One of the many axioms of youth is that they gravitate towards what’s new and this makes perfect sense for a developing, since it works on asymmetrical wave lengths. Anything that exists before you’re born has “always been there.” Anything new that shows up on the planet in the time you’re conscious of your surroundings is interesting.

So why was Rap, a 1970s style genre, (Rappers Delight by Sugarhill gang, 1979, often considered the first rap song) considered popular among millennials, in the 90s? That’s like saying you just listened to ABBA.

If you were young in the 90s, you should have gravitated towards these things, not an exhaustive list:

1. Grunge. It came in about 1989, but stayed and became a sound of the 90s.
2. Industrial. Marylin Manson, NIN, and a slew of others.
3. 90s techno. Its granpapy may be disco, but it found its own footing in the 90s. This would later give way to dubstep which came about in my 20s, or right as we went into the 2010’s.
4. Nu-metal. Limp Bizkit, Korn, Disturbed as some people place into this genre.
5. Death Metal. Also came about in the late 80s. It was difficult to find this anywhere prior to Amazon giving it more accessibly by the last half of the early 2000s. (2007-2008)

Those are the big four of them. Rap was not a new genre. Was rock and roll old? Sure, but it reinvented itself into relevant genres. Something the rap, hip hop and other genres ever did. It’s still lies stagnant in today’s world, desperately struggling for relevance with the youth, while Nu-Metal and Death Metal are seeing a resurgence. Right on Gen Z! 🤘

If you’re a millennial, and you were the really out of touch one, you probably listened to pop/rap and bought brands like FUBU, SouthPole, Boss, Tommy Hilfinger. You also were desperately out of touch as Jnco, Kik Wear, ball chains, trips, were all new. In other words, if you didn’t look like you hang out at hot topic, you were out of touch. Also, your parents probably dressed you and had to justify the expense of $100 dollar shirts and pants.

However, in their obtuse nature, they dared think they were indeed trendy. Try explaining to them that Pretty Fly for a White Guy wasn’t about how awesome they were, it was mocking them. I’ve had this conversation.

Now if you were in a different neck of the woods, and inclined towards “rebellion” you may have bought booze. If you didn’t look, the new brands were aftershock red/blue, red dog, zima. If you were in the “trendy” dipshits club, it was boones farm. How do I know that? Because my parents occasionally drank it. And what teenager wants to grow up to be their parents? Sure as fuck not me! Being straight edge was cooler than drinking.

Now that I’m older I drink Budweiser and JD, but that’s because I spent my youth being in touch vs millennials that don’t realize IPA’s were trendy in the 1800s.

Thankfully my pictures don’t look retro, so I have that going for me.

When it comes to TV, Wrestling was in new from. Most millennials waited until the end of the Monday night wars to watch an episode. You were WWF or WCW, and some were both. Too bad WCW didn’t win the war. You had Stargate, SG1, Babylon 5, That show about being underwater with Brody from Jaws. VIP or Baywatch. Amongst other shows. All shows associated with nerdiness. In my neck of the woods, they pretty much watched nick as nite. While I’ve seen nick at nite, there was a lot of pretty lame old shows.

The reason I know that is because one chick, in middle school, called me Fonzie, disrespectfully for my leather jacket. Wtf? It’s a Terminator 2 jacket you bitch! Was my reply.

Let’s not forget the X games, those were dope. Snowboarding, skateboarding, aggressive inlines and BMX the like would have been new-ish. In New England though, that makes you out of touch.

Now they’re fighting with Gen Z and still struggling to adapt to a changing climate, constantly showcasing how little they ever actually been with it.

The word trendy even implies new, by its nature. Nostalgic tendencies seem to be driven by failure. Two things that conflict with one another, because the past and future are two different things. Although romantiscm and nostalgic aspects are similar and I’ve used the Hashtag on TikTok. Some Gen Z’ers seem to have some romanticized tendencies, and unlike nostalgic seems mildly understandable. I mean, I like time travel and in a way, that’s tied to romanticism more than nostalgia.

Ironic that such a hip and into it youth, should be seen as being “out of touch”. Funny, cause now the people my age say it about the Gen Z youth, cause it’s never a millennials fault, like the Skinner Simpson’s meme, “No! It’s the kids who are wrong.” Which is laughable as hell, cause as I pointed out the youth go towards what is new and while a few like some older things, at least they’re not trying to be millennials and steep themselves in “influencer” culture. The ones doing that are as out of touch as onlyfans “models”.

To be fair, at least the barely literate kids, now middle aged adults, of my day, did struggle through the first harry potter novel, before it became an identity prop for praise, while they regurgitated what they watched in the movies. So they have that going for them.

But they elected a black man, to president! Yay, cause he was young and they weren’t. It’s an unintentional consequence of their ignorance. The age old adage of a broken clock being right twice a day.

Least we forget that the 90s were highly figurative. Enough millennials were concrete and literal.

Hence where I think they have fetishized fitting in and relevancy, as subconsciously, they know they don’t fit in, they know they’re misfits and not in a good way. The unintended consequences of those are being felt by the fact that an absurd number of Gen Z youth are unemployed. It’s part of the generational divide and that’s not good for the future as it rest on the youth getting jobs. Gen Z doesn’t need to come up to your level, you need to come down to theirs. Get rid of the “How do you do my fellow kids.” Mentality and understand the youth culture for the first time in your life. It’s not about what you like, it’s about their individual tendencies.

But in order for any of this to happen, millennials would have to be introspective, open to growth and change and admitting they’re just not with it. I’ve been waiting for that for decades, good thing I was smart not to hold my breath.

My thoughts are best summed up by the movie just friends, when Ryan Reynolds’ character fights with brother and he says “you’ll always be fat to me, Chris.” because no matter how many figurative pounds you shed, you’ll always be out of touch and a joke. If the Gen Z’ers didn’t pick up on that by now, they definitely will.

Stay metal 🤘