I wonder if Amy Winehouse would have reached this status if she had not passed away so soon. I think she was incredibly talented.
And I wonder about Whitney Houston. What a voice.
“As to why people say they aren’t as well known, it’s radio. Radio these days plays what the corporation that owns the stations wants. The DJs pretty much have no input. It’s a shame as there are so many great bands out there that people who aren’t willing to scour the Internet don’t hear.”
That has been true for a long, long time. Back in the day, when stations like WABC-AM in NY were the kings of Top 40 music, there were huge efforts by record companies to get songs played, including payola, and they had sanctified play lists. Once FM stopped being a novelty they couldn’t figure out what to do with, and took over music in the 70’s, same thing there, you had the top 40 stations like Z100 in NYC, or the AOR stations like WNEW and the like all over the country, and they were narrowcast as hell. The only stations back in the day playing REM and similar groups when they started were college stations and the like. Years ago, so many I am afraid to mention it (I would guess this was in the mid 90’s), friend of mine was a member of the museum of broadcasting here in NYC, and they had a symposium with all these relatively famous DJ’s, guys like Scott Muni, Pete Fonatelle, Dave Herman, Dennis Elsus and Jim Ladd, and they talked about back in the 60’s how at GM stations they had a lot of latitudde to play what they wanted, cause corporate didn’t think FM was anything serious (again, top 40 and music was still AM) and they talked about how narrow the broadcasting was by the 70’s (bit of trivia, Dave Herman told a great story about WPLJ, it originally was WABC-FM, but the FCC didn’t want stations doing that, so they had to get new call letters…they came up with WPLJ in the late 60’s, there was a song called “White Port with Lemon Juice, tastes fine”, hence WPLJ…
I think today it is worse because with the internet and Spotify and the like, they can listen to what they like and most people tend to stick with things others have suggested to them or they know, even more focused then back in the day. Musically there is certainly a lot more out there, lot easier to have recordings on the net and so forth, but it also is such a rich stew lot harder for the pieces to come out.
20-30 years from now we will be 70-80 years old (on average). Ask your 80 yr old parents what they think of U2 and Madonna, and I guarantee that the reviews wound range from “who?” to “who listens to this crap.” 
Our kiddos will be 40-50 years then… it would be interesting to read their threads on this topic.
I think there are 2 separate things here: a “legend” is either someone who is widely remembered or someone who had a great influence on a particular genre etc., sometimes, they are both.
I would be very surprised if this was not said 20-30 years ago. 
However, as I look at the Billboard charts from 1986, I notice that it is populated by names like Madonna, Prince, Whitney, which greatly outnumber the Falcos and Banaramas of the music industry. One can hope that Justin Bieber will not be topping the charts in 2046, but anything is possible.
30 years ago was in the 80’s. 40 years ago…the 70’s
In the 70’s there were folks who were brewing legends…Elton John, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Carole King, Carly Simon. When I was in college, we talked about them…and you know what…we still talk about them…and so do my kids. To me…that makes a legend…spans the decades, and generations.
There’s also the personal connection. Beyonce will never be a legend to me because I don’t listen to her music. I enjoy seeing pictures of her and her music is … fine … but I have no personal connection to it.
For me, it was a very big deal to me when David Bowie died because I owned all of his records, listened to him regularly, was looking forward to the new album and had been talking to friends about the video that had seemed so macabre when it was released before his death, etc. He was part of my daily life. That was the death of someone who was a legend to me.
When Prince died, by contrast, I thought, “wow, that’s too bad” but I was never particularly into him that much. I really liked his biggest hits from the 80s (1999, Purple Rain and When Doves Cry), but I did not play them much anymore (if at all) and really didn’t pay attention to him all that much. I knew intellectually that he was a tremendously important and influential figure in pop music, but I didn’t personally have a strong emotional connection to him. I understood he was legendary in the culture but he wasn’t a legend to me personally.
Re:191
I like “Titanium.” My wife also especially loves it in Pitch Perfect.
I do own a Skrillex album - the one with Scary Ghosts and Nice Sprites or whatever it’s called, because the gal I was dating at the time was quite a bit younger than me.
I’m sure I know some Deadmou5e and Tiesto has fashioned some good music too.
There’s good music in every genre - and certainly legends within each genre. We’re probably talking “overall” legends, not just by genre.
But music’s main purpose is not to support careers that support sales/hits/awards/tours/longevity that support this discussion.
Music is meant to make us feel. Whether you’re writing the song, playing/singing it or listening to it, music makes us feel.
How about the Vegas test? Do you have a tribute show? Prince does (and it’s excellent – Purple Reign). There is a Motown show and a Michael Jackson show. Never been an Elvis fan, but no denying that he’s a legend.
I used to be at the very front of the line on dissing Bieber but I think his latest album is a departure from his previous teeny bopper schlock. I think he has the potential to develop as a more serious artist down the road. Time will tell.
“Ask your 80 yr old parents what they think of U2 and Madonna, and I guarantee that the reviews wound range from “who?” to “who listens to this crap.””
Not so fast. My 73 yo parents absolutely know and like U2 and Madonna. They would absolutely recognize their songs. It’s possible they attended their concerts; I don’t know what all concerts they’ve ever attended, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they’d seen (and paid $ for premium seats) either of them. If I invited them to a Madonna or U2 concert today, they’d likely go. And my parents weren’t necessarily “into” music any more than anybody else, but they were in their early 40s when Madonna and U2 were big; they had a college age daughter and a younger daughter. Why wouldn’t they have known artists that were dominating the charts? I mean, we are all fifty something or sixty something and we are mentioning Adele and Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift and Rihanna and other artists who have a number of hit songs.
I think you’re selling today’s 80 yo’s who would have been 50 when Madonna was big short by suggesting they’d say “who is she.”
I think that goes more towards the sense of nostalgia, like how/why Rock of Ages ran for so long on B’Way. After all, there’s also a Bee Gees tribute show.
Now, Spinal Tap is legendary.
“Most of the current artists won’t be remembered very much 20 or 30 years from now.”
I watched No Direction Home (Bob Dylan documentary by Martin Scorsese) with my mother as we are going to a Dylan concert in June. At one point they panned to a 1965 Billboard chart on which the first 3 positions were held by “Help!,” “Like a Rolling Stone” and “California Girls.” We both said wow - these are songs still known and regarded as classics 50 years after their “birth”, and from artists who are all legendary in the music world though in far different ways. Will there ever be a sweep of today’s songs like that, where they’ll be known 50 years from now?
Are there current songs that will be classics like that 50 years from now? Suggestions/thoughts?
^^ Honestly I don’t think 99% of today’s chart topper songs have that kind of staying power. I mean, when I was a teenager in the 70s we weren’t listening to the hits of the 1920s.
I think our kids follow a much more diverse selection and many more artists than previous generations. If you are n up and coming group, via the internet and social media it is much easier to get a following than when we relied soley on radio. Also the music festival scene plays a bigger role than in the past. I’ve “discovered” many great new artists among acts at the bottom of the lineup by attending festivals that didn’t exist 10, 20, 3 years ago.
“think that goes more towards the sense of nostalgia, like how/why Rock of Ages ran for so long on B’Way. After all, there’s also a Bee Gees tribute show.”
Barry Gibb is one of the great falsettos of all times. It does them a major disservice to focus on just the SNF/disco stuff which was overplayed, and neglect their late 1960s catalog which has exceptional harmonies and real songcraft.
The 60s Bee Gees are wonderful, with songs like Massachusetts, New York Mining Disaster 1941, off the top of my head.
Same for the early Rolling Stones catalog from the mid to late 60s.
“Also the music festival scene plays a bigger role than in the past. I’ve “discovered” many great new artists among acts at the bottom of the lineup by attending festivals that didn’t exist 10, 20, 3 years ago.”
The documentary I just watched spends considerable time on the Newport Folk Festival and how it was “controversial” when Dylan went electric. The decision by the Beach Boys to pull out of the Monterey Pop festival probably is what killed their credibility in trying to move from beach-pop to more complex psychedelic music that Brian Wilson was composing, that would have rivaled Sgt Pepper. Certainly Woodstock was influential, and Band Aid / Live Aid in the 1980s. Are there just more music festivals per year today? I don’t know the answer.
@NovaDad99, Louis Armstrong’s West End Blues from 1928 is pretty good. 