If you had to write down a list of the people you'd expect someone else to know by sight, who would be in that list?
October 29, 2011 3:58 AM   Subscribe

What public figures (actors, actresses, politicians, etc) should I be able to recognize by sight?

I have a hard time connecting names and faces; mostly I use context clues and clothing to help me (so seeing Barack Obama giving a speech is not so hard, but Madonna outside of a music video is very difficult for me; I might think I've seen her before, but not know where)

I've decided to try using flashcard software (Anki) to drill faces and names (mostly people I know and students) and it has been helping a lot.

What people in the public eye should I be able to recognize? Conversations about movies are usually pretty lame when you haven't recognized any of the actors, so I figure learning 50 actors/actresses wouldn't be a bad idea...who should I learn?
posted by sdis to Media & Arts (10 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
The president, vice president, and speaker of the house. Your governor, senators, representative, and mayor (or other local executive). Meryl Streep, Leonardo Dicaprio, George Clooney, Hilary Clinton, Mitt Romney, Pierce Brosnan, Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga, Scarlett Johanssen, Cameron Diaz, Rachel Mcadams, Bradley Cooper, Jon Stewart, and Betty White. Should get you started anyway. Some comments may have been deleted for being nonresponsive.
posted by eleanna at 6:15 AM on October 29, 2011


Mod note: Yep, some comments were deleted; remember to answer the question asked, folks.
posted by taz (staff) at 6:30 AM on October 29, 2011


Dictionary of Cultural Literacy

This will lean more towards people who've actually accomplished something than really random celebrities, like the Kardashians or something, but I think it's a great source of curated "what should I know" kind of info.
posted by TallulahBankhead at 6:37 AM on October 29, 2011


Do you read magazines? I think if you read a few issues of, say, People magazine, you'll be able to look at everyone who is in the headlines, with nice descriptive captions, then determine whether you feel you need to know those folks. People does a lot of lists, too, so you could look at their Sexiest Man Alive issue and their Most Beautiful People issue.

Change up the magazine depending upon your interests. People is the gold standard in general celebrity interest. They feature photos of a wide range of current newsmakers, including lots of candid shots of, I don't know, Uma Thurman crossing the street.

Magazines will be publishing their new lists of the "top ___s of 2011" within the next few months.
posted by brina at 6:42 AM on October 29, 2011 [1 favorite]


This list is made up with the following requirements: 1. Famous in western culture 2. Lives or lived in the 21st century.

Politicians

Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, George Bush Jr, Ronald Reagan, Ghandi, ...

Musicians

Jack White, Johnny Depp, Madonna, Jay-Z, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Robert Smith, Thom Yorke, ...

Passing fame

Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Kardashians, ...

Actors/directors

Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, ...

---

This is just too exhaustive, and it depends on where you live and which culture you "live in"; I would go with Brina's comment to read a lot of magazines.

Forbes has this Top 100 Celebrity list: http://www.forbes.com/2006/06/12/06celebrities_money-power-celebrities-list_land.html .
posted by wolfr at 6:46 AM on October 29, 2011


Hmmm. A lot of this really depends on who the people you're talking to are talking about. If you were say, 25, I might say Andy Sandburg and Drake. But if you're 45 you're probably not going to be as interested in current SNL comedians and R&B singers. Would you mind giving us a ballpark for your age? Also a vague area might be helpful, too. The top 50 most famous people for the average Nashville resident and the average San Diego resident might have significant differences. And it's going to be totally different if you're outside the US.

Oh, and I've heard of people with face blindness/prosopagnosia using voices more readily for recognition than faces --- do you find that helps you at all? Because then youtube videos might be better.

Here's a link to this year's Forbes Celebrity 100 --- Forbes ranks them by money making, but famouness and money earned from fame correlate pretty strongly, and there's mostly full on face shots, handy for your flash cards. (Here's the Time 100, which is "influential" as oppossed to famous, so maybe not as useful. Also more full-body portraits.)

Music:
Lady Gaga
Justin Beiber
Jay-Z
Beyonc´e
Kanye West

TV
Simon Cowell
Ellen DeGeneres
Jennifer Lopez
Neil Patrick Harris
Betty White
Steve Carrell
Tina Fey
Hugh Laurie
Amy Poehler

Sports
Tiger Woods
LeBron James
Tom Brady
Kobe Bryant
Ben Rothliberger
Roger Federer
Michael Jordon
Derek Jeter
Peyton Manning

Movies
Angelina Jolie
Johnny Depp
Jennifer Anniston
Leonardo DiCaprio
Brad Pitt
George Clooney
Will Smith
Tom Hanks

Pretty American-centric list, all in all.

Politics
Barack Obama
Mitt Romney
Hillary Clinton
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Joe Biden
Michelle Bachman
Sarah Palin
Angela Merkel

Science & Tech
Richard Dawkins
Bill Gates
Mark Zuckerberg
posted by Diablevert at 7:17 AM on October 29, 2011 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: I'm 28 and go back and forth between LA, New York and Austria.

Many thanks for the suggestions! Just snagged a bunch of people from the Forbes 100. Keep 'em coming!
posted by sdis at 7:37 AM on October 29, 2011


If you can't spot Oprah Winfrey, you might need more help than we can give.

George Lucas, Clint Eastwood, Paula Abdul, Will Smith, Halle Berry--even irl these people are easy to spot. They don't look like anyone else.

The real test is being able to tell various blond actresses apart.
posted by Ideefixe at 9:45 AM on October 29, 2011 [1 favorite]


Trivia site Sporcle has a bunch of "Identify these famous people from their photo" quizzes that you can use as a sort of flashcard game:

Famous Faces on Time Magazine Covers

Name the Famous Faces

More Famous Faces

Famous Dictators

Famous Brits

Famous Johns (not that kind of john...)

Celebrities + Historical Figures

etc.

The cool thing is, each quiz has a statistics page you can reach by adding "/results" to the end of the URL. It'll show which answers were guessed by the most people, and how your answers compared to everyone else.
posted by Rhaomi at 9:22 PM on October 29, 2011


I also have trouble matching names to faces. I think the answer really depends on the people you are mixing with.

I am probably towards one extreme, in that I wouldn't expect you to recognise many people by sight. If you didn't recognise a picture of Angela Merkel or Ban Ki-Moon, I wouldn't really care and would just assume you don't get your news with pictures. On the other hand, if you didn't know who they are, I would be rather taken aback. (I would also expect you to know a few facts about them and quietly write off your opinions about politics if you didn't.) As I wrote, however, I accept that I'm a bit of an outlier and people upthread would expect you to recognise Betty White and Roger Federer by sight. It doesn't matter whether my approach or their approach is better or more normal, but you need to be aware of what your social circles expect of you.

You've already identified that it's important to your friends to talk about film stars. (although I would disagree that you can't talk interestingly about movies unless you know who the actors are) However, film stars are a class of people whose appearance is central to their importance. I wonder if your ability to have conversations about current affairs, science, the arts etc. will be impaired if you don't know what Marine Le Pen, Francis Crick or Ai Weiwei look like. If you think it will, go ahead and learn their faces.

In short, be discriminating. Rather than learning the faces of the 300 most famous people, learn the 50 faces that you really need to know. The time saved can be spent on learning information about these people that will help you far more in conversation.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 10:35 AM on October 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


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