GENERATION X
So completely caught between two fundamentally different world views, Generation X emerged trapped inside an epic social, cultural, economic, and political maelstrom.  In some ways, the last generation of the 19th century and the first generation of the 21st.  Some of our grandparents were born in the 19th century and subsequently, our parents were byproducts of a generation that preceded the advent of human powered flight, automobiles, mechanized warfare, wireless communication, talking movies, penicillin, the Holocaust, and the atomic bomb.  

The chronological range of our parentage spanned a period of immense human transformation and profound societal change.  Their children, "Baby Boomers" were indeed, in the United States at least, the last vestiges of time where cultural norms that had existed for centuries were finally extinguished.  The finality of this, in my opinion, was encapsulated in the assassination of JFK.

Generation X were the generation born into the collapse of Western cultural norms like the definition of family, the roles of women in society, the empowerment of long-subjugated peoples.  In my own context, the recognition of Gay humans as valid human beings with justifiable rights.  Yet, we were tied to the past because our parents, grandparents, and our brothers and sisters were born before 1961.   By 1967, the Silent Generation was listening to Perry Como while the Boomers were listening to the Strawberry Alarm Clock.  I imagine my brothers, Boomers, growing up listening to the kind of music our parents could listen to.  Generation X was born into a musical world of extreme differences, the gap between musical tastes and performance was an ever growing gash in generational compatibility.  Generation X was born into the musical world of the chaos.  My introduction to music was frightening and I've always thought of Boomers as having been born into a world musical safety.  For example, my first musical memory was the Strawberry Alarm Clock which was arguably significantly 

Music and Memories
I've been keen on watching YouTube videos lately -- frankly, more than any other option.  One of things I've always wanted to understand was how music was different pre-1965 and post-1965.  A big clue about the changes culturally.  What I found watching "American Bandstand" stand out in a number of ways.  Not just the music, but the clothing and the interaction of people.  Their expression, through the music in their dance, seems to reflect the much more profound changes happening in society.  Here are some clips.

American Bandstand circa 1960

By 1983, this was sound of pop music

Check out the difference between 1963 and 1986.  The difference is profound, and doesn't take into consideration the visibility of gay performers and others who were less represented in 1961.  Kraftwerk vs. Connie Francis?  Yikes.

Television
My first television memories were of the Vietnam War.  Not Disney or Howdy Doody.  Later, my television memories were 
 


THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND MY WORK

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