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10 Zeitgeistian Pop Culture Items in 2012 With Which I Have Almost No Knowledge

By Dustin Rowles | Lists | November 26, 2012 |

By Dustin Rowles | Lists | November 26, 2012 |


Because even those of us who run pop-culture blogs have blind spots, either intentional or inadvertent:

Act of Valor — A movie about an elite team of Navy SEALs embark on a covert mission to recover a kidnapped CIA agent that made $70 million at the box office. I don’t even remember it coming out.

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Ashley Green — A popular actress who was in a television series (“Pan Am”) and four movies this year (LOL, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part II, Apparition and Butter), two of which I saw yet I could not pick her out of a lineup of twenty-something brunettes.

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Phillip Philips — Despite the cruel name, Philips won “American Idol” this year. I have never heard him sing, and have heard his name less than five times all year long.

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The X-Factor — The second most profitable show of 2012, I have never seen a second of this singing competition, although I understand Britney Spears is one of the judges, along with Simon Cowell. I have no idea who the others are.

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Duck Dynasty — Cable’s third most popular cable show this fall (behind The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy) and until last week, I’d never heard of it in my life.

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Katie — The most popular daytime talk show debut since 2009, the show has been number one among new daytime talk shows for nine weeks. I had heard that Katie Couric was doing a daytime talk show, but I hadn’t even realized it’d begun.

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One Direction — They sold half a million records in the United States in their first week, and they became the youngest British act to top the album and singles chart simultaneously. Until Courtney mentioned them last week, they’d never entered my radar. In fact, I’m now realizing that they are a band I thought was called Up All Night because I’d seen them frequently on Tumblr while searching for GIFs from the NBC sitcom.

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The Weeknd is a very popular R&B singer and not a misspelling of a little seen 2011 independent film. The Weeknd is his actual stage name.

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Continuum — A Canadian TV series about a detective from the year 2077 finds herself trapped in present day Vancouver and searching for ruthless criminals from the future. It stars Rachel Nichols (who I kind of adore) and apparently, it was so popular in Canada, it’s already aired in the UK and is set to air in the US on SyFy in January. This I’m actually kind of excited about.

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Dragon Baby — A YouTube video that’s been seen 23 million times this month. Today was the first I’d ever heard of it. I’ve gotta admit, I appreciate the appeal.