I would have to disagree. The only thing I know about Bruce Lee is that he did martial arts. I couldn't name any of his accomplishments nor any of his movies off the top of my head. Michael Jackson could make people who didn't know any english sing his songs. I'm not denying Bruce Lee was brilliant at what he did... probably the best ever (from what I've heard)... but the target audience just isn't there. On the whole, the appeal of music >>>>>> the appeal of martial arts for the majority of the population of the world.
Well the dude died when he was 32, and if I'm not mistaken, be burst onto the scene at a later age. MJ was a star since childhood. Bruce didn't really have a chance to make a ton of movies. However, the movies he did make, were revolutionary. Regardless, I'm not talking about their success, rather, how recognizable they are. I'm also not saying for certain, that Bruce would be as popular, but I think if he had lived a little longer, he would have been able to expand on his philosophical teachings, he also would have made a few more movies...
Dude, Enter the Dragon? You gotta remember that, outside of China/Asia, no one really knew what "martial arts" was. After "Fist of Fury" and "Enter the Dragon" he had almost everyone in the world trying to mimic him. Martial Arts schools began opening all across the USA. but yeah, I'm gonna agree with you here.. the appeal of music > the appeal of martial arts.
Haha, actually you did bring up a very good point that hadn't even crossed my mind. It would be hard to find a person who had a larger impact on their own "area of expertise" if you will, than Bruce Lee. While I still think MJ had a much larger global impact, and is more of an icon, there is no doubt Bruce Lee's contributions specifically to martial arts surpass Michael's contributions specifically to music.
lol, that was easy to refute. On that note, would you guys say Charles Lindbergh was an icon? Or was that just a US/Europe or aviators thing?
Anyone who can't be found on Wikipedia is disqualified: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=Abraham+Mayes&go=Go I remember seeing some kind of survey years (decades?) ago that measured worldwide familiarity with various people. I remember that Michael Jackson was up there with Jesus. But, what I thought was interesting was that the percentages were surprisingly low -- that the most famous people were around 60%. I'll look around the web for it, but I doubt I'll find it.
