The postwar history of musical genres and fads has a generational character - each generation creates new musical genres in the course of defining its own identity, and often these genres react to and challenge the fashions of the preceding generation. After the intensity and shock factor of GenX music in the early 90's it was reasonable to look forward and ask - how could the next generation ever hope to offend these ears. I think the answer has become clear.

Many GenX commentators lament that there are no new musical genres - declaring grunge rock and gangster rap to be the last major musical movements. This is hardly correct. Jungle, Drum and Bass, Post-rock, and Dubstep are all threads that started after those movements.

Age has a tendency to make you more aware of the derivative nature of art forms. Baby Boomers may have looked at Nirvana and observed that Neil Young was doing the same stuff in the late 1970's, and Cobain probably would have agreed with them.

However, there is some truth to the fact that current music styles are less distinct from what people were listening to 15 years ago and most popular music does not fit into a new genre or sound that was created recently. What is the "problem" with these kids today?

GenXers were very concerned with labels - they did not listen to music so much as they wore it, and listening to a particular kind of music often meant dressing a particular way, acting a particular way, and hanging out with a particular crowd. Therefore, it was particularly important to GenXers to draw clear distinctions between different musical genres and eras because they were associated with particular identity groups.

Current musical trends have found a way to subvert that desire by moving beyond labels. Current popular "alternative" music is a mix-mash of different styles and influences from different eras that cannot be clearly distinguished. It seems best represented by the YouTube mashups that were popular a few years ago. A concrete collective move in a particular direction, which GenXers seem to desire, would invite labeling - something millennials seem to reject.

Nothing is more objectionable to GenX ears than music which is detached from its "proper" sociocultural pigeon hole - or music that truly doesn't have a sociocultural pigeon hole and cannot be placed into one.

Its important to view the generational dialog over musical genres through the prism of technological change. The importance of pop music to our culture is a product of the technological context of the 1970's and earlier, when high fidelity stereo systems were the most mature form of home entertainment. You had 8 TV channels. No VCR. No video games. Coming home and putting on that Zeppelin album was one of the greatest home entertainment experiences you could have.

In the early 1990's, popular music was dominated by the radio. 20-30 channels in a particular metropolitan area devoted to part... [ Read More (0.5k in body) ]