In a good article in the NYT called "We Hate the 80s", on the shocking attempt to revive nostalgia for bands like Duran Duran and Motley Crue, an interesting point is made about Generation X which I think is fairly valid:
According to Ann Fishman, president of Generational Targeted Marketing, the problem's not with the music, it's with the memories. The fans from Generation X, she says, "are not particularly grounded in their youth." "Would you be grounded in something where you had divorced parents, poor schooling?" she asks. "We presume nostalgia is a great selling tool. It is to the baby boomers. It's not to Gen X. The history of their youth has forced them to grow up more quickly. Nostalgia is not necessarily something that's going to move them ahead. They enjoy the music of their youth, but it's not a need."I suppose I would cross the street to see a few acts from 20 ot 25 years ago but not many - Bragg, the Smiths, The English Beat. Given recessions that kept us broke, insecure and pushed back career development, that policians were largely hated by the young (Reagan, Mulroney, Thatcher) rather than a source of inspiration, that nuclear fear was rampant and sex was death, there was not much rosiness in the general culture that you would want to revive. If there were a return to a practical general support of the Earth Day thing, Bossy and Gretzky hockey, breaking down of more of the labelling structures in society and something vaguely about the importance of each person that I can't put a finger on, well, maybe parts of that era much be worth echoing... but that doesn't seem to be the marketers' point:
"It's hard enough now doing any of the old material because obviously we just want to do the new material," said Mr. Smith of Tears for Fears. "It'd be horrible to be playing onstage and have all these people in the front saying 'play 'Shout.' The emotion in a lot of the songs we wrote back then really doesn't mean anything to us now. There are certain emotions you have in your late teens and 20's that really don't exist when you turn 40. There's a certain angst we had then that doesn't exist now. Now we have middle-aged angst."Great. Now that nuclear fear has receded (except for all those rusting Soviet warheads in beached Kalingrad and Vladivostok subs) do I now as a good Gen-Xer have to focus on, say, pension fear? It can't be terrorist fear as that is too Duran Duran 2005 compared to the Cold War. What angst should I have to meet the expectations of my generation? Maybe fear of new Tears for Fears songs.
Comments
Arthur - February 13, 2005 12:18 pm
My eighties included horrible American movies, not surprisingly based on flawed assumptions. I still get angry when I see that particular movie.
Gooner - February 13, 2005 12:56 pm
That song that would be "horrible" for folks to request probably paid for his house and a helluva lot of other things in his life. What are his new songs about, turning 45-50 and buying a new sportscar?
Julia - February 13, 2005 1:42 pm
The crazy thing about the 80's in terms of music, is that some of the things that existed now are still prevalent today. The divorce rate is still high, the job market sucks again, we're in a state of economy where we had a "jobless recovery" from our last recession, there's growing hatred (at least for Democrats and others) for the current adminstration, fear of what's happening in Iraq and elsewhere, and a growing division between the haves and have nots. In some ways, it's the 80's all over except without the crazy Wall Street stock boom.
Hans - February 14, 2005 9:54 am
In my undergraduate days, I had a radio show called "I hate '60s". I didn't really hate the '60s but I hated the nostalgia fed mythology that said, essentially, that modern culture peaked in the 60s and anything anyone was trying to do in the 80s or beyond was not very valuable. Very condescending. I don't get the same impression from listening to '80s radion stations. When I hear '80s music in the radio it gives me a personal memory that I, as a Gen Xer, am not trying to parlay into some kind of culturally significant moment. Gen Xers don't do that, Baby Boomers do. Consequently, the generation of kids after me probably thinks 80s music is just quirky, if they pay any attention at all to pop music chronology longer than 6 months ago.
Alan - February 14, 2005 10:10 am
I was thinking about this and I seem to recall that we thought it was something of a joke at the time. I do recall being on a bus into London in 1986 and listening to George Michaels "Faith" and thinking that maybe I had him wrong all the time, that he was capable of something worth listening to. You had the ernestness of punk at the outset of the decade decay into bitterness in the latter years as well - the misery of the Smiths and the Cure. If it was not chronological, it was definitely stratified - maybe much more than today. You listened to one sort of music and crapped on the others. Didn't we all think Duran Duran and Wang Chug were embarassing? It is difficult to place the mind back in that point in time.
Hans - February 14, 2005 10:54 am
I think stratified is the right word for the eighties whereas fragmented may be a better concept for pop music in the 90s (or whatever decade we're in now) and the youth that identify themselves in one scene or another.
portland - February 14, 2005 4:43 pm
dude, you told everybody where the nukes are!
Alan - February 14, 2005 4:47 pm
Oh poo. And here George Harrison is dead and can't do a benefit to make up for my slip.
portland - February 15, 2005 12:07 pm
but everybody's fav album is still "breakfast in america" - right? right?
Alan - February 15, 2005 12:14 pm
Wasn't that the 70s?
Atlanta - April 28, 2005 4:33 pm
I think they need to quit whining and do what the paying crowd wants. I mean honestly, how many people are lining up to hear "The Cure's" new album, versus U2's latest concert because everyone knows U2 understands what fans want.
Take a lesson from online music download sites making a killing off selling singles from old 80's albums. In fact, I just downloaded "Shout" and "Come Undone" a few months ago for my workout mix. Songs like "Shout" still mean the same thing, even if the context is different.
Then: I wanted to shout at my parents
Now: I want to shout that my 1-year old won't quit crying and it's driving me nuts.
Then: I wanted to shout that I wasn't getting enough sex as a teenager.
Now: I want to shout that I'm not getting enough "good" sex as a married adult.
Some things never change.