So I was having a discussion the other day...is there a band that "defines" our generation? First of all, its a hard quesiton because generation itself is hard to define. I think they say a generation is 30 years, but thats bull. Lets define my generation everyone between 2 years below me and two years above me. If that's two narrow, make it 3 or 4 or whatever. But I think the pop culture scene of those born between 1982 and 1986 is pretty uniform and well defined. But I digress.
I would argue that if there is a band that "defines our generation," it's Green Day. Based on awesomeness and longevity. Who else? Nirvana? Too short lived. Metallica? A bit before our time. Green Day has been more or less the band from about 6th grade until now. Between albums their popularity shrinks a little bit, but every album is a big deal. What's also interesting is that the peak of their popularity happened with Dookie - around middle school. But now, with American Idiot, they may have even surpassed that popularity. The shame is that despite how big that album is, I don't think most people know how brilliant it is. And now with the social commentary they got going on, I don't think there is a better choice for "band that defines our generation." Am I wrong? Please tell me.
The other problem with the question is that the music scene is way more diverse now than it used to be. With our parents, you can be pretty confident that its gonna be the Stones, the Beatles, or Zeppelin. Maybe Hendrix or Pink Floyd. But now, not so easy. Take hip-hop. Our parents didn't even know that hip hop would, at some time, exist. I think you could make a case for Snoop or Jay-Z defining our generation. Im not sure if they reached a wide enough audience. Maybe they did though. I wonder if there are more people my age (if any) who have not heard of Greed Day, or Snoop Dogg. I guess you probably can't define an entire 4 years across the board. You probably have to get a more narrow demographic to find a band that defines it.
Lastly, I've noticed a lack of comments. Maybe because no one reads this. Maybe not. You should comment. It makes me feel important. And come on, this is a good discussion, no?
3 comments:
I think the music scene has become to diverse to designate a certain band/artist as "the" band/artist of their time.
All in all, that's probably a good thing - the democratization of musical taste.
Do we really need a band to speak for us and/or define us?
I agree that comments are good.
to = too
Am I wrong, Matt? Am I wrong?
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