I know I’ve heard of him, but I don’t know what he has done. He must be before my time. Which means he’s before most people on HN’s time.
Edit: guess not knowing the producer of U2 and Coldplay is a sin around here. I’m 38 and I have no idea what any of his other work is but I don’t think I’d much care for it based on my opinions of those two bands he produced.
I don't think the "sin" is not knowing who Eno is, but rather, an unwillingness to explore and educate yourself.
"He must be before my time"
"I know I’ve heard of him"
So, you make some research and the best you can come up with is "the producer of U2 and Coldplay"...
"I have no idea what any of his other work is but I don’t think I’d much care for it based on my opinions of those two bands he produced."
It all just reads as wilful ignorance... You obviously care enough to comment and bask in the fact that you're unaware of him. As if being oblivious to a hugely influential figure should be worn like a badge of pride or something
David Bowie's best work was with Eno. You might want to check the album trilogy Low/Heroes/Lodger.
And of course his massively influential ambient productions, or the band Talking Heads... Or his ambient experiments with Robert Fripp, inventing the tape loop to make the guitar sound like something else.
Or the art/glam rock masterpieces Another Green World and Before and After Science.
People on HN are not as young as you think, and Eno is not such a one-trick pony that the music he makes himself has much resemblance to the more mainstream amongst the bands he's produced.
So I suspect that your downvotes are for broadcasting unfair assumptions as justification for wilful philistinism.
Yes I’m a philistine for not spending the time to listen to old music by a dude that made a bunch of music with bands that I don’t particularly like. I knew the name, but nothing else until tonight. He seems very popular, that’s great I don’t really care for a lot of music made before my time. And I don’t care for what he has done during my time.
Coldplay boring, David Bowie never got into this music. U2 well let’s just say I was one of the people that went through the process to get their free album removed from my iTunes account. Eno seems exactly the type of music I wouldn’t care for. The fact that I made it this far without knowing who he is and finding all the stuff he has touched not what I like seems to validate that.
At what point is it no longer my burden to explore something more until I am no longer a philistine in your opinion?
Intentionally broadcasting a lack of knowledge of someone's oeuvre and using that total pig-head ignorance as some kind badge of honour is grade-A philistinism.
> At what point is it no longer my burden to explore something more until I am no longer a philistine in your opinion
Well, since you ask, I have to suggest just try talking about something you actually know anything about, or are interested in, rather than wasting everyone's time spruiking your incompetence and taking a shit on everyone else's interests.
Edit: guess not knowing the producer of U2 and Coldplay is a sin around here. I’m 38 and I have no idea what any of his other work is but I don’t think I’d much care for it based on my opinions of those two bands he produced.