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Last updated November 19, 2009

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Music Video Generation | Fads | Quotes | Shaving | Trivia Game

The above photo is of me in 1986 or 1987 during the Golden Age of Metal.


The Music Video Generation
 
There are some nice things about getting older.  There are plenty of websites that reflect on my generation, many of the good bands from my era have greatest hits CDs, and lots of the one-hit-wonder bands have their hit song on compilation CDs.   I like listening to music from the 80's because it reminds me of "the good ole days."  I think quite a bit about my generation and what makes it unique.

Technically, I am near the beginning of Generation X, which is the generation after the baby boomers.  I don't believe there is any clear definition of who is and who isn't part of this generation but I've seen it written that those born between 1965 and 1975 are of my generation since we were no longer part of the baby boom high birthrate time period.  After Generation X comes Generation Y, naturally.  So much for creativity.

I find that very often, each generation makes the same observations as the previous generation, especially after a significant part of our generation has given birth.  Young generations experiment with drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and sex.  Nothing new.  We complain about the government, inflation, unemployment, the media, etc.  Still nothing new.  So I ask what set my generation apart from the others.  The answer?  Music video.

Though one might claim that music video has existed long before I was old enough to flip an album, it really didn't gain popularity until the early 80's, a very influential time in my life.  All of a sudden, music became both an audio and a visual experience.  In some ways this was good and in others it was bad.  Like Jack Black says in School of Rock, the man ruined rock 'n' roll with a little something called MTV.  During much of the 80's, bands had to have both the sound AND the look if they wanted to make it big.  Hence, some bands that might have had the songwriting potential never made it because they didn't have the look.  Likewise, some say that others that just had the big hair and the spandex became popular only because they had the look.  Regardless, music video is something that helped define my generation.

With music appealing to both the ears and the eyes, it also set a certain mood for the young people of the 80's.  Brightly colored clothes and hair were more visible on camera than black leather jackets.  Along with the look came a certain feel...one of optimism.  People were tired of the negative attitudes of the post-Vietnam era.  In my generation, girls just wanted to have fun [Cyndi Lauper] and as for me?...I just wanna rock [Twisted Sister].  When times were tough, people organized and pulled their resources to help each other out.  Remember Live Aid, Band-Aid, Farm Aid, Hear 'n Aid, "We are the World," "Do They Know It's Christmas?" "Stars" and Bob Geldof's work to help the starving people of drought plagued Africa?  It's easy to complain and say someone should do something; it's quite another to take action.

In the 90's, grunge came into popularity as a means of rebelling against the 80's.  No surprise there.  It seems every few years, a fad starts out small, gains popularity, then explodes into a supernova, consuming all around it, burning, out and being replaced by a fad that rebels against the last one.  MTV turned into rap video, as I call it.  When they weren't playing rap videos, they were showing reality television.  The dominant influence of music video as I knew it came to an end, being replaced by sophisticated home computer games that made my generation's Atari look like an old Model T.  Attitudes changed also.  The darker, pessimistic sounds of bands like Alice in Chains replaced the upbeat sounds of Poison while the depressed Kurt Cobain, who some saw as a leader of the grunge age, took his own life.

Hence, while you may call my generation Generation X, I often think the Music Video Generation* is often a more accurate and descriptive title.  God how I miss those days.

* I hesitate to say the MTV Generation since I and many others didn't have access to MTV growing up since it was on cable television.  However, there were other shows like Friday Night Videos that showed music videos on the public airwaves.

 
Fads
 
Some things become popular for no apparent reason.  As I mentioned earlier, there seems to be a certain cycle where fads are brand new, gain in popularity, become mainstream, then are replaced by a new fad that rebels against the old one.  It is when a fad is just gaining in popularity that it is cool is embrace and once it turns mainstream, the cool people start to reject it.  After about 20 years, many fads become reborn.  Certain looks and certain sounds which were once "so yesterday" become nostalgic.  Just watch an Old Navy commercial and you'll notice that disco is now part of a marketing scheme to encourage us to spend more.  I only long for the day when the sounds of Twisted Sister and Poison are once again embraced by mainstream culture.

If you want to be rich, predict the next fad toy.  For many a Christmas, there was often one toy that most every child wanted.  There were Beanie Babies, Cabbage Patch Dolls, Tickle Me Elmo, Pokemon, etc.  I certainly never understood what made these toys so appealing.  Was it marketing?  Perhaps a few "cool" kids liked them and others soon jumped on the bandwagon.  If you can predict the next fad toy, or better yet, invent it, then you will quickly be on your way to financial independence.  Just be sure to invest your profits wisely.  The well will run dry quickly.

If you're a fitness instructor, there are plenty of fads on which you can capitalize.  Ever since the media showed Jimmy Carter jogging, the public's attitude towards fitness has taken a new meaning.  Just appearing to be "in shape" wasn't enough.  People needed to be pro-active about their health.  Ronald Reagan was filmed splitting firewood, George Bush was filmed jogging, and even Bill Clinton was filmed jogging (to McDonald's perhaps?).  But jogging wasn't enough.  The public needed more options.  Jane Fonda and several others marketed aerobics tapes.  Group exercise became the standard at most gyms.  Shortly after, step aerobics became the latest craze to provide a greater challenge.  For those wanting less impact, water aerobics was an option.  With the public's short attention span and obsession with the latest fad, the gyms marketed spinning, boot camp, and cardio kickboxing.  But even these options weren't enough.  The fitness industry began to market exercises from long ago: yoga, pilates, and belly dancing.  Similarly, the late night infomercials put out a new piece of abdominal strengthening machine every few months.  They all promised to give us washboard abs, abs of steel, or at least a flat tummy.  The dieting industry was also on the bandwagon.  The Atkins Diet, the South Beach Diet, fat blockers, etc.  The irony of it all is that with all these options available for achieving the ideal body, we as a nation are fatter than ever.

 
Quotes
 
...there is nothing new under the sun.
- from the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter one, verse nine

Yesterday's today was tomorrow and tomorrow, today will be yesterday.
- George Harrison

Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.
-Former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower