How Gen X Ruined Music
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- Опубліковано 18 чер 2024
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00:00 - Gen X (Ironically) Ruined Music
01:12 - The Ignored Generation
02:16 - Mary Vs Gen X
03:41 - DIY Mentality
04:46 - Their Legacy
07:47 - Distrokid
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We Americans don't understand irony, unless that American is an Okie since there are two airports in Oklahoma named after people who died in plane crashes.
The question is whether it would be ironic to say that Gen Z screwed up music.
I don't want to get you in trouble but you could make a video about the VEVO quest to dominate world music and how the Big 5 music conglomerates that own 90%+ of all the world's labels insist on having every single one of their signed artists name their channel "MileyCyrusVEVO"/"PaulMcCartneyVEVO"/etc., on youtube et al.
I was convinced that DistroKid was a cool kid's Linux distro, lol.
Well played, Mary! As a GenXer, I appreciate being both ignored AND singled out... 🤘
No doubt!
The agony and irony, they're killing me.
Can't play the being ignored card anymore!
The most concise I've seen us summed up
😂
American genXer here. Its funny, those of us that were teens in the 80's and early 90's really didn't understand what a special time we were in. A lot of us grew up feeling like we missed out on the sex, drugs, and music of the late 60's.
We wanted our own Woodstock so badly we didn't stop to think that we didn't appreciate what an awesome time we were living in. Looking back now 89' - 94' was one of the best times to be alive if you were into music. Not only did we get to enjoy the music of bands from the 70's, 80's, and 90's but we were also able to afford to to go to the shows! I saw Pink Floyd (without waters) back in 94' at the Detroit Silver Dome and I still have the ticket stub...$32.50, and that was for MAIN FLOOR right next to the laser flower ball thing. Today that same ticket would likely cost a thousand bucks. I guess I'm old now because I can say "I miss the good ol' days" with zero irony.
Everyone talks about grunge but we also saw the rise of Metallica, GnR, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, and so many more iconic musicians from all different genre's. Best of all nobody had phones so everyone lived in the moment.
That was maybe true in America, but I just really enjoyed the end of the Cold War and opportunities to travel, the emerging internet that gave us so much more information at our fingertips, etc.
I didn't have the money to go to any shows, and most of those were in North America anyway.
The late 80s and 90s were mostly the moment when Europe and the world really started opening up and integrating. You could just use an interrail ticket to go about anywhere in Europe cheaply. Prague, London, Barcelona, Athens, Stockholm, Berlin, Napels. And it became easy to make travel arrangements online. And at the end we even got the Euro!
@rogerwilco2 Great points my friend, I was just trying to keep the focus on music. 🙂
Was much different for us, I grew up in Detroit. No transit system other than the crappy "people mover" that basically just takes you around in a circle to the less dangerous places in the city. Leaving to travel wasn't really an option for me back then but I'm thankful I was able to scrape enough cash together to see some great bands.
Cheers.
Nailed it!
How much would it cost to see the likes of "The Who" - in row 5 now? At the time it was my most expensive ticket at $50 after fees - looking back that was an absolute bargain to see Quadrophenia live. (1996) In those shows of my youth - I remember being annoyed at merch that cost more than the ticket to get in. Yes those were some special times for sure. Now I am sure that a beer or a wine costs more than some of those 80's -90's shows, lol
Agree 💯
We(gen X) were subject to the most diverse and eclectic mix of music genres that other than personal preference, we listened to literally every genre. We listened to our grands' 40s and 50's swing, classical and early rock. We listened to our parents ' 60's and 70's folk and progressive rock and early punk and rock.
We listened to the the entire disco era and the hair band era. The entire emergence of early and gangsta rap and everything in between. .
Today's Hall of Fame artists were my generations idols .
The cassette tape, 8-track and vinyl all but came and went during our music journey..
The emergence of the "electronic eage and era of bubble gum pop. Almost a decade of everything you heard on the radio sounding the same and the disappearing story behind the song all but drove us mental.
We are arguably the most diverse and eclectic music lovers in existence 😁
And are better ( and worse) for it.
I've personally seen artists perform like Frankie Valley and the 4seasons, Elvis, led Zeppelin, foreigner, the scorpions, Metallica, White Snake and U2. And a boat load more. And still going!
We are who we are. And seldom are willing to apologize for it!😁
Great video Mary keep up the awesome work!💞
I never really thought of it like that but in a way we were listening to everything out there plus what was new. Kinda like our TV were all of the shows our parents watched like the munsters, looney tunes and I dream of genie were still airing plus the newer shows like A team and Married with childeren were all on at the same time. I can remember watching tons of black and white shows growing up =). I don't know why or how that changed but I do know that my kids never go back and look for old stuff to entertain themselves with while i will play some Hank Williams senior when one of his songs gets stuck in my head.
Well said over there. Much love, Ch’O
I’m Gen X, born in 73, remember the Falklands War and saw the Berlin Wall when it was up (my dad worked for the Army) but when my friends were into the Smiths and Stone Roses, I got into Led Zeppelin, Hendrix and Cream. But I also loved the Beastie Boys and Black Crowes. That’s the thing about us, we’ll listen to and be inspired by whatever we like. Now at the age of 50 I’m out every week gigging, as well as recording and writing. I embrace tech but also love acoustic instruments and roots music.
As the current President of GenX Are Not Boomers Society, I approve the above comment. 👍🏻
We? what percentage of Gen X listened to all that stuff. Maybe 10%.
I'm a genX DIY'er. I'm a one man band, I've been recording my own music from home since 2002, and thanks to you, Mary, I found Distrokid in 2020. I don't have a big fan base, but I'm proud to be able to do the entire thing by myself. It's the way I've wanted it since I was a teenager.
As the older end of this generation (my age group from the late 60’s often gets bumped from one to the other), our childhood was an explosion of technology. Handheld calculators, video games, answering machines, microwave ovens, walkmans, 8 tracks, laser discs, cassettes, CD’s, mp3s, steaming, now back to vinyl. We saw and created the rise of punk, RandB, Rap, grunge, disco, techno, and everything in between.
We probably bought more music than any other generation. And yes, I still have my Disco Duck 45 rpm.
If there is any true contribution of our generation, it’s the recognition that good music is good music and if you can’t find music you like then go make it for yourself. …and we did. Lots of it.
disco duck was the best, i still have mine too!
R.E.M. is nearly forgotten it seems, but it's hard to overstate their importance to the Alternative Shift of the 90s. Heavily produced Hair Metal was the genre, and then the raw, direct "One I Love" hit the Top 40. It was a breath of fresh air. Music didn't have to be "pretty." The chorus could be an unleashed scream of pure emotion and poetry, "Fiiiiiireeeeeee!" They influenced several 90s artists, both by their creative approach and how they dealt with the music industry.
Don't forget GenX was the first generation to have access to less expensive music equipment like the PortaStudio, Ensoniq and Roland keyboards, which enabled budget home studio recording for the first time. I made my own demos without having to go to a studio or spending a ton of money.
I loved the Tascam Porta01 😁
I'm GenX and the only thing affordable was the Casio VL-1 (which was great at the time)
@@ImYourOverlordthat TA scam was awesome. I recorded so many songs on it
Still have my A-30 and SC-7 .... GREAT fun ...
@@Drew-DastardlyThanks. As a South African, Roland was way out of my price range! I had a tiny Casio keyboard and later a second-hand Yamaha, as well as an Ibanez Tele knock-off and a no-name second-hand bass.
Jaysus Mary. You just poured more love on us than the rest of the internet has collectively done in decades. I'm sure most of us are all very emotional cause we're not trained on how to deal with this... but we will, of course, outwardly just grunt and say, "Sure, whatever." ;)
Mary just poured more love onto us than both the internet AND our parents 😂
Born in '68 and in my mid-50's now, I felt this video was spot on. In the early 70's, I used to play my Mom's 45's when "Good Morning Starshine" by Oliver and "Alone Again (Naturally)" by Gilbert O'Sullivan was where it was at (two songs I still love to this day). I graduated from vinyl to 8-track tapes when Lou Rawls, Helen Reddy, Captain & Tennille, and Barry Manilow could be heard daily in the house. I started to really cut my teeth on music when CCR and The Eagles found their way in. Finally, the 80's hit, and my music generation had finally begun. Pat Benatar, Devo, and Blondie became my first true musical loves. Then 1984 arrived and I was suddenly deep into my element. Cassette tapes were the order of the day ... Bryan Adams, Van Halen, Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper ... the list goes on. The very first album I bought with my own money (thanks to a paper route) was the Beverly Hills Cop Soundtrack. I HAD to have "Axel F" by Harold Faltermeyer. The late 80's came, I was dating, engaged to be married ... CD's were in stores. I went through it all and loved it all - hairbands, alternative, grunge. @Futs101 said that we are the most diverse and eclectic of music enthusiasts out here. I 100% agree, but not just for genres, but also in media. We had it all. Vinyl, 8-tracks, Cassettes, CD's, MP3's and on ... we lived and experienced them all when they were still viable. I love that about our generation. As I am getting older though, I do find myself listening more and more to my personal teen year favorites. My own music is heavily influenced by the "80's scene". Thank you for this video. I enjoyed it. :)
Being a GenX trombonist, I saw the gigs evaporate almost overnight in the late 80's. Why hire four or five horn players to play in a rock or funk band when you can hire one person to play a second keyboard?? I quickly realized that, unless I was in the top 1% or so of trombonists, I would starve as a music performance major. So I switched almost immediately to Music Education. Never regretted it, and now 35 years later as a career music educator (both K-12 as well as higher ed) I can look back at a life full of terrific experiences that I otherwise probably never would have had!
Q: What's the difference between a dead snake in the road and a dead trombonist in the road?
A: The snake *might* have been headed to a gig. 🙃🎵
Funny, my band is now looking for a trombonist.
When I first heard this joke, it was a frog. But no less true! LOL!@@isomeme
Thank you for giving Shoegaze some due. 4AD records and Lush (the band) are solid pieces of the scene and each deserves a spotlight.
Oh yeah! Loveless is a masterpiece. As fresh today as ever. And the crushes I had on Miki and Belinda!!
Gen X music producer/ musician/ songwriter here as well, recorded my first album on a Tascam porta-studio 4 track, and am self recording and releasing home made music to this day. I’m very proud of my generation’s self reliance and place in the culture. Thanks for your take Mary!
Right on! I had the Fostex version of the porta-studio I got in '86. I remember feeling like George Martin using it the first time!
My late husband was Gen X and I’m a Millennial. You could see the differences in our musical preferences. While my husband didn’t care much for the grunge scene he was however a Gulf War Vet. He still liked the fun rock of the hair metal days. I asked him once about it and he replied “I’ve seen to much depressing shit already and don’t want to be reminded of it.” He was Air Force Pararescue. I however was actually raised to be a classical pianist but got influenced by other things.
What happened to him? If you don't mind me asking
@@gaffer2602 cancer
So why aren't you into The Left Banke ?
@@gaffer2602 She said late meaning he died.
@@cliffhulcoopofficial8075 I think he meant how did he perish.
Thanks for this. As a British GenXer the thing I most remember from the 90s is rave culture, people jumping in cars and driving to fields in the middle of nowhere to take pills, drink water and dance to hardcore techno for 12 hours straight. Good times.
Don’t take pills, though. I’m pretty sure we broke our brains.
A little later on I lived in Germany and discovered that European governments were perfectly fine with rave culture and club scenes whereas in the UK it was Public Enemy No1 alongside Crusties, single mums and benefit scroungers. That's when I realised the UK's press and politics is just a sht show and also why I'll always be pro-Euorope.
I think your next video should be, "How the Record Companies Killed Music." I believe the race for riches killed the art of music making. Record companies have killed their own industry for what sells no matter how bad it is.
A lot of people neglect to mention that CD's were costing as much as $25-35 per which was killer when you 0nly were sure of 1 or 2 songs. Record companies price the market so high it went underground
@@renlessard Yep!
@@renlessardI spent sooo much money buying music in the 90s. Bizarrely, although I had to buy music to see what it sounded like, I find young people now who have every song ever recorded at their fingertips, they seem strangely ignorant of music.
Disagree. The death of the record business killed music. Cannot argue that the music wasn't awesome in the 50s 60s 70s and 80s when the record business was a thing . The computer and internet killed music.
once file sharing hit, record companies lost massive amounts of income. It made them risk averse and cost conscious. Why sign a band and pay for weeks of studio time if they might not even break? Much cheaper to sign pop or hip hop, have a mostly finished track already put together, have a vocalist come in and do an hour or two of vocals and autotune it, copy and paste. Done. At a fraction of the cost. THAT'S what really killed bands.
My brother said we Gen X were the last ferral generation. I think that is true. It is certainly reflected in the music, art and attitude of the times. While not perfect, the 90s felt a little more grounded and connected,... just my experience of course. And I'm still discovering music from that time that I didn't know about when I actually was a young person in the 90s. Like Elliott Smith, Breeders, etc.... Makes me feel less old somehow.
One key factor behind the dark aesthetic tone of Gen X is that we grew up during the peak of the Cold War and were aware that the world could have ended at any moment, whilst our Boomer parents preferred to wilfully ignore that because it “wasn’t nice”. That’ll lead to a sense of “what’s the point?” as well as being very inspiring. Ironically. 😉 Great video Mary!
But we had those incredible personal nuclear war shelters -- plywood desktop...
Add to that the shift from sexual revolution to the rise of the aids epidemic. From wheee to aaagh.
@@CHunt-cz1ek Duck and cover...lol
@@CHunt-cz1ek I recall the HM Government-issued official advisory leaflet, Protect And Survive. You would’ve been as well protected by holding the leaflet over your head under a nuke as by following the advice.
@@azbluesdog I assumed the same. It’s still a strong contender for mass extinction, sadly.
Great video Mary. I would suggest that we were also the first generation to narrowcast our personalities through the use of the Mixtape. Eclectic and bespoke compilations of mood and emotion through song on cassette or CD.
We are the first generation that used Cassette tapes so much for transporting our music. I remember recording songs off the radio, before I could afford vinyl records
I was going to make a similar comment. While reel 2 reel was already well established for creating home made mixes. Our generation perfected the art of the mix tape. We raised it to a competitive artform with a low barrier to entry, complete with personalized custom artwork. Every guy I know back in the day made a mix tape for that special person.
As a member of this generation we are treated like the redheaded stepchild. We looked down upon, derided and cast aside like that toy no one wants to play with. But like you stated our generation created some of the tech the Boomers, Millennial's and Z'ers use everyday. We also took existing forms of music and made it our own. From classical to hard core metal. We saw the new computer technology and saw we can make our own style of music. From computer gaming sound effects to full blown songs and soundtracks. Great video and content as always Mary keep up the great work.
Uh oh, someone is paying attention to us 😳😳😳 It's like the scene in Wayne's World when Garth is given the show 😱😱😱
Hi Mary Great Segment! Gen Xer's were the first generation to help usher in the new "wave" of technologies that were rapidly developing in the form of digital synth, midi, Sampling and other tech pop genres. The Roland, Moog, Korg Poly, Yamaha's were rapidly advancing on the music scene as master guitarists like Eddie Van Halen were getting flack from producers on his 1984 album when they said "hey, you're a guitar player, not a keyboardist, we dont want it!!". Not only was Gen X lucky enough to truly appreciate what had come before by way of The Beatles, Cream, Hendrix, The Mamas and the Papas, The Birds, Stones, CSNY, CSN, James Taylor, Carol King, the 5th Dimension, Gloria Gaynor, Ray Charles, Grand Funk Railroad, The Kinks, The Eagles, KC and the Sunshine Band, Everly Brothers, Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, Three Dog Night, Steve Windwood, Thelma Houston, etc....BUT Gen Xers got to enjoy the wonder of going to see live 80's and 90's music played by bands and solo artists who happened to be real and very talented people! No autotune, no digital tracks, just real music from talented souls!! Thanks for asking about our thoughts on Gen Xer's and music, I see us as the last generation who not only got to appreciate the music of our past generations, but who also embody a true appreciation for what great music was and maybe can be again. (by the way, I still have my Keytar and boombox in the closet!)
Discussions of generational culture is complicated, actually much more complicated than can be summed up in a 10 minute video. I was born in 1970, I proudly call myself a Gen X'er, but I was in middle and high school in the mid to late 80's. This is when a lot of people "discover" music and begin consuming it, well, ironically (see what I did there?) the artists creating music during that time were...you guessed it...Boomers! During the 80's there was a lot of nostalgia for...the 50's also. We listened to music our parents grew up listening to and much of the artists making music during the 80's were highly influenced by those songs and artists of the 50's and 60's. The members of U2, Tom Petty, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, John Mellencamp, Michael Jackson, and Prince were all considered Boomers, yet, if you were born in the 70's and spent your tween and teen years in the 80's, these were the artists you were listening too. Nirvana didn't make it big until 1991, and I was almost done with college by then, and new music wasn't always on my radar. I would say that every decade has their own "generation" in terms of culture, arts, music, etc. The edges get blurry.
Born in 1974 listened to 60's rock then punk never was into the pop stuff black flag, misfits, circle jerks, wire, minor threat etc... that was my music...still is but modern music is alright.
It's hard to say we rejected classic rock if you listen to Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. They really mined late 60s and 70s rock for their guitar and vocal styles
I recently heard grunge described as 70s hard rock with late 80s/early 90s metal production, and I reeled at how correct that was.
Agreed. I always felt like Grunge was the evolution of Classic ingredients
Absolutely. There's an unbelievable Jimmy Page/Eric Clapton/Ritchie Blackmore/Jimi Hendrix etc-etc influence in Grunge, alt rock and even music coming out today. And in turn we still hear all the people that influenced them. I'm a late 1980 Gen X'er and I like all of it. I played in a 90's/ 2000s cover band for years. I played multiple instruments in high school concert and jazz bands. Still love it all.
As you say, Gen X was very eclectic in terms of music. What we’ll be remembered for, I think, is we were both the first and the last: The first to adopt those new technologies that now dominate both music creation and consumption, and the last to actually live with the old way of doing things: Recording to tape in actual studios, collecting records, etc. When I look back at my brief career in music, I realise it wouldn’t have mattered much if things had ”worked out” - the music business was just a few short years away from grinding to a halt anyway. But it still is very weird to think that the type of career that I once couldn’t imagine exchanging for anything else, doesn’t really exist anymore.
EDIT: Of course, the big thing my generation accomplished was finally bringing the independent underground to the top of the mainstream charts. Whatever you think about ”grunge”, that was a profound breakthrough that no one could have anticipated.
late GenX'er here. I find it more and more unbelievable to have grown up with folk music by my boomer parents in a household without telephone (landline!) or cable tv and now streaming stuff like Autechre via the internet, working on the web, remotely, with servers on all parts of the globe and having zoom meetings with Canada from Europe and having AI write out the meeting notes. And also remembering buying stuff with cash only, having to wait for records to come over the ocean, and that my grandparents had a pig which they slaughtered themselves. Sometimes I even think that didn't really happen.
As for music, I think that generation left indeed the one-lane music style. Borrowing from old stuff, yet at the same time heralding the invent of new technology. Festivals who catered bands like Neil Young and The Prodigy at the same time. Not badmouthing boomers or millenials, but I can tell you, it's mindblowing if you think about it.
i think we definitely saw a huge amount of new inventions, in our generation, that were lifechanging. comparable to the generation that saw the invention of cars and airplanes. such a huge shift in how everyone does things.
I think the biggest contribution to GenX music listening habits was the Tape Cassette Recorder, even more so than a Walkman. Mixtape anyone?
Go to someone's party, don't just bring a bottle, bring a mix tape as a gift. It was the law and part of how we discovered new bands!
Well said, Mary. I am Gen X, when I look at a Gen X chart from say, 1990, it shows that we embraced a wide variety of music. We also invented "modern music" ushering in rap, techno, britpop, industrial, goth rock, and popularizing less mainstream music. Today, there is almost no variety in mainstream music and rock has disappeared from the charts completely. Todays mainstream music is almost exclusively rap with a handful of pop artists dominating the charts.
At the same time, we helped dismantle the music industry as we knew it. File sharing made music much more disposable and mass media and MTV made it so your good looks were literally a requirement to sell records. I do believe that rock arguebly hit its peak with the hair metal/grunge eras and then collapsed after that. We offered the millennial generation new technology and put them in a position where there was less incentive to pick up a guitar and book studio time where you can make music in your bedroom from a laptop and it is this technology that I believe is largely responsible for the lack of rock music in the mainstream. Laptop to Spotify is a faster path than learning guitar, putting together a band, booking studio time, getting a record label and manufacturing a tangible record.
Last night I saw the millennial band Arctic Monkeys. I am 45, but I was by far the oldest person at the show. I've seen Duran Duran. I was the youngest person at the show. Where are my peers? It's like we never existed. That's what it feels like being Gen X. Nobody will remember us, despite our achievements and all the fun we he had growing up.
we're also the doom and gloom generation because of our fatalistic outlook.
I was born in 1961 and I relate to Gen-X way more than with Boomers.
Generation Jones.
Gen X starting in 1965 isn't really true. First, generations really do not have neat little boundaries around them. Someone born on December 31, 1964 is no less Gen X than someone born in February, 1965. The year 1965 was chosen because that's the year that birth rates began declining. This is not done for any other generation; which, by definition is a cultural cohort and no more bound to rising or falling birth rates than to the minimum wage. The characters in the book that named and defined the broad outlines of our generation, published in 1991, were born around 1960. As well, when I first started noticing our generation being talked about ("Twentysomething" was the term at the time) in the late 1980s, the same "after 1959" date was used. It wasn't until much later, in the 2000s sometime, maybe, that it moved to 1965. This "Generation Jones" stuff came after that, when demographers must have realized they screwed up! Read the definition and you'll see it's pretty much exactly the same as a Gen Xer born before 1970. In fact, I'll include this from the person who coined the term Generation Jones: "Pontell suggests that Jonesers inherited an optimistic outlook as children in the 1960s". What 1960s optimism? I was eight when the 1960s ended. I didn't read the newspaper. I hardly had a notion of what year it was at all, or that there was more to the world than Saturday morning cartoons, until 1972 or so. I don't recall any optimism, just the same stuff as anyone born in 1965 -- Watergate, oil shortages, stagflation, etc. In fact, many of the iconic Gen X band members Mary mentions (Ian MacKaye, as well as Henry Rollins) were born before 1965.
I’m a 1958 baby but my life certainly fits more with GenX. I looked at people 5-10 yrs older as a different culture
I was born in 1964 so technically I'm a boomer. But so is my dad who was born in 1943. So needless to say, Gen X is closer to my peer group than the boomers. But having said that, I love the boomers. They had the best movies & the best music.
@@lynnturman8157 I was born in 64 too. Actually my birthday was on the 9th. Boomers started in 46, so your dad would be in The Silent Generation, and, his dad would have been in The Greatest Generation.
Great thoughts on the state of music as always.
I think being teens (or so) in the 80s gave us an appreciation of all kinds of different music. While radio stations stuck with one genre, MTV and all the local UHF video music stations didn't. They had no problem playing Janet Jackson, W.A.S.P., and Stevie Ray Vaughn back to back. This was after school snack and homework music.
There's another semi independent label from that time. Def Jam may have been founded by a Boomer (Rick Rubin was born in 1963) they had lots of Gen X acts.
😂you’re great at these time capsules 👏👏👏a company I helped start (Nelson Entertainment) financed Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure…we had no idea we were producing a timeless classic and cultural touch point….appreciate the mention….thanks for your hard work Mary, love your music 👏👏👏🥂
I was in 7th Grade when "Spirit" hit. 7th Grade is already enough of a confusing time in life but once Grunge hit everything changed. It's like you could no longer laugh and joke and have a good time at all. You had to be serious about everything, man. I think we took ourselves way too seriously in the 90s. I actually found it refreshing once Brittney, Christina, N'SYNC and Backstreet came along. It was the first time music had been fun since the late 80s.
I felt the same way. I remember thinking that about NSYNC and party rock bands like Limp Bizkit as a relieve from the all too serious side of the 90s. I remember the 1990s being the absolute worst time for a band who got their start in the 80s trying to continue on in the 90s. Grunge may have been a bigger backlash toward previous types of music than the rejection of disco in the early 80s.
As a GenXer in Texas, we went from sneaking into shows at J&J's Blues Bar to see Stevie Ray Vaughn shred the guitar like few virtuosos ever have; to seeing the Toadies and Blind Melon at the Bronco Bowl; and throw in some Garth Brooks or Willie Nelson whenever they came to town if you were in the mood to boot scoot. What a magical time it was to be a concert lover! Not sure how we really changed music. Music is always there, but different generations and artists tap into it in different ways. Great content!
I was born in the "Blank Generation." Usually classified between 1955-1965. We invented punk rock. Grew up on it. Punk rock influenced bands like Nirvana and the Pixies, which gave us all grunge. Yay!
Wow, I learned something: I'm a Blanker not a Boomer (but I don't feel any different...).
So it was YOU who spoiled music!
@@baronmeduse Yes. We slam danced and pogo-ed and never forgave boomers for inventing hair metal.
@@baronmeduse Yeah. Now get off my lawn!
I was born in 1958 and I never grew up on Punk.
I was fifteen in 1991 and I was already in a punk band with guys a decade older. We gigged small clubs and hours parties all across the Deep South.
Wouldn’t trade those memories for gold. I was free.
The thing I love about watching Mary's videos is I always learn something. Another banger Mary. Well done!
I'm an old Boomer, still love much of the music I listened to growing up, but I also absolutely love a lot of the music of my Gen X children's generation. I also love the music I listened to as a kid, music of my parent's generation. Good music is good music, doesn't matter which generation made it.
And I still find new bands/ performers that I'm crazy about now. It's ALL good. 🙂
I remember in the early 90s (before alt rock became a big commercial thing) going to club and theater sized shows for everyone from NIN, Psychedelic Furs, Cypress Hill, Soundgarden, Moby or Mudhoney and seeing a lot of the same diverse audience members as the previous show. "Oh hey, we saw those two the other night." Alternative music clubs seemed to be the last bastion of cigarette smoking rebels. We invented the Rave parties, where for a fully legit one you had to jump through several hoops with some really shady characters at appointed times of the evening before being forwarded to the next task, which you eventually hoped would get you the location and access to an off-the-books open bottle gathering (which no doubt involved some breaking and entering or trespassing in some abandoned warehouse in a seedy part of town). You just hoped the cops didn't show up, and if they did you knew where all the exits were.
Mary, I'm enjoying your recent videos on generational music clashes. Though I'm a late Boomer, in the 80s I also worked in radio (adult contemporary). My Millenial kids have been introduced to much classic rock from the 60s, 70s, & 80s, while hooking me up with their favorites in current music. While I still tend to gravitate to the music of my youth, I have broadened my playlists, and try to NEVER say modern music stinks. Find what you connect to, regardless of era. Oh, and good luck on your new album; looking forward to it.
Hi! I just came across your ableton class. Is it for version 11?
And I was expecting your riff on a Rick Beato theme! Although it is great that you confessed to the title being clickbait, right up front! Yet another insightful video.
Thanks, Mary. Love your video essays. As a Gen Xer, I'd say a couple of defining tropes of people my age that played out in musical tastes were: 1) complete skepticism about media-manufactured generational identities (resulting in indifference to our own and others' generation battles); and 2) along with the independence and sense of disillusionment that came with divorce and latch-key existence, a general open-mindedness about how culture--including music--keeps evolving.
While Gen Xers are not immune to nostalgia, I sense that this open-mindedness translates into a willingness to let go of the past. Paste musical tastes, past loyalties to cultural brands, etc. Some misread this as cynicism. I just see it as a coping mechanism born from witnessing too many political and cultural institutions turn out to be hollow.
Great talk. It makes me nostalgic. I wish I were more aware of what was happening while it was happening. It seems so different when looking at my younger Gen X life, now that I'm in my 50s.
This is by far the BEST analysis of the GEN-X I have seen by a Millennial or GEN-Zer. Most of the other analysis of our generation by those from outside our generation is quite cringe. I can see that you've really have done in-depth research and I thank you for this.
Mary, I listened to so much music from classic rock to INXS, The Replacements and being able to see greats like Mellencamp, Clapton, Springsteen, Jimmy Cliff live. You have a unique perspective on the subject. Love your channel.
French GenX here. I think the most specific thing about us is growing up with TV. Before us, music was only available on the radio. After us, it was « free » on the internet. We had MTV and videos as musical events. I will always remember the MJ Thriller video release, on a mainstream French TV Sunday afternoon program, which was like a World Cup final match at the time.
I went to Lollapalooza '95, in Vancouver. I was 30 years old at the time, and, one of the oldest in the crowd,😂 I saw Sinead (rip) and Hole, Beck, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Coolio ( rip) and many others on the same bill on the same day. It was a mini Woodstock for Xers!
Im an x-er and i actually worked at a record store in the mid 90s. Portishead, Slint, Ani DiFranco, Skinny Puppy,K records, Up label. (Kurt, 2Pac, Biggie)I am still partial to CDs, but I dont think i could live without UA-cam when it comes to new music. One of my favorite things about 90s music is that it seems like there remains a perpetual fountain of undiscovered material. Even subgenres that are unknown! I have to give props to all those bands that really gave it a go! All those on Matador come to mind, but those are just scratching the surface.
Thanks Mary. You write incredibly well, and are so interesting to listen too. Thank You!
I was born in 1975 so I guess I am Gen X. I would also include gaming music into the mix too. Apart from that, remember to add Jazz and Neo Soul. And what about tv and movies? The Simpsons, Sopranos and even The X files that seem strangly relevant these days. Yes, people wore corduroy and smoked inside the house and everywhere when I was a child and we used payphones and sendt letters. We also had a curious thing called landline! I will just say Commodore 64 and leave it at that. Great video. You rock.
I'm a boomer, turned 69 this year. I don't live in the past, but I do tell people about great music from the 50's, well, until today. My favorite cover band ever is, hands down, the Ramones. Grunge, a term Kurt Cobain hated, really resonated with me. Zappa, Zeppelin, 80's hair bands, the list goes on. I've always disliked so-called pop music, but some of my favorite songs are undeniably pop: Dancing In The Dark by The Little River band, for example. Move forward a few decades and a century change, and Lana Delray's Norman F&*%^ing Rockwell still has me enthralled. Pick any genre of music, and I have favorites from which that I still listen to, including you, Mary!! I love the way you did your hair by the way. Yeah the world isn't the same (Woodstock, though I loved it, really didn't change anything!!), but change is the one thing that never changes; I decided to change with it instead of hopelessly arguing against it. I'm searching all the time for new music to embrace. Would that the rest of my generation could GTF over it.
Fantastic video. I am a GenX'er and really appreciated how you talked about how we saw how life was before and after certain technology revolutions. I've always thought that but never thought anyone outside my generation did.
I love being a GenX'er. I think we did some of the most kick-ass things that no other generation has measured up to except for maybe "The Greatest Generation". They saw some truly horrific things, came together and kicked ass. At least in terms of music, GenX, by far, had the most diverse offerings that were being shown on Mtv and the likes. I mean, when Aerosmith teamed up with Run DMC? A huge turning point for music. 90's rap was so fun. Today, so much music all follows a certain formula. "Here today gone tomorrow" groups.
But I'm constantly discovering great and new music these days. Especially in the areas of rock and classical. And because of the Internet, I can discover them. The gatekeepers don't control what we a listen to these days.
There are some downers for sure. But the uppers easily make up for it.
If I were to choose a band that best summarized the elements of Gen-X independent music, Sparklehorse would come to mind-a moody, one-man operation that captured the experimental non-genre-compliant sound of that era. We lost Mark Linkous too soon. Thanks for the video.
Love Sparklehorse since they started in the mid-90s (RIP Mark). There's a new album just released last week or so. His family curated and mixed it, I think. I have a big soft spot for 90s lo-fi: GbV, Sparklehorse, Sebadoh.
@@Jesse615 “Have you heard Guided by Voices-they’re a band….I shouldn’t even know who they are!”
@@rizzexponential Ha-ha! The IT Crowd :)
Those GenXers got this [early] millennial into all sorts of music. Eclectic tastes formed from metal of the mid-to-late 1980's (I remember vividly hearing the "...And Justice For All" tape when I was about 5, and falling in love with Metallica) to punk, ska, hardcore, R&B, soul, hip hop, and more. I still pick up new genres and subgenres, adding them to my repertoire regularly, and I still go backward in time to classic rock from the 50's-70's, big band, jazz, blues, classical, baroque, opera, and more. I don't like everything, but there's something in every genre which I enjoy deeply.
I don't know if that would have been possible without the broad creativity or innovation, both in music and in technology, brought to us by GenX.
Gen X resume: Born a month before the first issue of Rolling Stone, turned 13 in 1980, graduated high school in '85, college in '90. Worked my way through school at a record store, if you can call that work, and was a DJ at my college radio station. I lived in small and medium-sized towns in Mississippi, so radio was either Top 40, Soul, Country, or Gospel. But somewhere in the early 80s we got USA Network on cable: Up All Night. Night Flight, Radio 1990, a whole new world opened up. In college, whenever somebody went to Atlanta, Memphis, or New Orleans, they were obligated to bring back the local entertainment guide, Creative Loafing, Memphis Flyer,etc. And of course, there was Spin and Rolling Stone. For me and my friends, any road trip included stops at record shops, places like Wax and Facts, Record Ron's, Xanadu, Oz, or even the big chains. I got into Jazz as a pre-teen and Blues and Soul in High School. But was also very into New Wave, Punk, Metal, what we called Progressive or College Music, which later became College Alternative or just Alternative, just about anything that I thought sounded good, which as it turns out is just about anything. Even though I'm in my mid 50s and have mellowed out some, I still keep my ears open. That's the key kids, Open ears and an open mind
I find it quite interesting how different some of your descriptions of an American GenX is from my experience in Europe.
I am towards the tail end of the age window you mention, but I don't recognize a lot of what you describe, and I associate quite a bit of the things you mention with the generation born after 1980.
My music experience is much more Queen, Europe, Michael Jackson and Madonna, than Nirvana even though Kurt Cobain died the month I turned 18. Grunge and MTV were the weird thing they did over there in America. I definitely am the generation that used the internet, ICQ, Napster, MP3, mobile phones and such in my late teens and early twenties.
good or bad, the US drives a lot of cultural trends to worldwide mainstream. i can totally understand how the experience in different countries must have varied though. even using generational terms like genx is mostly done in the US and not so much in other places i think.
As a Gen-X-er I have to say I have owned SO many music delivery devices and formats (which is something that I don't think another generation can claim).
We didn't ruin music we, supported the music industry many times over, sometimes owning various formats OF THE SAME ALBUM!
- several Walkmens and portable cassette players with AM/FM stereo
- a turntable with a receiver, equalizer, cassette deck
- a transistor pocket radio (when I was super young)
- a boombox for around the house that played cassettes
Then came the cd era:
- a cd Walkman (both a sports waterproof Sony one and then a Sony cheapo player that I could attach headphones to but also played burned CDs),
(remember the later mixtape staple of the GenX, the burned cd comp?)
- then 2 MiniDisc recorder/players which I recorded radio shows on and listened to (but also my guitar playing). That was an excellent, if short-lived, format.
- then finally various iPods for mp3s only and now just my iPhone alone (and occasional spins of vinyl that isn't as portable, ha ha).
Whew! I have whole drawers of audio technology (and formats) that I no longer use. I wonder if the Boomers, millennials, and Gen Z
can boast about that. I doubt it! Ha ha.
This was educational and interesting. I'm really enjoying these type of videos, Mary. Good work!
There is segment of GenX that gets forgotten when talking about GenX: that listens to 80s music: New Wave, Ska, Punk, Two Tone, Go Go, Soul/R&B, Funk, Jazz Fusion, Rockabilly revival, Synth Pop…
We (GenX) were in a lucky time to be learning music - and - have such diverse artists both previous & contemporary to influence us - also the 2000's metal scene was built upon it!
I hope every new generation of musician gets to feel the same about their own example / era / epoch! \m/ :)
The late 80's all through the mid/late 90's was a great time to be a teenager/young adult. So much good music coming out that really belonged to us. Nothing like going over to your grandmother's house for a weekend just to get Friday's and Saturday's Headbanger's Balls on VHS and then finding out a small, rising band like Faith No More or Sepultura. And it wasn't as commercialized as nowadays. It really was the best stuff that was selling the most. Now you have to dig deeper. There is lots of good stuff still. Just not on mainstream as back then.
Mary! You're just cool af. Cheers for the grin you gave me at the start of the vid. SuperSexyHeartBreak just pre-ordered!
Where gen X has ruined music, is our willingness to steal music.
Jimmy Page ripped off Spirit’s Taurus for Stairway To Heaven, Ritchie Blackmore ripped off Ricky Nelson’s Summertime for Black Night and because of their drummer not being available, The Bee Gees sampled his tracks for The Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack, the truth is nothing is original, completely replicating the sound may seem bad but if it’s breathing new life into music it might not be all that bad when it comes to the final product.
@@styepen602 that is quite the diatribe, but it is not at all what I am talking about. I am talking about the hundreds of millions of people who refuse to pay for music. People who claim to be fans of an artist, but are too damn cheap to support the artist financially. It used to be that artists only had to worry about a label, or a crooked manager. They still have those worries, but now they also have to face the fact that people place no value on their art.
I'm a Gen X musician... Same age as Kurt Cobain... and also left handed! Ha! Everything you said was spot on... You nailed it!
I still have my mini disc player thanks to Reef. Hahahaha. Great video Mary (although I may be a little bias,) thank you for your work, Always appreciated.
Much love one and all, Ch’O
Your analysis was spot on! Your take on the eclectic tastes of my generation, where we listen to multiple genres, really struck a chord. I grew up listening to rap, hair bands, grunge, metal, pop…. all of it! Alanis Morissette, Poison, Pearl Jam, Ice-T, and Iron Maiden could all be found on a single “mix tape”.
Don't care what topic you choose. Always love your tone and perspective...Your really a great music journalist and you do it well because you are a musician...so you personally understand what the words mean... much love.
As a Gen X my first proper album I listened to was 'Days of Future Past' by the Moody Blues as I was not allowed to listen to my old mans Black Sabbath but for me the world was changed. Fast forward to the late 80s and I found and album called 'Uncle Anesthesia' by Screaming Trees. Then the Seattle music scene opened up.
Now I get to listen to everything from Kate Bush to Pearl Jam, RNDM to Martha And The Muffins, Foo Fighters to The Be Good Tanyas and a whole load more. Gen X music is so big and so broad that everyone is basically a part of it.
Thank you for this, Mary. I don't think people realize just how special that era of music was for us but what you really nailed was that we just didn't fucking realize it at the time. Hell, some of us even thought it sucked at points. But thank you for so eloquently capturing what it was that made it so special . Who's to say that millennials and Gen-Z won't have a similar realization at some point. There's some pretty special stuff going on right now that is only beginning to make itself known. I'll be curious to see what 20-25 years of perspective makes of this current era.
Hello Mary. My name is Eric, and I am Gen X. Our generation went through great time and awful times, more than once. However, I look upon my generation with a warm heart and a sad soul. Life was so different, good or bad. I see images of my friends and I on bikes, standing on the corner. Just being friends. I remember starting my first band in 1990. I wish you could step back in time and explore. The arguing is funny but not the point. We aren't mad at your generation. It truthfully hurts that the world has changed so much so fast. In the 70s, 80s, and 90s, we had so much variety. I dare say a sort of naivety but not as far as innocent. Ha. There is pressure that has been growing through each generation, and I, we know you have been feeling it increase too. If you look back on us, you will laugh, like a lot. The world was different and we had each other.
Thank you
Eric
5:03 - I had that exact power hub with the orange LED switches that was meant to be used as a monitor stand!
I was 2 in 1965, still not listening to musik. I stopped listening to the radio as soon as the musik was found on the internet and so that is what I see as hurting musik so much. I do not title generations with X or such, I was born in the 60s and grew up in the 70s, saw radio change mid 80s and only listend to musik on tape and soon after on CDs. I still have my first CD and it works better than downloaded musik does, because I see where the CD is and pop it in and listen. My other musik is hard to find. I also have rekords and the files ripped from them, but all the same I find it easier to find the rekord if I want to listen to old musik, or even Taylor Swift. The digital musik world makes it easy to make musik but very hard to make money from it. I am watching this video and am at 5:55 into. Good video!
Edit - watched the video to the end. Again, some of my newer downloaded musik is on CD and it helps me find it. As a musik maker, my musik has yet to make any money, but one collage radio station years back wanted it and played it... for free. Quot me "It is the free musik era that killed it." -Darrell son of Douglas.
I played classical music in an orchestra and developed to a street musician in the late 70's. I travelled through Crete with my violine 🎻 without any money. Mostly classical, but two years later with guitar too. I then sang many songs of the sixties and made great experiences. Without the lyrics of Bob Dylan and the music of the Beatles I woudn't have made that shift from Classics to Pop music.
And I properly couldn't write in English now.
As you said I'm thankful for the process and not for the goal. That's the best to do. I'm from Germany, 64 years old, a Boomer....and I love the generation called Gen X.......I wish you big success in every way ❤❤
We had vinyl records. Because of the gorgeous artwork and sleeve notes. Then we bought the cassette tapes so we could listen on-the-go. We bought massive multi-stack hi-fi stereo systems and cars with early cd-players and bought our entire music collection all over again for that CD super-clarity we were promised. We bought concert footage on VHS and DVD and Blue-ray (and sometimes even those hilariously massive Phillips disc things). We tried out mini discs and downloaded MP3s, then bought them all again from the Apple store, and now pay every month to listen to our favourite music via streaming services and dammit, how many times do we have to pay to listen to the same couple of dozen or so albums from the 80s and 90s?!
Are we done yet? ;-)
I'm a GenXer who has lived in Chicago his whole life and the late 80s and 90s were an amazing time for music in the city in regards to radio, independent and chain record stores, and music venues.
Good video Mary. Nice choice of subject. The best way to get someone’s attention is to find someone who is ignored, and say nice things. 😂
So … I am in the cusp (don’t worry, I’m not here to complain 😉) called Xennials … and you can imagine what that entails. While I certainly grew up Millennial in several respects (for an example, I had turned 19 days before 9/11 happened), I am closer to GenX as I gravitated toward MTV at an ridiculously young age … and in other ways too. Looking back on it, I witnessed how music making changed forever before my eyes: a teenager when Napster came to be, young adult went iTunes debuted, the growing accessibility of music making means from home computer to laptop to phone/tablet.
I have to say: it’s been a wild ride thus far and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. All any of us can do is move forward and keep sing our songs into the end.
Excelsior.
Sharing a mixed tape, discussing the best cassette blanks to record on( live or memorex) , wanting a nakamichi dragon, all topics that were “ serious “ as a gen x teenager
I missed being a part of this club by half a year ( Jun - 64 ).
As far as music goes i love most of the bands and artists in the examples.
So i get to be both an old curmugeon AND the guy who wore long leather coats to Goth clubs. 😎🎩
At last, GenX in the spotlights, thanks Mary. Apart from the music, we (GenX) went from vinyl (Dual) and CrO2 cassettes (TDK/Maxell) and players (Nakamichi) to CDs (yuk; digital noise), DATs, Walkmans, ZIP Drives, downloading, Napster, lynx, Netscape, MP3, CompuServe, AOL, Yahoo, ripping and burning CDs, Ethernet, UseNet, FTP, and in the end 4G, streaming, Spotify, cell phones. It took most of my money over 40 years, but it was a h*ck of a ride... Wouldn't want to have missed it!
You include DATs, but not minidisc??? WTH!
I always wondered what I was (as I was too young to be a boomer born in 1965). As a corporate teacher, I used to teach people how to surf the internet because they didn't know what it was. The mind-blown reactions to email remind me a lot of what happens when I show someone ChatGPT
Keep in mind, the Boomers invented those things - you and I are 2 years apart, and I bet our experiences and culture were very similar...
upon reflection, I think an absolutely core defining characteristic of my generation would have to be breaking with tradition. It’s all over our media. It’s all over our movies that we grew up with. It’s in the lyrics of a lot of our songs. It’s kind of how we went about things. I’m quite sure it has a lot to do with how little interaction we had with grown-ups as we were growing up ourselves and how we observed our boomer parents who were the first to get that particular trend going over the vociferous and often frantic objections of our grandparents. We saw the old way of doing things, upended it and did something completely different damn what everybody thought. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse but, we frequently abandoned long-held tradition. Music was not Spared this. we came of age as the last century was breathing its last and it is we who set the stage for the present one by breaking with the old and ushering in the new. It is only now in my middle years as I contemplate the world my grandchildren will grow up in as compared to the one I grew up in that I have arrived at the alarming realization that maybe, just maybe, grandpa had a point and might have been onto something.
hell yes. I like to say my tastes run from Amadeus to ZZ Top... and FWIW, Napster *went legit*... and is *still out there*, paying more per stream than anybody else. (though I will say that Bandcamp - another GenX-fuelled startup - nets musicians FAR more semolians, since you're actually *buying* the track for a buck instead of renting for two cents a spin AND there's usually no label taking their cut)...
And THANK YOU for the shout-out to Techno... House in general is a metagenre of music ignored by many but hugely important to the folks that know it.
I've liked a lot of your vids, but this is the first one that had me cheering OUT LOUD - TWICE .... Brava! and carry on!
I always enjoy your "talk" videos, Mary. Thoughtful, as usual. Since it looks to me, at this distance, like you've adopted a lot of the DIY ethos yourself, what keeps you from being "gen X" in important ways outside the chronological?
I can remember growing up in the '80's (born in 1967) and hearing the "oldies" on my dad's car stereo. Then, those were songs from the '50's and 60's. So, roughly 20-30 year-old songs. Late '80's and early '90's... a boom of music. Original music, and some pre-programmed electronic disco shit (Elwood Blues quote). And then what? What have we had that was original in the past 20 years? A few songs here and there, but for the most part... rehashes of what's already been done, sampling, and...that's about it. One of the best songs I've heard in years was the collab with Leo on your cover of Fast Car. Got my attention, and persuaded me to spread the word to friends about your channel. When did that song originally come out? And now, a country version?
There's nobody currently out there that you can hear on the radio (other than Taylor Swift) that is as easily identifiable as INXS, Depeche Mode, Pearl Jam, Green Day. No new artists from the last 10 years have their own sound. Why is that? Why did originality cease to be?
Born in '67, and enjoyed this very much. ✌️🤘
Thanks for educating me on my own genertion (no sarcasm here)! I can see how that explains a few things! But were not goi g anywhere and there's plenty more juice to be squeezed out of the X You and your vids are brilliantly made, thanks for being here🙌🏻
It was kind of like you're saying here, Mary. I went to high school in the Maryland suburbs; starting in my late teens going to the (old) 9:30 club, Hung Jury, Alley Cat, Marble Bar, WUST (new 9:30 club), DC Space, Ontario Theatre, Wax Museum, etc., and the underground all-ages shows that were always happening. The overarching vibe, especially in DC at that time, really was "DIY". Until the 80s, it seemed like, to us earlier members of Gen X, that the music was Boomer hand-me-downs. I enjoyed Pink Floyd, the Stones, CSNY etc. enough, but I didn't feel the connection that I knew the older Boomer generation felt to that music. Then I heard The Clash's first album, or The Replacements' Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash, or Minor Threat, or Unknown Pleasures. Not just the music was different; the album cover art (it was still cassettes and vinyl until later in the 80s) was too. It grabbed me and never let go! Then, more in my mid-20s, grunge started. The kids in the 'burbs, who only got their music from MTV, don't realize grunge really got started in the late 80s with Green River, Mudhoney and Soundgarden (OMG! I can still remember the first time hearing Flower, on Ultramega OK -- just blew me away), and Bleach a little later. And a lot of us, as you mention, did not stick religiously to one genre. "College Rock/Underground/Alternative/Whatever" was very eclectic and there seemed to be incredible, fresh-sounding stuff coming out constantly. Our generation gets shuffled under the rug. And that (unfairly, I'll admit) makes me bristle a little when I see a Gen Z, wearing a Kate Bush or Dino Jr. or Pixies t-shirt. It's like WE did that; can we at least get some love and not a snide, "Ok Boomer" 😀
I am what some in what some people call an Xennial, born between 1977 and about 1983. We had cassette tapes and 8-bit computers and consoles growing up,but but multimedia was becoming more common on PCs when we were late high school. We were probably the only generation to record MP3s onto cassette! 😅
Yes, you piqued my interest. But I knew that I could trust you, Mary I’m solidly Gen X (1969). I recall catching myself saying “Did you see the new song?” as we consumed a diet of novel music videos. This must have been in the mid 80s and I recognized it at the time as an historical turning point. I am just as likely to remember where I first saw the video as when I first heard it on the radio.
I feel seen! Thank you Mary!
Having said that, I found it a bit odd to focus on the 90s to the exclusion of the 80s. I was 14 in 1986 and 80s music was a big deal for me. After all, Generation X was the name of Billy Idol's band! Axl Rose and Billy Idol might be a bit too old to be Gen X, but they're what we heard on the radio.
In the 80s I discovered "college radio" - indie, new wave, goth, industrial, ska and hardcore. 80s subcultures had a huge influence on me. In addition to zines, I discovered an underground cassette tape exchange spanning the Atlantic ocean. There was a range of fascinating, odd, and scary stuff going on, including Negativland, Church of the Sub-Genius, and this one guy named Jan Bruun who ran a cassette label called Hypertonia World Enterprises and was obsessed with Charles Manson.
Growing up as a Gen Xer was pretty good. I remember recording with my band on a 4 track in the mid 90s. I don't remember what brand, but it was cool that we could make out own demos and recordings in our practice space without having to hire anyone. The sound quality wasn't bad for the time either. For three poor college kids we did pretty good on scrounging decent equipment.
I grew up in the PNW so the Seattle sound and grunge was huge. However, there was also a lot of hip hop and rap that was becoming popular and it wasn't uncommon to see people with a huge variety of music in their CD wallets. Lots of good local bands around the Eugene and Portland areas to watch.
MTV was awesome in the 80's to early 90's until it was taken over by cheap and easy to make TV shows that still pulled eyeballs, but made more money than music videos. By the early 00's, music videos were hard to watch on TV, but started to pop up online. Watching whatever video you wanted on a 33.6k modem was "fun". Of course you only were able to watch a few videos in the evening because of how slow they downloaded.
So I mean this in no way as a rebuttal or contention or anything of the sort, but as a born-in-59 Baby Boomer who happily got into full-time Top-40 radio upon my high school graduation in '77 with a love for the medium and the music equally, I have to say I was stunned by some of the developments of the '80s and two of those would be corporate radio buying local stations and imposing corporate playlists and all the other media which was splintering and reducing audiences, people making their own mix tapes and everyone renting VHS movies all the time and that sort of thing. And it was just new choices and people made their choices, including watching a relatively small number of songs with videos on MTV. And suddenly on the run were hometown stations with eclectic personalities and programs in conjunction with the daytime hit programming. And then add to that a few generations of music fans and ticket buyers and all that money and somehow it all got messy and so it goes. Still, I am thankful I got on the Greyhound bus and rode from town to town in search of my first gig, which was overnights at WOOS-FM in Canton, Ohio. The bus stopped in Canton, I jumped out and called all the stations in the yellow pages, and Keith London, the program director, was kind enough to give me a weekend gig which soon turned to full-time and then another Greyhound ride to the San Francisco Bay Area, where in '79 I got to be Rockin' Robb Stewart at KNBA the Mighty 1190 in Vallejo. And I loved that audience and they loved me and we had a lot of fun together, the station was sort of like the one in American Graffiti where listeners could walk in and say hello. So anyhow, maybe just a few words from a Baby Boomer who played the radio game for the love of the game, never made much money but that really wasn't the point for me.
German GenX here - from an European POV, you totally missed the main thing which defined GenX music for most of the 80s in Europe: the (redefined) new wave (which in the 70s normally just meant punk music, but the term changed its meaning in the 80s quite a bit). In Germany itself, we had the "Neue Deutsche Welle" (NDW) in the early to mid 80s, with bands like Trio ("Da Da Da"), Nena ("99 Luftballons"), Spliff, Extrabreit, Ideal, or Geier Sturzflug. Their often minimalist style was basically a big middle finger to the big studios as well.
Add to that all the other new (or newly interpreted) sounds like the ones from Depeche Mode (which later became industrial), Nina Hagen, Die Ärzte, Die Toten Hosen, Falco, Peter Schilling, Spider Murphy Band, Markus, Herbert Grönemeyer, Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung (EAV), and a ton of others, ranging from all variations of punk over electronic music and rock music to pop as well. Lets not forget Snap! and other bands, too. And finally, Eurodisco was a big thing in Europe, too. 🙃
And best of all: most of us listened to EVERYTHING, starting with - believe it or not - classical music up to punk, with everything in between. We didn't like to be put into drawers, we heard the music we liked, no matter to which part of music they "belonged". If a song (and especially its lyrics) was good, we listened to it, no matter what "genre" it belonged to. It wasn't just that GenX as a generation were diverse, every single GenX was diverse just by themselves already!
I’m GenX who was into thrash metal back in the day when there was nothing but absolute dross on mainstream outlets in the U.K. severely restricting what you could get exposed to musically. I had to go out and find it by buying cassettes with covers I liked the look of fortunately Jimi Hendrix had naked women on the electric ladyland album so that was teenage me getting on the stepping stone into blues. Then it was a lot of staying up late on a school night to watch mini documentary on heavy metal culture and discovering bands like Napalm death and Motörhead and recording them on to. VHS tapes.
Another Xer here. I was a freak for listening to 78rpms on my walkman, but 'freak' was its own category, so somehow I guess I wasn't one. I now perform songs from the 78era...1910, 20s, 30. I guess Gen X means you can fill in that X however you like.
Gen-X'er here. One thing you said really stands out ... how we were not stuck on classic rock and got into the early alternative and college music of the 1980s. Kids just a couple years older, technically Baby Boomers, were purely classic rockers and remain so to this day. Very wise words you provided there. A hallmark of alternative music fans is we are not stuck on the past hits, and we expect our alt-rock heroes to continue to put out vital material that we want to hear live. Becoming a nostalgia act, pandering to crowds with nothing but old favorites, is the most un-alternative thing a band or artist can do. I saw U2 in their prime for $28, R.E.M. in their prime for $17, Radiohead in a small club for $16, Smashing Pumpkins in a small club for $12. I saw Oasis in a bowling alley for $25. And the list goes on. I was right there when independent film blossomed and established itself as part of the mainstream culture. Also, as an engineer, coming up right as digital cellular was emerging has been a blessing, having been able to witness and contribute to the evolution of this technology over a span of 30+ years and counting. Could not ask for more. Very happy to have come up during the time I did, but, still, as David Lowery of Cracker sang ... "I Hate My Generation". And so it goes ... F this, F that, let me get my simulation running and finish up recording these drum tracks, so I can get wasted, cackle and sneer at the incredulity of life, thumb my nose at the world, spit ice all over my patio, wake up hung over the next day, and repeat it all over again...
I was in a Mary Spender video!!!
Yep, that's going on the CV.
GenX drummer here, Peart/Copeland Division. All of my teens were the 80s. 90s rock was disappointing to me as a drummer. The ryhthms got dumbed down, and while there was still plenty to listen to, it still feels like it was the beginning of the end.
I got a show tonight. I'm going to be thinking about this during it. 🤘
I love to be able to compose with any instrument at the touch of a button or by using notational software. Ultimately though, I prefer that my work be performed by a live band.