Generation X: Music

In this new series, writer Sean Patrick Hughes explores the culture, events, and history of Generation X

Generations are defined by many things. Their wars. Their politics. Their ideas and innovation. Their art. Nothing so much travels like a generation’s sound though.

Generation X, like all generations, had its own sound.

We were the first generation with parents that listened to rock and roll. We were the first generation whose music could travel with us. We were the last generation that had to buy “albums”.  We grew up listening to classic rock. Our older brothers hated disco. We knew no world without Motown.

What does a generation whose musical identity was formed between 1978 and 1988 sound like?

It sounds like the Beasty Boys. Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog. Lauryn Hill. Nine Inch Nails…Rage Against the Machine. But it also sounds like the classic rock stations that played our parents’ music. Both the old and the new were our contemporaries. Generation X sounded like the best of two worlds; the old and the new wandering off into the sunset at the end of the analogue age.

In this salon, we’ll discuss the music of Generation X. The origins. The artists. The sounds. And what it all meant to us.

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