the best songs ever

[Eric the Green]

(06-10-2016, 02:13 AM)gabrielle Wrote: I'm pretty sure my parents thought of New Wave pop as "kid's music," lol.  But they tolerated it.  They certainly didn't call it "lousy" as you do.  They even liked some of it.  They both liked Michael Jackson, for example--both his music and his dancing.  (He might not have been "New Wave" exactly, but he was a pop musician from the same era.)  

I liked some of it too, actually; just not as much as the pop and rock of the era when boomers were "kids" and 20-somethings, and not as much as the millie pop like I posted. But some of it was interesting. Talking Heads and Devo for example.

Quote:That is the Boomer narrative, yes:  that Generation X was bored and cynical, that they rejected the admirable visions and passions of their elders.  Since there is no logical reason why anyone would reject such obvious righteousness, there must be something "bad" about Generation X.  Yes, you guys think really highly of yourselves.  Remember, we grew up watching you.  Grew up watching the counter-culture revolution getting dropped the moment the draft was, and the idealist generation settling into complacency and materialism.

"Scratch any cynic and you'll find a disappointed idealist."  --George Carlin (1937-2008)

"All cynicism masks a failure to cope."  --John Fowles (1926-2005)

My point goes beyond the boomer narrative about Gen Xers; the difference in the sound of pop music between the 2T and the 3T is real, and seems to reflect the general attitude of Gen X toward the boomer youth era and the 2T generally. The music was less romantic and impassioned and more bland, to reflect the mood of rejecting the "righteousness" of boomers and war babies, and a less optimistic attitude no doubt because of what Gen Xers dealt with. No doubt the boomers were disappointing, in the ways you mentioned. And it's usually the case that most members of younger generations are disappointed in their elders, at least in modern saeculum times.

Of course when I referred to "boomer passions," that included some that were not so admirable to me; some boomers were reactionary and they passionately fought with the idealists, and the passion was on both sides. They grew up to be the George W Bush wing of boomers; what we call red boomers now. And those passions were also part of the 2T times, so they were expressed by more than just the young boomers, but by their elders too.