I think it's more possible than we'd like to imagine that young people know who the Beatles are and don't know the names of the band members - i refuse to believe though that she has never heard of the Beatles (unless perhaps she is an immigrant - even still, hard to believe)

Being aware of past composers or musicians is just fine,
but I wish people would quit with the museumification of this stuff.
They don’t know who the Beatles are? Fine. Maybe later if they’re
inclined or feel the need. The only “lack” I regularly see in younger
listeners is the shallow interest in corporate music. This has,
unfortunately always been the case with many, but I cheer on the
young people who are listening to and loving new, future-reaching,
artists instead. These days, with incredible access, there’s really no
reason to only be feeding off the old-rockers teat.

Also, I can totally believe that a 20 year old might not know who
The Beatles are. It would be like if someone had asked me at 20 if I
knew who Paul Whiteman or Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians were.

Not at all.
The Beatles are the single most popular band in the world, with estimated sales of nearly 2 bilion copies.
Hailed by many as the greatest band of all time and the epitome of 60s counterculture.
They were a driving force of the development of modern music and music business as we know it now.
Lennon is THE musician associated with anything Peace and Love by many.

Also, their popularity stays unmatched even now.

Not knowing who the Beatles are, is rather like being a person who had never heard of Elvis, Marx, Kennedy or Freud.

Yeah, it's hard to imagine given the Beatles' fame.

On the other hand, I didn't really hear a Bob Dylan record until I was about twelve, that would have been 1974. Up until then, I thought he was just this odd enigma in music.

Perspective, folks.
Whiteman, in his day, was second in popularity only to Ellington.
Even asking a 20 year old who had a moderate interest in music then
might not have even known who Ellington was after over 50 years of
popularity - which is what you are asking of some 20 year old today.

He is still an odd enigma (to put it nicely) in music.

Except in this comparison, we're ignoring the massive increase in access to information and the proliferation of information that's become normal and widespread since then, with TV, the internet, and advertisment networks subsuming everything, swallowing cultural and geographical boundaries in its wake. It's an apples to oranges comparison that you're making.

I don't know if comparing Duke Ellington and certainly Paul Whiteman to the Beatles is the right comparison. The question may be if a 20 year old a generation ago would have heard of, say, Frank Sinatra (they most likely would have) or maybe Bing Crosby (maybe not) or even someone like Rudy Vallee who was arguably the phenomenon in the 1930s (probably not).

Some people also don't listen to music. It's a bit more insane to expect people to know things because you do. Rick Beatoff only knows three other bands off the top of his head to begin with so he's not really qualified to talk ****. He's a big proponent of the restrictive interpretation of music that asserts that every song has been written and a bunch of white dudes finished making all the songs before 1980.

Ricks brother, Richard, sends his regards.