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Stifled by copycat trends
By Michael Ursu
Our generation’s identity seems to lie in our lack of an identity. With the popularity of retro-themed restaurants like Johnny Rockets, the “throwback” Pepsi cans, The Who performing at the Superbowl and the vintage clothing craze, it seems as if we worship other generations rather than focusing on ours. We have not even created a musical style that we can truly call our own. What we have done is stand idly around while the older generations tell us what is cool to listen to.
Anthropologists have dubbed our generation, the people born between 1982 and 2002, “Generation Y.” We have only contributed music like Fall Out Boy and the pre-packaged Disney stars like Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. While these can technically be considered contributions to our society, they are not significant in any way because they do not facilitate the progression of our culture.
In terms of something that holds cultural significance for our generation, there is the Internet, which makes it possible for artists to share music freely. We, however, can’t take credit for that because it was pioneered by another generation, “Generation X”, those born between the 1960s and 1980s. They are the ones who are controlling what we watch and what we listen to, and they are the ones responsible for our lack of originality.
Why are we a generation that likes to worship things of the past? I don’t think that we are the ones responsible for our generational identity crisis. For example, after the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” at Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004, why have no young up-and-coming artists played at the Superbowl since that event? Prince has been the youngest to play since then, when he performed at Superbowl XLI in 2007, but he was 48 years old at the time.
This is because the Superbowl organizers, who are largely Generation X-ers and older, are deciding what is fitting for our generation’s entertainment. Why not have a survey to see who we want to see? Sure, the Super Bowl may be geared toward an older audience, but as soon Janet Jackson’s top popped off, they stopped giving young artists a chance. However, it’s not just the Super Bowl organizers who are responsible for our lack of originality, musically or otherwise.
Producers are the manipulators of music, controlling all the musical trends by making bands do what the producers think is cool. This includes re-working an old Michael Jackson song a la Fall Out Boy, or sampling a Supertramp song in the case of Gym Class Heroes. These mass-produced covers of older music are marketed to us by members of the previous generations. They are the ones who control various cultural industries. If we do not realize who exactly controls our musical intake, and do not take reign of our music industry, then the older generations will continue to inspire a general culture of unoriginality.
Years after we graduate, and maybe establish families, what do you think the textbooks will say about our generation? A generation should be able to control its identity, not be controlled by others such as Generation X, higher-ups at marketing companies, producers or any other generation who likes to think that regression is in. If the current trend of apathy continues, I’m not sure what I’m going to be able to tell my kids when they ask me what my generation was like. Maybe I’ll just tell them how cool I thought the 60s were.
Michael Ursu is an undeclared first-year. He can be reached at ursu@oxy.edu.
Building upon previous ideas and styles
By Sarah Flocken
I love vintage clothing. I love “old” music. I love some covers of “old” music. I love the occasional movie based off of a decades-old comic book series (can we say “Dark Knight”?), or even movie remakes (I’m so stoked for the upcoming “Karate Kid” remake). I am “Millennial.” Hear me roar.At 21 years old, I am a member of what marketing consultants and anthropologists, beginning in a 1993 Ad Age article, have dubbed “Generation Y,” or “the Millennials,” born between 1982 and 2002 (or 1980 and 1995, depending on which anthropological studies you believe).
In articles by The New York Times, L.A. Times, CBS and various anthropological journals, we Millennials are called out for being “coddled,” “self-absorbed,” and, most recently, “unoriginal.” This last epithet is rightly based off of our apparent collective obsession with all things “old school,” “vintage,” “re-made” or “covered.” There is no arguing against that assertion, since popular fashion currently revolves around “vintage” styles, movies are often remakes or based off of older TV shows and comic book characters, and covers or samples of decades-old songs dominate the contemporary airwaves.
Judging from these examples, it could be pretty tough to make a case for our generation’s originality and unique cultural identity, right?
Well, in response, I argue that Millennials, despite our seeming obsession with all things old, are not just a generation of mindless vintage-worshippers. We are no different from previous generations in this respect. Every generation has recycled trends throughout history, and much historical fact and scholarship backs me up on this assertion.Let’s start with the purported “trend” of vintage clothing. Popular fashion retailers right down to Target seem to be churning out nothing but 80s-style party dresses, faded-looking shirts featuring old advertisements and comic book characters. They’re even bringing back the high-waisted silhouette for girls and the tighter pants of yesteryear for guys. The corporatization of “vintage” styles is a bit problematic for those seeking to define our generation separately from those before.
However, are we just a generation of fashion copycats? To that, I answer: No, every generation is.
Almost every single incarnation of every single clothing item after the loincloth has been a derivation or imitation of a previous generation or other culture’s covering.
During the Restoration era, men’s tunics imitated the women’s farthingales of the previous decades. The “Grecian” motif has been repeated, in various forms, throughout women’s fashion for centuries.
Even after the first wave of feminism, which banished corsets as a social requirement, the cinched, corseted style of dresses came back in full-force in the 1950s.
The list goes on and on. Basically, nobody has been truly “original,” clothing wise, since the cavemen.
The same approach taken to clothing could also be applied to music and movies. Not since the inception of tone, rhythm and harmony has any music been absolutely devoid of influences.
“Rock ‘n’ roll,” the defining sound of our parents and grandparents’ generations, was definitely not a totally new idea: The beats, bass lines, guitar riffs and even lyrics were stolen from African-American “blues” singers. Even Elvis Presley’s fan page and various biographies cite “the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s” debt to these artists. The idea that music lacks complete originality extends beyond rock ‘n’ roll. Classical music, believed by many older generations to be the epitome of musical perfection, is not a completely original form. Composers Bach and Handel, for example, were heavily influenced by church music from centuries before. Mozart, Beethoven and all the rest, either owed a heavy debt to previous “classical” composers, or even rustic folk music from the Medieval era.
Nothing seems completely original, and some of the most influential thinkers of our time support this assertion. To haphazardly summarize much of deconstructionist, post-structuralist and New Historicist theory, all cultural movements derive from their predecessors, and cannot be grasped in the original moment, or even regarded as independent or original.
This idea resonates throughout variously stated theories from deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, New Historicist Michel Foucault, and colonialist-poststructura
list Edward Said, to name a few. It seems, then, that the Millennials are no different from their predecessors. Although previous generations like to consider themselves unique in comparison to us, in actuality, we are all equally unoriginal.
Sarah Flocken is a senior ECLS major. She can be reached at sflocken@oxy.edu.
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