The Birth of Generation X
Or how a whole generation became defined by the avant-garde
The following is a vulgar, self-absorbed lie, constructed from half-truths I have cobbled together. But then, of course, generational labels are supposed to embody a story we tell ourselves. This is my story. The use of the label X for my generation at first felt very comfortable and uncannily appropriate to my tastes. Like the ‘X’ in the 97-X radio station in Oxford, Ohio — the singular commercial alternative station at my alma mater throughout the ’80s and ’90s (now, sadly, no more). If you recall the movie ‘RainMan,’ when Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman are driving in Southwestern Ohio, you heard the tagline, ‘97-X, boom, the future of rock and roll!’. But more recently I have been questioning if perhaps it might be too appropriate for my particular private likes to be universal enough for a generational name. Ever since I was a child I was drawn to the “strange” and “alien” in music and art. After living abroad for most of my high school, I returned to the States in the late 80s and discovered that the local college station in Akron Ohio, was the only place that played the so-called “alternative” music I could stand. With the B-52’s bouncy music in the background, I recall the college radio announcer explaining the meaning of “alternative rock” and how they were exploring the limits of “rock” music…
