New music is made for the new generation, and right now, the 18-20 something, the generation Y as it is called, are the ones buying tickets for concerts or crashing the Coachella site the day the passes are on sale. Today, the music scene is super crowded, there have never been that many bands and music genres in the business, but what is this generation Y listening to exactly?
I am way older, more from the generation X, but if this is any indication, almost every time I get to see an indie band I haven’t seen before, something strikes me: I used the terms 60s, or 60s-inspired, or elements of the 60s in the review. Does it mean that today’s indie music is recycling good old recipes and is nostalgic of a past its audience hasn’t known? Probably, otherwise how could you explain the proliferation of 60s-inspired bands and the recent success of Smith Westerns, Best Coast, or Cults for example? In the indie-hipster world, generation Y is certainly nostalgic, but this is only one facet of this generation.
What about mainstream generation Y, generation Y as a whole? It is weird but when you try to find out what 20-something listen to, you end up with the term… everything: pop, rap, hip-hop, they try everything and I am not even sure any type of music can identify them; some recent articles say that Guns N’Roses, Vanilla Ice, Eminem, the Spice Girls, bubblegum pop and boy bands were popular again, as well as techno, house music, hip hop, trance…etc
One thing is sure nevertheless, this generation Y likes its music: in a recent survey, 76% answered they would rather live without sex than without music for a week, and 2/3 would choose music as their luxury over a phone or a TV! Yes, but I don't know if they realize that they are very often listening to music while watching TV and speaking on the phone! This is a generation born connected to multi-electronic devices, and they want it all, all the time, able to download music while chatting online and texting, and at the end, what does it mean for music?
Hearing from my 12th grade students, I can tell you from experience that generation Y’s youngest members even listen to Britney Spears, Adele, Kelly Clarkson, Beyonce or Timberlake and of course watch American Idol. For them, some sort of music is always on, on their computers, phones or… from a noise in the street, they will listen to anything as long as it has some sort of rhythm,… and they want to listen to it all the time. Music is like oxygen around them, it is vital and part of their surrounding, but it is also regarded as some background element, because who does really pay attention to oxygen? And they couldn’t care less about the sound quality, they will listen to music from anything, often sharing earbuds.
What does it say about this generation Y? If each generation is supposed to bring something culturally different, and have a sense of unity, if each generation is defined by some musical movement, all this is absent in this generation. Regarding music, they embrace the iPod as a new religion or a new limb, they want it all, all the time, and they breathe whatever diffuses their oxygen-tank-electronic-device. They seem fine and happy, but I am afraid some true meaning of music got lost in the evolution.