The Batlord

I read an article a little while back that touched on this. Basically that this generation doesn't really have much to rebel against: our parents and grandparents are former hippies -- or at least don't call us ***gots when we grow out our hair -- we have more technology and consumer products to keep us from concentrating on railing against a system that's more uninspiring than it is repressive, the crazy decades -- from the Depression, to WWII, to Civil Rights and the hippy counterculture, to Vietnam, and all through the Cold War -- are kind of over and our culture is just kind of coasting along on a sea of laziness and indifference.

And so you have kids who are just as happy listening to Led Zeppelin as Lil' Wayne, cause it's not like their parents are these ogres who need to be vilified. TBH, our parents are boring in their casual liberalness. So why not listen to AC/DC and rediscover post-punk?

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Aux-In

Still makes no sense to me. I think it has to have a lot to do with how adamant a lot of kids' parents -- and a lot of middle-aged adults -- really don't like new music at all. So, these kids hear that not only from their parents, but from their brothers and sisters as well, and sometimes their piers. What's even more baffling is the fact that there's more access to new music than ever before. Some of them just say they like all the classic stuff to be cool. Otherwise I don't understand it.

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William_the_Bloody

I read an article recently on the death of youth sub cultures, and how the youth of today, don't really coalesce into uniformed counterculture groups anymore. (rockers, homies, hippies, punks ect)

Your right in that the casual liberalness of parents probably makes it hard for kids to rebel today "Oh you want to be a gangster Jimmy, well ok, just remember that dinner is at 7" lol.

That and we live in a culturally liberal welfare state, it's people who are on the right of the spectrum that are on the fringe now, so unless your going to become some hardcore ultranationalist, and we all know how that ended last time around, it's kind of hard to rebel.

I also think one of the main driving factors is the decline of the music industry with the internet and free downloading, record companies don't have the power and influence they once had culturally, so there is less to rally against.

At the end of the day, the end of youth subcultures isn't a bad thing, it was just a historical phenomenon that students will read in history books a hundred years from now.

The Batlord

As far as the decline in youth musical rebelliousness goes, I think the internet affects them more by how it democratizes music. Hard to get excited by Nirvana when you can find ten million other bands of the same quality or better playing all different types of music.

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Wolfi65

Nothing to rebel against? Ha!
I think the next generation ('Post-Millenials'?) might rebel against 24/7/365 Über-surveillance of every tiny aspect of your life by (anti)social media, against constantly staring at a screen of some type or another against EVERYTHING being Alternative Alternative Alternative to the Alternative, against EVERYONE being pierced & tattooed, maybe even against Rap.

I'm not entirely free of the music 'bubble' I mentioned - I also have 'special' relationships, not all of them good, with the musical styles I grew up with, but I do try to broaden my horizons by listening to current acts, and once every blue moon or so, I even find one I like.

The internet, YouTube & such certainly do make it MUCH more difficult to stand out, any bozo with a webcam who can strum 3 chords, work a synthesizer or click together some Playstation music can be heard instantly by hundreds of millions.

MicShazam

I thought I'd chime in - not about the cultural context because I have no idea what todays youth is like - but about the original idea that people stop listening to new music at a certain age.

33 years (soon 34) may be not be much compared to some of the older/elderly :P members in here, but it's enough that my mindset has changed a lot over the years, and enough that I have seen friends and family change around me.

My sister who's a couple years older than me has retreated from mildly interesting music into complete blandness now that she's settled with a kid and a man. Nickelback, 'nuff said :P

My brother, a handful years younger than me, has seemingly lost interest in exploring and finding new music. I was shocked earlier this year when he casually told me he didn't plan to buy any music this year. He doesn't even seem to get excited when his favourite bands are putting new stuff out. It should be noted that he listens to almost everything under the sun, stylewise. It just seems like he doesn't care that much about bands he don't already know, all of a sudden. Perhaps it's no coincidence that he got settled with a girlfriend recently.

Then there's me; I'm still completely obsessed with new music and while I like far from all of it, my curiosity has not dampened with age. Maybe it will happen eventually? I don't know... but for now, the only change in my mindset over the last ten years has been that I've become even less tolerant about bland, simplistic stuff like they play on the radio.

Maybe all people become "boring" when they get older, maybe only some lose the desire to challenge themselves with newfangled sounds?

Maybe it has to do with becoming settled? I'm a loner who has nothing else to care about than my interests - that may be an important piece of this puzzle.

I don't know, but the thought of becoming one of those "back in MY day" types scares me :O

NOTE: I don't mean to suggest that guys like me who aren't settled and who obsess over their interests are losers. I live like I do because I want to and I don't feel sorry for myself. I'm not even sure I ever want to be in a relationship. Guys like me are meant to die alone!

Black Francis

I want to be hip until i need a hip replacement that's why i listened to that new Earl sweatshirt album. I try to keep up with whtvr artist is hot atm but it seems artist today don't stay popular for very long and soon are replaced with a hot new artist that will go through that same fad cycle.

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misspoptart

I want to chime in too here and say, don't you think whether or not you like or hate the music your parents listened to is a reflection of how cool/trendy/hip you believe your parents are? For example, I'm a 90s kid and my mom listened to alternative, ska, and punk music along with vanilla stuff like Seal, Sting and U2. I thought she was cool, so by default, I though her taste was good. And I still do. And I'm listening to Seal right now.

Trollheart

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Aux-In

My mom was never that cool. I had to suffer through her doo-wop and oldies which I could never tolerate, even as a young lad who knew nothing about music. I naturally didn't like her music, and this is without any other outside factors influencing me, such as peer pressure and so on. This is one of the reasons I'm confused when some young people say they only like old music. My dad's rock stuff and some of the stuff the both liked (Journey, Chicago, Boston, Queen and that kind of thing) was okay to listen to, but I still needed to forge ahead with defining my own taste in music.

If youth culture is getting lost, is music still going to be relevant in the future? I can't imagine it wouldn't be, but then again, recorded music is only so old, insofar as being a medium of extension for creating outlets that go beyond what humans can experience from the self.

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