worst generation

Oops
Bowl to the fountain of lamneth

Guys, I got addicted to this. This is my last list of Albums that came out while Obama was in school:

Albums that came out Obama's Senior year of college:

Garlands - Cocteau Twins
Peter Gabriel - self-titled
Forever Now - The Psychedelic Furs
A Broken Frame - Depeche Mode
1999 - Prince
Friend or Foe - Adam Ant
Kissing to Be Clever - Culture Club
Shabooh Shoobah - INXS
The Sky's Gone Out - Bauhaus
A Kiss in the Dreamhouse - Siouxsie and The Banshees
Oh, No! It's Devo - Devo
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) - Eurythmics
The Art of Falling Apart - Soft Cell
What Makes a Man Start Fires? - Munutemen
Porcupine - Echo & The Bunnymen
War - U2
Confusion Is Sex - Sonic Youth
Quick Step and Side Kick/Side Kicks - Thomson Twins
When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going - Bow Wow Wow
The Hurting - Tears for Fears
Murmur - R.E.M.
Whammy! - The B-52s
Hootenanny - The Replacements
Violent Femmes - self-titled
Power, Corruption & Lies - New Order
With Sympathy - Ministry
Feast - The Creatures
Speaking in Tongues - Talking heads
Synchronicity - The Police

Multiple songs from the Reality Bites soundtrack originally came out while Obama was in high shool or college.

Dazed and Confused is set in the summer of 1976, the summer after Barak Obamna's freshmen year of high school.

http://www.zuguide.com/image/Wiley-Wiggins-Dazed-and-Confused.4.jpg

<drops mic>

I'm convinced

New ILM poll coming in 3...2...

this totally needs to be a poll

Were those lists supposed to prove that Obama is Gen X??

I like that the Peter Gabriel - self titled could mean that obama graduated at any time you want

OTM

SHOW ME THE DIPLOMA

Diplomers!

it seems pretty obvious that anyone old enough to be releasing albums in 1977 would have to have been born during the baby boom or earlier, unless they were a child prodigy, perhaps.

Actually, I don't know if British people count as baby boomers in the same way? I think of the 'baby boomer' demographic in the US/Canada as one that was shaped and partially defined by the unprecedented prosperity in the postwar era, owing to the double advantage that we were on the winning side of WW2 and the war was not fought on our soil. Seems like things would have been different in a country that actually had to rebuild while losing all its colonies.

The Sky's Gone Out - Bauhaus

Can't wait for our first goth president!

Actually, I don't know if British people count as baby boomers in the same way? I think of the 'baby boomer' demographic in the US/Canada as one that was shaped and partially defined by the unprecedented prosperity in the postwar era, owing to the double advantage that we were on the winning side of WW2 and the war was not fought on our soil. Seems like things would have been different in a country that actually had to rebuild while losing all its colonies.

the peak baby boom birth year was 1957 - that person would be 18 in 1975. the unemployment average in 1975 was 8.5% and inflation was significantly higher than it is today.

that's not to say that you can't find some baby boomer who pulled a pretty good hand in terms of economic history but again a lot of the easy narratives are misleading

except for those dealing w/ gen x, quite simply the worst generation in american history

Ha, inflation went up to 26.9% in the UK in 1975!

2xpost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njiUFtrFky8

british boomers who were pissed off b/c the Queen taxed them to death and they couldn't afford dope!

well england had a pretty bleak 70s but the 50s and 60s were good there too...same w/ france, germany, japan...

my mom and my paternal grandmother both left the UK for the US during the early 1950s -- things were pretty bleak over there then.

it depends how you define bleak. unemployment was about 2% across the whole decade. it still probably seemed bleak...because it was england.

and everyone was dead and your house was bombed or whatever

but economically...

Came here to wonder aloud why this threads a 700 post explosion, saw album lists.

OK, a scan of Wikipedia articles seems to suggest iatee is right about the economic boom in Europe in the 50s/60s, although I do think the devastation of the war would make a difference. Was there a baby boom in the same way in Europe?

(Ha @ SCTV)

the dates don't always match america's, but yeah much of europe experienced a similar demographic bubble

she thinks back to the heyday of grunge, when she and her friends all wore baggy, sexless, second-hand flannel shirts and thinks, wow, my own parents lucked out in the kid fashion department

otm. I remember when i first became aware of grunge that some of the kids (we're talking middle school for me, like 1993) were into Grandpa/Grandma styles, which I thought was way cool. Cool Beans, in fact. In fact I still try to rock Grandpa pants, and probably will until I am a Grandpa myself.

As for the internet, I remember BBSes. Where does that put me?

did u kill the red dragon and score with violet?

No, but I did get a Doom II level pack I had uploaded somewhere into the PC Gamer magazine CD! Also downloaded the Anarchist Cookbook, Jazz Jackrabbit, and saw plenty of hentai.

jazz jackrabbit!

Just got done hanging out with a friend whom I share cultural touchstones with who was into the minneapolis zine scene, who dated some local musicians of note who I now know were younger than her, and who's sense of humor is completely compatible with mine, and who I thought was a peer, but I discovered tonight that that she was born in 1962. PS she is looking good. Totally surprised. No idea that she is 50.

Born in 1981:
Jessica Alba
Barbara & Jenna Bush
Hayden Christensen
Chris Evans
Summer Glau (Firefly)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd rock, brick)
Eric Harris
Taylor Kitsch
Natalie Portman
Michael Sorrentino (The Situation)
Britney Spears
Julia Stiles
Justin Timberlake
Serena Williams
Elijah Wood

^ obv millenials, one and all

+1n

Michael J. Fox & Peter Jackson vs. Julia Stiles & Elijah Wood

In a bro-down, who amongst these are more my people?

I have friends ranging from 23-55 whom I relate to very naturally & I think these generational demarcations are reductive & silly, but I think I am somehow culturally closer to Kim Deal than Britney.

Geez I was all 'no way MJF is as old as peter ja... OH SHIT".

think I am somehow culturally closer to Kim Deal than Britney.

Are you closer to George W than to his daughters?

I'm more intimidated at the thought of hanging out with the people on the b 1981 list than the b 1961 list. Not sure what that means. Maybe just that they're hotter.

TBF, the born after 1980 crowd are in more fun because they can stay awake past 11 on a school night, drink all weekend, and aren't feeling death's finger prodding them as they creak and slump out of bed in the morning.

Also, millennials seem to possess a kind of levity and openness that is very engaging. This quality may just be not being old.

Also, millennials seem to possess a kind of levity and openness that is very engaging. This quality may just be not being old.

Also, perhaps, coming of age in a relatively liberal environment, vs. under the cloud of Nixon or Reagan, and especially the latter's hardcore anti-drug, anti-sex stances, which also coincided with the AIDS crisis, cold war stress, etc.. So millennials came of age during a period of relative cultural awakening (accelerated by the internet), economic stability and a laxing of sex and drugs panic. You'd be smiling, too.

Of course, I (and Gen X) came of age with prime Prince, Bruce, Madonna, etc, plus the best pop and punk bands and one hit wonders since the '60s, plus the euphoric joy of monoculture, so there's that.

Also, perhaps, coming of age in a relatively liberal environment, vs. under the cloud of Nixon or Reagan, and especially the latter's hardcore anti-drug, anti-sex stances, which also coincided with the AIDS crisis, cold war stress, etc.. So millennials came of age during a period of relative cultural awakening (accelerated by the internet), economic stability and a laxing of sex and drugs panic. You'd be smiling, too.

OTM. There's a refreshing lack of knee-jerk cynicism. And it's not naivete, but something more like engagement and enthusiasm.

Seedy flipside law of unintended consequences: Milton Academy scandal, sexting, porn chic ...

Are you talking now about the people on that most recent list (who are two years younger than me, i.e. my cohort, basically) or, like, my students (b 1989-1993)? Or both?

Because I feel like there are differences I can observe, that I'll get to after I do something useful with my morning.

Engagement is not exactly how I would describe the lols generation - there seems to be a general distancing amongst the people described*, an idea that this is their place and it's set, and here we can find out more about other people and laugh at them on youtube, but that's their place and it's set too.

This view of mine has been shifted a bit by the pleasant surprise of Occupy, but not by much.

* we're obviously describing how one winning sector does here, like the iconic 90s film thread but even more explicitly picking-and-choosing.

Ha! I know some Milton alums. Probably bitter they missed the wild times.

I guess I don't really feel like a millenial because my friends at formative ages were between two and ten years older than me. Which is why when DJing with two girls the same age as me last year I completely boggled that they had *never DJed with vinyl before*. I mean, wtf?

The D stands for ... digital?

oh man I had forgotten about the Milton thing