Why is there nothing cool and generation defining?

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So me and my roommate are having this discussion as we speak: okay, the 60s had mod and hippies. The 70s had disco. Etc. Why do we have nothing now? What will be the thing that 14 year olds will imitate of our generation, 20 years from now? What is the generation thing now? What is both cool and distinct of this era?

― Ally, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The mods, the hippies, AND disco?

Maybe 14 year olds in 2021 will imitate Carson Daly or Fred Durst, those bastions of anti-style. Or perhaps they'll harken back to the innocent days of bling-bling, capping all their teeth and working the diamond angle.

For the most part, the past 5 years have been about homogenization, Abercrombie & Fitch / Old Navy / Gap style.

― David Raposa, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

70's also had punk, prog, glam, 60's had mods... what are the 80's? acid, yuppies? generations are only defined once they are over. for some mid 90's brits it's all britpop, others it's lounge.

― matthew james, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That's my point, generation defining events only occur once the era is over. I mean, I'm certain kids getting high in a disco didn't go on and on about how generation defining they were being, right? She's arguing against it, so for kicks I wanna know what is going to be ripped off by kids in the future.

I mean, for the record, she's making such spitting-in-IL*'s-face comments like "How are we supposed to have fun and be important with music idols like Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys?"

― Ally, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ah! A question myself and the divine LC have wrestled with on many an occasion. Resolution - it doesn't really matter. Someone journalist clique somewhere will decide what's 'important' which will then be chewed over on dreadful nostalgia programs (by fat unfunny northern comedians) in the future. My parents were around the decades Ally gave as an example, and mods/hippies/disco (for example) had practically no effect on them whatsoever. They weren't part of any scenes and didn't know anyone who was. All these style cults / movements of any kind basically concern a very small number of people when looked at holistically, no matter how many records or sharp suits are sold. Don't believe the hype!

― DG, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I know a lot of people who say, "I wish I had been born in the sixties. I'd be a hippie druggie anarchist." I don't believe it. If they would have been hippie druggie anarchists in the sixties, they would be now, because there are some left.

― Lyra, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

enuui

― anthony, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The net. Cell phones. Raves. Thong-th-thong-thong-thong.

― bnw, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think the net will be defining .

― anthony, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You will know us by the trail of emails/text messages/IMs.

Don't forget teen pop, rap and R&B.

― nathalie, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

...as will unemployment. yayyy greed.

― jason, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I mean yeah, my first instinct for 'generation-defining' is to say "You're typing on it", but the net is both too big to be a style thing and also, uh, not terribly stylish.

Our generation? Ironic (and non-ironic) materialism and body-as- product, I guess. Gold-fronted teeth, T-Shirts saying "Porn Star" or "Nice Tits", branding branding branding.

― Tom, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That should read "Your generation", kids. OUR generation, to slip into Tom Maconie mode for a second, had Global Hypercolour T-Shirts.

― Tom, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Speak for yourself, Tom, NOT ON THIS BODY ;).

― suzy, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Global Hypercolour Clothing was CLASSIC because it represented the sole stand taken by fashion in the 90s against the bodyphobia of the cosmetics industry. The chemicals companies wanted to reduce us to sweatless mannequins, but here was a product which would 'change colour when hot' i.e. the armpits would go a lurid green. BE PROUD TO SWEAT was the message for 2 months in 1993.

I never wore any either because like Suzy I wasn't cool enough. That said the shiny purple shirt I have that the Pinefox was so intrigued by has unfortunate hypercolourish properties.

― Tom, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What on earth is the hypercolour clothing that Tom E is on about? I have certainly never heard of it. And I was around in 1993.

― the pinefox, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I had one but after about 6 washings it died

― anthony, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hypercolour clothing = 'magic eye' fashion.

― Andrew L, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It took until '93 for that crap to arrive here in Blighty? Strictly mid-'80s phenom where I come from, strictly for high school athletics types. I don't really wear logo shirts, y'know.

― suzy, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

people will be dancing to digitalised nokia phone tunes, ali-g will be sampled throughout, and the flanalette shirt will again reign supreme as the icon of slacker ware without a care...oh shit, that's happening now isn't it...is the future already the pst?

― Geoff, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

Well? Anyone have more definitive answers so long after the '90s ended?

― Allyzay, Wednesday, 5 November 2003 18:57 (twenty-two years ago)

: D

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Change your name to Huckleberry. It's the new new thing.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm changing my name to Broheems.

― Broheems (diamond), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Sweeeet

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I suspect the UK 90s will be remembered as some huge hedonistic bubble waiting to burst - superclubs, Britpop, new-laddism, Euro 96, waiting for the inevitable and for Tories to finally curl up and collapse etc etc. Looking back, it seemed like a really fun time, but with something a bit shallow and empty at its core, and a sense of optimism that just a few years on seems tragically naive.

Also, globally, surely they'll be remembered as that bit in between the end of the Cold War and 9/11?

The 90s will be to the Internet what BBC1 on black and white is to full-on interactive cable.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:06 (twenty-two years ago)

The 90s will be to the Internet what BBC1 on black and white is to full-on interactive cable.

heh. yeah. LOTS more accessible porn.

― Ludwig Van Kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:21 (twenty-two years ago)

ILX is cool and generation defining.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Some fucking generation we are.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:23 (twenty-two years ago)

they all say that nick

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:24 (twenty-two years ago)

except the fkn bloomsbury group

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I imagine they do.

x-post - ehehehehe

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:25 (twenty-two years ago)

phone no.s

― David. (Cozen), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:25 (twenty-two years ago)

ILX is cool and generation defining.

Well, it will be once we produce an ILX baby. Get to it, people!

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Again with the babies. I am starting to suspect people just want to go to a party, ie a wedding or christening, and drink for free.

― Allyzay, Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Also an important part of the late nineties tech boom.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 19:53 (twenty-two years ago)

More seriously, one of the things about the nineties was the way that activities that had been proudly outside the norm hit a second generation, at about the same time that The Media started suspecting that there was a lot of money in this sort of thing (possibly due the previous generation going to work for The Man. So the death of indie yadda yadda and also the rise of Xtreme Sports, another attempt to interest jocks in the activities of people they used to beat up.

There's also the decade of Implausible Deniability, where it became clear that if you said something with a straight face and and were willing to sue anyone who claimed otherwise, history would take your side. Whether this this which is clear is also true, (considering the parallel rise of the internet) isn't really clear yet. blah blah ending in the theft of the election blah blah.

Or you could look at it as big business realising that it doesn't really matter what nominal side the head of state took as long as they didn't get in the way of the money. That the business world could take lessons from art in how malleable language could be (cf Momus completely failing to get this in every thread ever).

This decade is looking like the one of the Reality TV, and possibly the start (and quiet end?) of nu-activism.

Or maybe I'm up late and should get to bed:)

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 21:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, globally, surely they'll be remembered as that bit in between the end of the Cold War and 9/11?

ugh, this might be most OTM. I don't know how I feel about that.

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 21:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Nu-metal was generation-defining as well, wasn't it? Not of the 90s, but the 00s, or whatever it is they'll be calling this decade in ten years time. I remember the first time this really hit home was at Reading in 2000 - when you had Oasis and Pulp and Primal Scream all at the top of the bill, and Slipknot and Limp Bizkit coming up before them, and it was like two different festivals drawing entirely different crowds of different age groups.

It was also the first time I remember noticing a generation gap BELOW me, the way all the kids were going mad for Slipknot whilst I didn't know anyone over the age of about 17 or 18 that liked them. And I don't mean hipster posing here, but just plain incomprehension.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 5 November 2003 22:33 (twenty-two years ago)

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