They spoke to me as a leading edge Gen-Xer as well (born in 1967), but that might be because I was already hooked on Discordianism (thanks, Steve Jackson Games!). Also that growing up, music from Vangelis and Tangerine Dream got me started on electronic instrumental or whatever, and I gobbled up anything that was freaky, weird and surreal. Especially if it was instrumental.
And Laurie Anderson’s United States I-IV was always in my player. I had all four cassettes with me at all times.
EDIT: I forgot to add that Suicidal Tendencies’ “Institutionalised” really does hit the sweet spot. It seems like it was the song everyone knew, from the Dead Kennedys fan down the hall in the college dorm to the geeky girl who was into the Bangles.
As @noahdjango pointed out, Hip Hop was a big part of the mix. Which reminded me, the Manchester thing was going on too. Kind of exploded and then quickly got quiet. It wasn’t a until a decade later with 24 Hour Party people that I understood some reasons why.
I think that’s often the case… just in general when talking about this sort of phenomenon, which is a sad and infuriating oversight. You can say the same about gender, too. I was recently reading Jon Savage’s book Teenage, which is a prehistory of the postwar concept of the “teenager” that drives lots of postwar popular culture, and he’s very much leaning into white male youths being the definition of youths, as if Black youths weren’t also into jazz culture of the 20s. He does make some noise about race, but not nearly enough figuring out how Black youths are dealing with segregation in American while embracing youth culture, etc.
Good point! I’d say that generational cohorts are largely cultural phenomenon shaped primiarly by shared experiences (as is on display in this very thread!), and there is an assumption that everyone fits into these neat categories - but if you’re Black, or LGBQT+, or a woman, or working class, or whatever else, your experiences are going to be different than what they’ll be if you’re a white middle class suburban male. That being said, not too few of those white middle class suburban males were into hip hop at the time.
Yeah, I think that’s the case or the baseline assumption. The boomer experience is expected to be what white dudes experienced during their youth, the Beatles are the greatest thing ever, etc.
There are historians working to be more critical about the issue of race and generational cohort, especially scholars of color. It’s a real problem in a lot of cultural histories, though, the assumption of default whiteness. But from what I’ve researched, the cross over between hip hop and punk/postpunk is much deeper than most people think (as we’ve discussed before).
Yes, very much agreed.
Did I ever tell you about the time that some (non-racist) skinheads too ME bowling (with some punks). It was fun.
I’ve seen fascists misunderstand Killing Joke. I mean, that band is so far left they may as well be hippies. I can’t even fathom how they can twist their comprehension to that point. Of course, Rage Against the Machine have a lot of right wing fans who apparently never read the lyrics beyond the chorus, so…
I got into Laurie Anderson due to her Sharky’s Day video showing up on a weird PBS show called Alive From Off Center. Some of the first music I went out and bought myself was Anderson and also Tangerine Dream. I got Tangerine Dream from friends playing their records when we played Risk back in the 80s.
younger than you (1974)
I was probably eight when I went to see Lynch’s Dune at a theater on the U of Michigan campus.
when “music by Tangerine Dream” appeared in the opening credits, many fans whistled and cheered.
I got to see them in concert back in the 80s and it was kinda amazing. Probably one of the memories I keep is hearing their music blasting out of cars when I was leaving the concert. A thing I expect to never experience again.
