This is a music challenge, testing how well you recognize historic hits.

https://pudding.cool/2020/04/music-challenge/

You knew 0 of 10 songs, which were just added to the 2,261,741 data points we have on how music fades from cultural knowledge.

So the purpose was to document how I, a 62-year-old, am not cognizant of songs by Three Doors Down or Chingy? I could have told them that going in.

peeps call dan up, say it's a hotel party
just bring the liquor; there's already eight shorties

boomers don't recognize the thong song, and then they wonder why no one likes them

I'm sure it just randomly samples ~30 seconds from anywhere in the song, but it makes it a lot more difficult when the sample is mostly a bridge/breakdown/fadeout/etc. Especially in the 80's when songs didn't end, they just gradually dissolved into crooning moans and baritone sax solos!

my bad, 80s sax sounds in pop songs were usually just regular tenors weren't they

i think maybe some giveaways are held until near the end of the samples? i missed a couple that i knew, maybe because i clicked early rather than letting them play.

their list of songs 'uniquely' known to gen x is interesting, it (80s and early 90s) seems to really predate the music of the 90s that i would have expected to see.

Feel like there was lots of stuff there which I don't know simply because I'm not American, this is often a problem with this sort of quiz.

3/10

Recognized:

Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down, 2000

Breathe by Faith Hill, 2000

Butterfly by Crazy Town, 2001

Did not recognize:

Confessions Part II by Usher, 2004

Dilemma by Nelly, 2002

Laffy Taffy by D4L, 2005

This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race by Fall Out Boy, 2007

I Wanna Know by Joe, 2000

Naughty Girl by Beyonce, 2004

Me and U by Cassie, 2006

I stopped listening to the radio after 2001 and I hated mainstream r&b at the time so it checks out.

For example, you knew the song Down Low by R. Kelly, but 4% of Gen Z’ers (ages 13–22) recognize it.

This slipped by quality control.

I got 8/10 because I couldn't place Wilson Phillips or Bob Jovi.

I can't believe 15% of millennials don't have the pleasure of knowing Gregory Abbott's "Shake You Down,' which might be one of the finest songs ever recorded.

4/10 for 60s

5/10 for the 70s.

I only got 4 for the 70s too.

And for the 00s! I'm a bad ilxor.

8/10 for the 80s, 6/10 for the 90s, didn't bother going further as all the "don't knows" were American acts whose names I've read but songs I've never encountered.

Also the analysis doesn't give you extra cool guy points for clicking in the first second, which is very rude.

Who is this for, or rather, what does it want to prove (if anything)?

Theoretically finding out which hits resonate through the ages and which don't, but appears to be extremely circumscribed by the programmer's own interests and memories.

don't know it
Cherish by Kool and The Gang, 1985
Talk To Me by Stevie Nicks, 1986
Invisible Touch by Genesis, 1986
The Rose by Bette Midler, 1980

sounds familiar
Crazy For You by Madonna, 1985
Crazy For You by Madonna, 1985

know it
Time by Culture Club, 1983

singing the lyrics
Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye, 1983
Kiss On My List by Daryl Hall and John Oates, 1981
Money For Nothing by Dire Straits, 1985

(no, I wasn't singing THAT lyric)

(from millennial category)

3 of 10 from 60s
5 of 10 from 70s
5 of 10 from 80s
7 of 10 from 90s
10 of 10 from 00s

figure my 70s score would be lower than my 80s score if i were tested against larger samples but otherwise yeah looks about right

no, I wasn't singing THAT lyric

lol

how long until online stans find this and start trying to game it so songs by their 'faves' will look more favorable/'remembered'

sounds familiar
Crazy For You by Madonna, 1985
Crazy For You by Madonna, 1985

probably really familiar the second time

i'm taking the 60s quiz now and how does one sing the lyrics to "Fingertips Pt. II" exactly??

Invisible Touch by Genesis, 1986
The Rose by Bette Midler, 1980

Surprised you didn't know these but I for my part didn't know

Who Can It Be Now? by Men At Work, 1982
You Got It All by Jets, The, 1987
Make It Real by Jets, The, 1988 (have to admit I didn't even know this band)
Nightshift by Commodores, 1985
Working My Way Back To You by Spinners, 1980

Know it:
Shattered Dreams by Johnny Hates Jazz, 1988
Never Gonna Let You Go by Sergio Mendes, 1983

Singing the lyrics:
Alone by Heart, 1987
Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics, 1983
Summer Of 69 by Bryan Adams, 1984

xp maybe that can be the follow up to This is the thread where I sing along to "Da Funk"

you should listen to Nightshift 100 times right now Sund4r

10/10 for 60s, but it played the same song twice (Uptight by Stevie Wonder)

OK, it was the 49th biggest song of 1985 in Canada: https://musiccanada.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/top-100-singles-of-1985-in-canada/

xp

weirdly, the text of the explanation that appears after you play seems to be buggy... i opened multiple windows to verify that it generates somewhat different examples in the text each time, but in my first window it named eddie money's "take me home tonight" as a song from 1996 instead of 1986 ("it's been 24 years since its release"), and the "sampling of top 3 hits from 1981" showed ten hits from 1971 instead ("maggie may" "american pie" "it's too late" "family affair" etc.)

well nuts

1/10 for 70s! no fucking idea! the only song I knew was Queen. never heard any of the others before, I did recognise Lionel Richie's voice on one of them (Commodores - Still) but never heard the song before

kinda strange how distinct that was from the 60s one really, assuming that's a US/UK thing

I also got Crazy For You twice

did a bit better on 80s but somehow failed to recognise Sexual Healing, 6/10. there was a Sting song I am sure I have never heard before

80s/90s/00s all together (didn't save 60s/70s):

don't know it:
Fergalicious by Fergie, 2006
Who Can It Be Now? by Men At Work, 1982
You Got It All by Jets, The, 1987
Make It Real by Jets, The, 1988
Nightshift by Commodores, 1985
Working My Way Back To You by Spinners, 1980
Bills, Bills, Bills by Destiny's Child, 1999 (i recognized it was DC but couldn't place the song title - should have been "sounds familiar", probably)
Love Is by Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight, 1993
Nobody Knows by Tony Rich Project, 1996
I Believe In You And Me by Whitney Houston, 1997
Remember The Time by Michael Jackson, 1992

sounds familiar:
My Life Would Suck Without You by Kelly Clarkson, 2009
One Call Away by Chingy, 2004
Case Of The Ex by Mya, 2000
Shake Ya Tailfeather by Nelly, 2003
I Turn To You by Christina Aguilera, 2000
Sensitivity by Ralph Tresvant, 1991

know it:
Confessions Part II by Usher, 2004
Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down, 2000
Party In The U.S.A. by Miley Cyrus, 2009
Shattered Dreams by Johnny Hates Jazz, 1988
Never Gonna Let You Go by Sergio Mendes, 1983
Summer Girls by LFO, 1999
No Scrubs by TLC, 1999
How Can We Be Lovers by Michael Bolton, 1990

singing the lyrics:
Dilemma by Nelly, 2002
Alone by Heart, 1987
Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics, 1983
Summer Of 69 by Bryan Adams, 1984
Can't Stop This Thing We Started by Bryan Adams, 1991

lol I got 3/10 on 90s and 1/10 on 00s

you'd think I was a boomer since apparently I only know US chart hits from the 60s

Got 40 'singing the lyrics rn' out of 50 for all five decades collectively (100% on '70s and '80s). Only ones I didn't recognize at all:

I Got Rhythm by Happenings, The, 1967 (which I totally know but I guess just didn't recognize)
He'll Have To Stay by Jeanne Black, 1960
Just A Friend by Mario, 2002
Where The Party At by Jagged Edge, 2001
Fireflies by Owl City, 2009

I stopped paying much attention to the hot 100 around 1996 or so, so the only thing that was surprising was recognizing a whole five songs from the 2000s.

Trying to work out whether ignoring the last 20 years of pop music would be worth it just to avoid hearing Fireflies.

I was hoping this thing would be multiple choice and make you actually identify the song.

it's curious that the data show GenXers are more familiar with many Boomer era songs than Boomers are, although this is unpredictable; eg more GenXers know "Theme from Shaft" than Boomers do, but Boomers are more familiar with "Everyday People" than Xers

Most surprising thing to me is that 73% of Millenials recognize the song Good Lovin by the Young Rascals. That just seems high.