This exactly,

Whilst I have been shocked at all the celebrity deaths this year, there have only been a few that have saddened me.

Like of last year hit me when Lemmy died

This year the ones that shocked & saddened me were

David Bowie
Alan Rickman
Glenn Fray
Jimmy Bain
Frank Kelly
Keith Emerson
Paul Daniels
Ronnie Corbett
Denise Robertson
Joanie “Chyna” Laurer,
John Berry
Nick Menza
Muhammad Ali
Caroline Aherne

Kenny Baker & Gene Wilder died within a month of when I lost my Dad, so their deaths really got to me.

Jean Alexander
Pete Burns
Robert Vaughn
Andrew Sachs
Greg Lake
Rick Parfitt
George Michael
Carrie Fisher - Her death has really saddened me

As fans of Musicians & Actors / Actresses, it is only natural to feel sad when one dies as we grew to love them either by listening or watching them, but our grieving for them will pass & we will have memories of them by playing their songs or watching their films / shows. Condolences to anyone that has lost someone close to them this year, celebrity or not.

I have found some artists' work moving and inspirational in various ways, however we all are capable of ideas which could change the world or be inspirational in some way. The difference with the artists who have gained popular appeal is that they have managed, by skill or by luck, to get their ideas out there.

And of course, those who have excellent acting/vocal/performance skills who deserve to be out there already.

Have to be honest, I find the idea of my or anyone's opinions or emotions being affected by any form of cultural phenomenon to be a bit 1984.

Most days the news on the TV announces someone's death and usually I have to ask who are they?

I mean who was George Micheal? Some guy who had a few hits in the 80s. My mother seemed sad at the news but no one else I know seemed to be effected by his death

And I find that the CONNECTION that an artist has with their audience is the catalyst for emotion.

In pretty much any art form.

For me, it's how it actually truly works.

Recognition, empathy, emotion, pleasure, understanding, beauty and truth.

And yes it can be subjective, but that doesn't mean it isn't all of the above.

Don't get it...

I'm not criticising you for your viewpoint as it's obviously something which you have faith in, but I'm not sure it's one I'll have myself.

I suppose it's different strokes for different folks, which is ultimately one of the great things about humanity - our diversity in so many ways, including the way we perceive the world.

It may be.

I've cried over art when studying it - Renaissance artists particularly

I cried as a child who loved Bruckner and knew a lot of his symphonies and heard them in concert and learned that he had to PAY an orchestra before he died and listen to his last one on his own, and died obscure.

We are all different. The emotional dimension is massive for ME, and I think many others too.

But not all, and I respect that, although I find it hard to understand that there isn't some emotional connection SOMETIMES at least.

We can all be 'academic' about it - they were great, they were influentual (but I'm not emotionally invested) and that's fine.

But there are artists that mean more to people 'personally' for different reasons. And that's fine too.

I don't think that's necessarily true. People are having their own little internal buzz when they listen to music. They privately interpret the melody, and often half-heard lyrics, in ways that differ widely from person to person. When you find out the actual lyrics your interpretation can change. If you read about the songwriter, and what he or she was going through at the time, and what the lyrics really meant it can often be surprising.

Also, there are, perhaps, auditory versions of psychological archetypes. Something far more direct than meaning and recognition. The sound of strings alone can be an emotional trip in itself. Something like Adagio for Strings is an utter tearjerker every time, and not once have I paused to consider Samuel Barber's life experiences.

I think some people have a much greater capacity for emotion than others.

I've been in places where others have been able to cry and I haven't, and I have sort of envied them for being able to do it.

One day maybe I might downtight (is that a word?) a bit...

I edited my post that covers this a bit. And I agree to an extent.

It's two things - reacting to the 'piece' and reacting to the person that gives you 'the piece'.

It's HARDER to divorce them though, when the performance is personal - they are videoed performing it, and they are contemporaries etc.

They are then more identifiably people that provide that pleasure, personally

For a lot of us.

I'm one of those people that still thinks of music as a purely auditory experience, but I realize lots of people are well used to watching MTV. I was round at my brother's a few weeks ago and 'listening' to music largely involved what I call "watching telly". There were a few music videos that were over 10 years old that I'd never seen!

I'm totally out of touch

But I've still got bits of memory

People seem to forget that there is a middle ground between not caring and moping in grief, as though you have experienced a personal sense of loss. You would have to be heartless to not at least think it is sad when a person dies, celebrity or not, unless they were somebody particularly odious. That doesn't mean you have to shut yourself indoors sobbing your eyes out. It's just having empathy.

Your ignorance doesn't mean others can't feel affected by his death.

It's reminds me of that spitting image sketch ' And in other news, someone famous has died...'

I was just about to give up on Christmas TV for the day, when the news of GM's death came on. For what ever reason I was at least mildly interested in hearing the details.

A lot of celebrity deaths serve as warnings about how not to live your life, i.e drug related early deaths. According to the Telegraph he had been dabbling with opiates recently.

It is of course desperately sad that some one so young and talented and with so much to offer has been lost.

I love a good celebrity death if it involves stingrays or something.

I think there's a world of difference between feeling sad over the death of a well-known person to real grief. Anyone, who's lost someone close to them will know what that means.

Totally agree with the above.

Whilst I'm always sorry to hear of anyone's death, I'd be lying if I said it had the slightest emotional impact on me. Why would it? I've never met them, nor would ever have been likely to, even for a few seconds. Quite apart from getting to know them as a person.

I never knew George V1 who was the king before TV became widespread, everything was the newspapers or radio
But I will never forget the last public photo of him at some airport waving goodbye to the daughter he knew he would never see again

David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Victoria Wood, George Michael and Carrie Fisher have all hit me hardest. Others I've got over quickly but I'm still struggling to believe those 5 are gone because they were all heroes of mine.

That says more about your current age than anything else. Just wait 30 years until the current generation of teenage pop stars (most of whom I've never heard of) start passing away. For teenage girls (and probably some boys too) in the 80s, George Michael was one of the biggest heart throbs on the planet.

Here's an example for me. I grew up with David Bowie's music. When I was struggling in my teen years about who I was, Bowie's music was there. His music said there was no right way to be a man - I shouldn't be ashamed that I wasn't masculine, didn't like sports, that kind of thing, because it doesn't make me any less of a man. I identified with so many of his songs and he was a genuine talent. When he died, I felt genuine grief because it felt like I had lost a part of my life - someone who had always been there, someone who had informed such a large part of my life. Even though I'd never met the man, I felt genuine grief. I don't see how you can't understand that.

At the end of the day, no one, celebrity or not, is important in the scheme of things. We have our lifespan, up to 90 years if lucky and then we die. Every year, millions of replacement humans are born who have their own lifespan before they too die and get replaced again.

At the moment, there are excessive numbers of humans being created in proportion to the lifespan and death rate of the existing ones. So we actually have a requirement for less people, not more.

Then bear in mind how old the universe is and it becomes clear that each one of us makes little to no dent on anything and fundamentally life has absolutely no purpose whatsoever.

So here's the thing - you've got your time. Use it wisely. Cherish those closest to you and don't waste a minute on valueless emotions for people you didn't know. Focus on your life and the things that are important to you. Because while you're not important in the scheme of things, while you're here, you are.

When his body was taken from London to Windsor, the train went through the town where I grew up ( before my time ) and all the townspeople went and stood by the bridge to pay their respects as it went through.

Anything can happen in the next half hour.

I'm always saddened to hear of a death, celebrity or not but - not knocking it - I'm not one usually for taking to social media about it or RIPing or any of that. Nothing wrong with that, it's just not me.

A few celebrity deaths have shocked me and I was surprised how much it touched me - Kurt Cobain, Victoria Wood & now Carrie Fisher.

We're big Star Wars fans here - it's kind of dominated our Christmas. Watched Rogue One and we've been working our way through the Star Wars movies again all over Christmas and of course Santa brought plenty of Star Wars figures.

Daughter and I are also Carrie fans and we'd been reading old interviews of hers yesterday and talking about how it was great to hear she was in a stable condition when the news broke. Tbh it floored us - maybe wishful thinking but we thought she was out of the woods.

I admit I'm surprised how much Carrie's death has affected me but I supose she was an icon I grew up with and I always found her remarkable with her wit, honesty and candid nature. A great loss.