So, I was on a long drive yesterday, and put on some pump me up music, so I didn't get sleepy. I just put something on YouTube, and I ended up in the group of music that I would call Peak Mid to Late Millenial. For perspective, I'm one of the Gappers, not quite old enough to be Gen X, but also feel too old to be a Millenial, although I suppose I technically am, just an Ancient one. ANYWAY, this music, on the surface, sounds like bubble gum pop dance music, the kind you dance in "da club" to, but as I was listening, I realized most of the lyrics had a trend that broke down basically to this:
Get your friends together, drink heavily, have sex, party, DANCE, GO LIVE IN THE PRESENT, because we will all probably die young anyway.
Most of these songs are probably between 10-15 years old, and honestly probably really caught onto the zeitgeist of the time. Hope didn't work, we are still caught in a shit conflict none of us want to be in. The world is actively burning, and no one in power wants to save it. We make less money than our parents and their parents, we'll probably never get to own a home, we'll probably have college debt forever, if we could even afford to go. Might as well party your life away. I do wonder if Trump was a pretty big slap in the face about how bad it could really go, because this Apocalypse attitude seems to be changing a bit, or maybe Gen Z is just rebelling against their sad grunge Gen X parents. LOL
Either way, that was some kind of a ramble, share your thoughts on this, and listen to a peak representation of this musical phenomenon. It's kind of a banger.
@RickiTarr I think Gen Z is fierce because of how they were raised and the environment in which they were raised. It is no small thing for children and teens to see a parent or guardian stare down impending doom to make dinner, ensure homework is tended to, and that laughter and being tough as nails is par for the course.
@amiserabilist@RickiTarr Millennials living through [list omitted] while completely unaware of all the trouble all generations before them went through. The number of wars never was zero, dear kids. And the #genocides are kind of a regular thing in this f*cked up world. Go, get a good history textbook, and at least read through all the ugly things which happened from 1800 until now.
@markuswerle@amiserabilist Whoa dude chill, I think he's just making a point about how everyone acts like the next generation is so entitled but they are going through the same shit every generation does. Assuming someone is uneducated is rude.
"I wanna be happy, I want to be gay
I want to be normal in every way
But a mushroom cloud hangs over my dreams
It haunts my future and threatens my schemes
Peace, peace, peace, where did you go?"
@RickiTarr lol still marked from the nuclear annihilation pop like forever young, 99 luftballons, dancing with tears in my eyes, that evolved into the post-cold war nihilism of grunge
@RickiTarr But back to the topic, though. I did "rebel" against Grunge by absolutely disliking Nirvana. And to this day, I don't really get what the fuss was about even though I have become milder.
But Ke$ha and all that? That I truly disliked. It always came across as super-vapid. I only liked Katy Perry as a guilty pleasure but that had a lot more to do with me being in my 20s and horny. ^^
@coffeepine LOL I like it all, never been very picky about music unless it's sexist, which there is a lot of unfortunately, or so much of the music in the 60's and 70's is about underage girls, which YIKES.
@RickiTarr Interesting. I’m your age and I always saw this music as a reflection of an increasingly narcissistic society that only recently am I starting to see crumble a little bit. It all occurred during the rise of reality shows, fame seeking which YT and social media made accessible, the obsession with ostentatious displays of wealth via people like Paris Hilton and shows like My Super Sweet 16. The complete obsession with image and branding. Hustle culture and superficiality.
@QuietLurker I think we have a tendency of seeing people as worse than us because they... I think Capitalism pushes this thought even harder. I try not to judge how other people express themselves, or assume they are superficial, humans enjoy attention, I don't think there's anything wrong with that, do some people take it overboard, sure, but we all make mistakes.
As far as music goes, even though I don't have a particular musical 'my era', even though I listen to all sorts of things from the 1920s onwards, getting into all sorts of things like a child being excited about a new toy for ten minutes and never going back to it again, I do spend far less time listening to music from the 00s than any other decade.
Part of that's personal reasons, but also, I think maybe the nihilist hedonism that features so heavily in the pop culture of that time, that just doesn't work for me. Not that I'm saying there's anything wrong with it. It's just... not me.
@RickiTarr Years ago I bemoaned the loss of oldies stations. Then I enjoyed it a while as I realized that the oldies stations were playing the songs I grew up with. Then I gave up as the oldies stations played songs I don't recognize.
Someone finally addressed my need. There's a "Boomer Radio" station in these parts, and I'm back to listening to '60s music. https://www.myboomerradio.com/
@DocBohn I grew up listening to oldies, because my dad didn't want me to listen to sinful new music. My dad clearly never listened to the lyrics of the music he grew up with lol, but I do love that music even though way too much of it is about underage girls
@RickiTarr
Ooof.
I know this one.
I found her a real downer, because:
I was trying so fucking hard to make it happen myself, as adult.
All the time hearing this negativity, like has this bitch never listened to My Generation?
We need to deal with this shit, like NOW, not do as she says because MY parents did the same fucking thing and yeah, take a look at the fucking hippies and the rockers and the mods now. Like, you wot m8?
Bloody useless 😎 :GoodTea:
@TLB73 She definitely wasn't the only one either, lots of songs like this. I think it's just scary in the face of so much power wanting to fuck you over so much.
@RickiTarr
Maybe having happen to me what happened lit a fire under my arse. All I know is I can tell you it's at best a weak façade, however they've done a bang up job at keeping us all fighting amongst ourselves, eh? So we're too busy or just too damn fed up.
@RickiTarr
I suppose you do.
By the time I'd hit 26 and things were looking up for real, like "in the long term"
I started having really vaguely defined ideas about where I'd like to be.
And reliving the 80-90's really wasn't on the list, you know?
Knowledge is power, fill your head!
Was my goal.
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