legit" songwriters, this would surely argue against it being "ephemeral". Nobel Prize Committee seems to agree.

[MrGongGong]

Mrs A and I groan in unison when a pop-music question gets...er...popped on UC, as it was last Monday.
Is this because we are totally ignorant of the genre? Yes.
Is it because we are awful cultural snobs? Possibly.
But thinking about it more seriously, we wonder if any of the other areas of knowledge mined for UC questions are comparable.
Fine art, history, ancient myth, religion, literature, science (many branches), mathematics, geography....these are subjects based on some lasting body of mankind's knowledge. The said body may evolve, but is surely not based on ephemera as we would argue fashions in pop-music are. Why not questions on body-piercing, lipstick or....well, you get our point.
Is there a bedrock of rock?

Given that you say you are "totally ignorant of the genre" then saying this
"as we would argue fashions in pop-music are" ........would suggest that you are making a huge assumption about the "value" of something that you are "totally ignorant" of ?

The questions on UC do illustrate very neatly a set of attitudes towards what constitutes "knowledge".

(I was going to suggest Dahlhaus again )

[french frank]

If you like, I can give a lengthy appraisal of Pratchett's work demonstrating that he is one of the finest wordsmiths and story-tellers in the English language, and pointing out the three-dimensional characterisation

I might take you up on that challenge, not-on-a-Thursday. I'm at a disadvantage from a critical standpoint as the description 'comic fantasy' would be enough to prevent me ever picking up one of the books.

The tiny bit I've read (just now) from The Colour of Magic (I think) seemed to be a magpie collection of bits and bobs from all over the place, combined quite ingeniously. But the writing style seemed unremarkable. I presume he hadn't really got into his stride at that point …

However, an argument ready to be torpedoed …

[ardcarp]

Given that you say you are "totally ignorant of the genre" then saying this
"as we would argue fashions in pop-music are" ........would suggest that you are making a huge assumption about the "value" of something that you are "totally ignorant" of ?

Fair comment, Gongers. When penning the OP, I did wonder if you'd chip in.