Generation X Prepared Us for Life Okay.
Where is Gen Z’s “New Wave”?
I love music documentaries, like “Woodstock,” “The Decline of Western Civilization,” and VH1’s “Behind the Music.” The other night, I caught Showtime’s 2017 “New Wave: Dare to be Different” about the now defunct WLIR New York radio station.
WLIR played the new alternative music that no one else in the U.S. was playing. From 1982 to 1987, they played the songs recorded mostly by bands in the U.K., but other bands as well from Europe and the U.S. WLIR debuted singles long before other American stations would introduce them. The bands were names we all know now: Depeche Mode, The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, and the utterly unknown at the time: U2.
The movie took me down memory lane to my early teen years and how much music defined me, especially New Wave. It gave many teenagers and young adults the identity they searched for and craved. The Showtime documentary described WLIR as providing “lifestyle music.” I agree. New Wave music was a lifestyle genre, not only in the New York area, but all across America. It was more than just music and fashion trends. It gave us a category of belonging and a foundation to our existence that was unique then and is not replicated in today’s teen generation.
Today’s Generation Z or iGen (born between 1995 and 2012) do not have that same sense of belonging or exploring the world to see who they are. Due to technology (Spotify, Snapchat, YouTube, Buzzfeed, Instagram), kids today are spoon-fed music, culture, and political opinions. There is not the same exploration of music, thought, or trends that previous generations have experienced.
As a matter of fact, kids just aren’t growing up today. According to Jean Twenge, childhood starts earlier with puberty these days, but yet stretches well into high school. “Across a range of behaviors — drinking, dating, spending time unsupervised — 18-year-olds now act more like 15-year-olds used to, and 15-year-olds more like 13-year-olds.”
The Generation Z of today has been over-parented, under-challenged in chores, and its members are afraid to explore and advocate for themselves.
Furthermore, they don’t seem to rebel like recent past teen generations. Look to Rebel Without a Cause and the influence of the then newly created rock and roll with Elvis and the Beatles, and the Sixties’ Hippies. Today, there is a blurred line between parents, children, and culture. Gen Z do not feel compelled to get their driver’s license. They are happy to have their parents drive them. They do not frequent movie theaters, amusement parks, or other teenage hangouts like previous generations. They sit around at home on their iPhones. Music does not cut across generations anymore, defining a generation. Instead, parents and kids alike share in what culture says is trending now.
Rebelling and exploring life away from home is an essential part of growing up. Web MD states that teens need independence, a separate identity, and to test authority. “It’s part of growing up; it’s also linked to developmental changes in the brain that will eventually help them become analytical adults.”
And this is why the New Wave culture was so impactful on my life back in the day. It gave me the freedom and independence to find and express who I was at that pivotal point of growing up. Back then, music wasn’t spoon fed to us through Spotify. We were not coddled with instantaneous outfits through fashions blogs. And to have friends or a group to belong to, we had to explore the world for them by way of malls, record stores, bookstores and teen clubs.
As a mother today, some of the statistics of Gen Z is good news: teen pregnancy is down, drug use is lower, and they are highly educated compared to my generation. Conversely, for Generation X, drug use was high, sex was more casual than today’s Generation Z, and we trusted people back then that may not have been part of intelligent decisions. But it was real life, not Snapchat, YouTube or a reality show. We became young adults prepared for life.
While I know my parents were not thrilled with my seemingly odd fashion choices or strange sounding synthesizer music, I look back on those years with a fondness. And can’t help but think that Generation X had a special something that the Generation Z is going to miss.
