it was a New Jersey thing, too, sarahell ... which prob means it was a nationwide thing!
― Nu Metal is the best music there is, the rest is pussy shit. (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:25 (twelve years ago) link
i also feel like the kids who grew up while Clinton was President aren't Gen X.
― sarahell, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:26 (twelve years ago) link
like 1975 should be the cut-off.
― sarahell, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:27 (twelve years ago) link
Before the internet but after the fall of the big three TV channels to cable and the victory of FM radio was an interesting time media-wise, esp with the arrival of MTV, which was huge in its time. If anything I found the 80's more commodified but less earnest about it than the 70's. There was always a quiet desperation to the ironic retro chic of the 80s and it got worse over the course of the decade.
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:27 (twelve years ago) link
Gen X in a jpeg:
http://cdn100.iofferphoto.com/img/item/182/325/867/kennedy-alternative-nation-mtv-1995-rob-zombie-beck-2c2c5.jpg
― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:27 (twelve years ago) link
gee, where have i heard this "i am deeply uneased about being commodified" before?
i never suggested that gen x was the first to be uneasy about being marketed to. i merely said that it had a distinct response to the unease, as observed at a particular point in time.
and yeah, the gen x "losercore" stance was prefigured in many ways by beats, hippies and punks, as i said upthread. in some ways, there are two parallel development and apotheosis periods there. beats were a relatively small-scale social phenomenon that flowered a few years later in mass culture hippiedom. punk (in america) was a small-scale social phenomenon that flowered a few years later in gen xor shit like nirvana.
― Choc. Clusterman (contenderizer), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:28 (twelve years ago) link
No Logo sold more than the Beats tho - but less than Marx admittedly.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:28 (twelve years ago) link
^ mass culture gen xor shit like nirvana, i mean (to my own xp)
― Choc. Clusterman (contenderizer), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:29 (twelve years ago) link
being Gen-X prob has something to w/ liking or tolerating Pauly Shore. which makes about much sense as focusing on some alleged immunity to marketing hucksterism.
― Nu Metal is the best music there is, the rest is pussy shit. (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:29 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah I remember when Pauly Shore was elected most popular something.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:30 (twelve years ago) link
Pauly Shore was awful! Kennedy (the MTV chick) was awful!
― sarahell, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:31 (twelve years ago) link
But maybe that's just a California thing?
I feel this is ultimately an oil crisis, stagflation, Reagan recession thing but also, especially Prop 13. I don't know about gen y, but compared to the boomers, I felt like my generation was abandoned.
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:31 (twelve years ago) link
When Gen Y became school-age in California is when the state started passing increased school funding ballot measures. So yeah, Gen X was fiscally abandoned for sure.
― sarahell, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:32 (twelve years ago) link
oh my god you guys did not invent unease with commodification!
― Mordy, Wednesday, May 2, 2012 1:21 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
is it that you see in gen x's self-identification an attempt to steal fire from somewhere else? cuz otherwise i don't get your objections. of course the "typical" gen x stance restated attitudes previous held by beats, hippies and punks, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't distinct in itself, just as those things were.
and there have been shitty comedies and comedians in every generation
― Choc. Clusterman (contenderizer), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:33 (twelve years ago) link
tbf you guys were never got to get the kind of helicopter parenting that a generation of historically wealthy self-actualized boomers could provide for gen y. by comparison to us, you were abandoned. u might've made out better bc of it tho. xxp
― Mordy, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:33 (twelve years ago) link
MTV was awful w/in four years of starting for the most part; nothing but Madonna, MJ dance videos and hair metal.
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:34 (twelve years ago) link
was Prop 13 a Boomers-turning-Reaganite or Greatest Generation-being-their-cranky selves thing? or both?!?
― Nu Metal is the best music there is, the rest is pussy shit. (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:34 (twelve years ago) link
Prop 13 was Greatest Gen and Silent Gen being their cranky selves, for the most part.
― sarahell, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:34 (twelve years ago) link
What's wrong w MJ dance videos?
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:35 (twelve years ago) link
it was essentially "kids get off my lawn" legislation
― sarahell, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:35 (twelve years ago) link
i kinda seriously think that Beavis & Butthead were the magical bridge b/w Gen-X and Millenials.
― Nu Metal is the best music there is, the rest is pussy shit. (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:35 (twelve years ago) link
xp to contenderizer i think that Gen X is second only to boomers in terms of self-mythologization and i'm trying to point out how those myths are even present in this conversation. possibly bc of things like economic collapse, 9/11, two wars in the middle east, the housing bubble, massive unemployment, moving back home with parents bc we can't afford rent, gen Y is much more realistic than you and much more skeptical of this kind of mythology. this is itself a kind of self-mythologizing, but maybe it shows u what i'm responding to here.
― Mordy, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:35 (twelve years ago) link
They made for somewhat predictable videos
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:36 (twelve years ago) link
xp - nah, it's cause you're not old enough yet!
― sarahell, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:36 (twelve years ago) link
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K7KhAI3AnY4/TrcJBu9FCII/AAAAAAAAEcY/tAeZ55rxRKM/s1600/clint%2Beastwood%2Bgran%2Btorino%2Bgun.jpg
― Nu Metal is the best music there is, the rest is pussy shit. (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:36 (twelve years ago) link
like it's so nice that you listened to punk music and watched clerks and wore ratty clothing and were really resisting the machine, man. a lot of my generation is living at home w/ parents under or unemployed and facing a world that looks very bleak. xxxp
― Mordy, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:37 (twelve years ago) link
Can we all just agree that nobody in any of the generations knows shit about dick?
― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:37 (twelve years ago) link
who mythologizes pauly shore, though?
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:38 (twelve years ago) link
Kind of. It was grandma's retiring and she can't afford to keep teaching your kids how to be communists
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:38 (twelve years ago) link
another gen x thing to be noted is that we were the last generation to grow up being constantly bombarded with the fear of imminent nuclear war. which now gets echoed in the fear of imminent terrorist attacks but it seemed weirder because yknow the dude that was going to kill you was prob your own stupid president.
― Rachel Profiling (jjjusten), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:38 (twelve years ago) link
With Beavis & Butthead and Sifl & Olly and Daria, I really wished when I was a teenager that I was a Gen-Xer. But i was born in 1981 and thus I love authority and sincerity, or something.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:38 (twelve years ago) link
Ain't just your generation, Mordy.
― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:38 (twelve years ago) link
a lot of my generation is living at home w/ parents under or unemployed and facing a world that looks very bleak.
we did this 20+ years ago.
― sarahell, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:39 (twelve years ago) link
my generation does have unprecedented student debt tho - see: limbo thread which is just too bleak for me to even read
― Mordy, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:39 (twelve years ago) link
life in the early 1990s wasn't a bowl of cherries, either. the whole "generation slacker" thing came up b/c b/w 1990-1993 there weren't any fucking jobs either!
― Nu Metal is the best music there is, the rest is pussy shit. (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:39 (twelve years ago) link
I see you've visited the gay thread
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:39 (twelve years ago) link
jjjusten otm - and that stupid president suffered from Alzheimer's and was a former movie actor.
The time is ripe for Generation Banaka
― Banaka™ (banaka), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:40 (twelve years ago) link
Lost Generation: 1883-1900Greatest Generation: 1901-1924Silent Generation: 1925-1945Boomers: 1946-1964Gen X: 1965-~1970'sGen Y: late ~1970's-2000Generation Text: 2000-???
This whole notion of generations having specific start and end dates is so bonkers - as if someone born in 1965 has more in common with someone born 13 years later than 1 year earlier by dint of belonging to some predefined generation. The only legit defining generational marker in this list would be 1945 which is a clear delineation between eras, corresponding with the end of the second world war. But there's nothing that changed in the late 1970s that warrants a generational divide from those born before or after. Even the baby boom didn't end apruptly - indeed I've seen the end date for baby boomers listed as either 1965 or 1964.
And then there's those annoying monikers. The "lost generation" gave us air travel, affordable cars, and radio stations. The "greatest generation" certainly deserves credit for saving humanity from nazis and imperialists, but (in the US anyway) this same generation wouldn't let black people go to decent schools or live in some housing developments, relegated women to submissive roles, and imprisoned innocent US citizens for almost four years because their ancestors were Japanese.
And is text messaging really the defining characteristic of the current millenium? I recently read about this message being sent electronically: "WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH U?". An agitated teenager tapping away on an iPhone? No, a young wireless operator from 1912 responding to a distress call from the Titanic. Some things don't change as much as we'd like to think....
― Lee593 (Lee626), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:40 (twelve years ago) link
living at home w/ parents under or unemployed and facing a world that looks very bleak.
Wonder if we should look at ppl who were teenagers during rather good economic decades vs those who weren't.
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:40 (twelve years ago) link
every generation experiences recessions but you were in the workforce during one of our nation's biggest booms and we are looking for jobs in the midst of our second-biggest (or possibly biggest) depression.
― Mordy, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:40 (twelve years ago) link
where's iatee? this is his favorite topic. <shines iatee-symbol on metropolitan nightsky>
― Mordy, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:42 (twelve years ago) link
The "greatest generation" certainly deserves credit for saving humanity from nazis and imperialists
Wouldn't nazis and imperialists be members of the greatest generation?
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:43 (twelve years ago) link
yes, we had very gratifying jobs in retail and shitty corporate offices where we got paid shit and had a gazillion roommates.
― sarahell, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:43 (twelve years ago) link
I mean the thing about the boomers, esp the first ones, is that except for '57, most of their lives up until their late, late 20's was one of constant growth.
― L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:44 (twelve years ago) link
<spray paints over mordys skytracker, looks around nervously>
― Rachel Profiling (jjjusten), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:44 (twelve years ago) link
Wrt suspicion of marketing, gen x in the 90s seemed like the first time the powers today be were caught off guard since the 60s. But yeah,.said powers figured it out fast, but still,.concurrent wIth the rise of the internet, the system has pretty much been breaking apart since then.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:45 (twelve years ago) link
i dunno. there's apparently a ninja turtle reboot directed by michael bay going on so i'd say the marketing machine is as healthy as ever.
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:47 (twelve years ago) link
plus the mighty transformers franchise (which started off when gen x-ers were still in school!) is still going strong.
― Nu Metal is the best music there is, the rest is pussy shit. (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:48 (twelve years ago) link
― Mordy, Wednesday, May 2, 2012 1:35 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Mordy, Wednesday, May 2, 2012 1:37 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i figure any kind of generational self-description is basically mythological. people vary a lot, and our views on this stuff say more about us and our cultural positioning than they do about the objective state of the nation during a 20 year period, obviously.
but the unwillingness to self-describe is no more noble than an interest in it. many of us gen exors like to pretend that we were & are resistant to joining and branding, but a lot of us wound up "resisting" in similar ways and were quite happy to brand ourselves as "resistors" (something that marketers happily seized upon).
maybe in gen y there's a more sophisticated resistance to this kind of self mythologizing at work, i dunno, but there's nothing wrong with trying to accurately capture the shared mythology of a group. mythology is culture, after all, and these generational distinctions are more about culture than anything else.
― Choc. Clusterman (contenderizer), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 20:50 (twelve years ago) link