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What's really amazing to me about this topic so far is the number of artists people have listed that my dad is really into or really was into in his day! Seriously, Tom Waits, the Dead, Miles Davis, Cotrane... I have a hard time thinking these people aren't pretty well heard having grown up with a pretty damn conservative guy being into them in my household. Of course I know that doesn't account for the majority of the planet, but still I think many people approaching 60, at least in America, have listened pretty heavily to all of that stuff.
Of course my dad gave me his copy of Meditations on cd just to get rid of it because he was into Giant Steps, and I couldn't get him into post-Swordfish Trombones Tom Waits despite growing up with Nighthawks at the Diner constantly playing in the background. But some people just go for melodic non-dissonant stuff. Most people in fact.
I think Marley is fair if you want to talk about stuff beyond his greatest hits, but then his greatest hits are pretty damn familiar with millions and millions of people. Zappa is probably better known for "Valley Girl" and showing up at the PMRC hearings than anything else, I suppose.
Honestly, I have never met anyone who had heard of the Velvet Underground who didn't listen to them. Maybe it's just my generation, but generally if people didn't listen to them, they'd never heard of them either. Or Lou Reed, but if you'd say the words "Walk on the Wild Side" they'd know since that got played on classic rock stations.
The artists who come to my mind who actually fit this subject are John Cage and Yoko Ono.
Cage, everybody knows did some song with no music, and they think he's some sort of pretentious novelty act. They have no idea he predicted that all music would go electric long before it did, or invented chance determinism. For that matter, they don't understand that 4'33" while not necessarily Cage's most interesting piece, is actually a real musical score that isn't intended to be completely silent because of the actions of the player and the audience.
Yoko they go on about how she ruined John Lennon (quite the opposite in my book) and how horrible they think her music is. Then if you ask them to name any of it, or even describe it, they're stumped. They go on about the fact that she is moany on a song or two and then they go out and dance to the fucking Cure!
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