Credit in the Straight World

Argue it one way or another, but the greatest contribution of Gen X (besides the Onion) was musical. In the early 1990s', we finally kicked overplayed Classic Rock off the airways and stereos. Grunge and its offshoots were the most powerful rock music made in 20 years. I couldn't believe it when I traveled to Philly that the stations they had devoted to endlessly playing "Satisfaction" finally discovered and broadcast "our" music.
But here comes the advertising industry to acknowledge that we are now the supposedly responsible generation dealing both with children and our elderly parents. How? They've offered the old-fashioned sell-out.
It was bad enough that the Smiths allowed "Everyday is Like Sunday" to be a football game anthem. The song, whose chorus ends up in "everyday is silent and gray," was about nuclear Armageddon. But only the "everyday is like ..." was broadcast, the part about the end of the world is conveniently left out.
Last night, though, I heard the catchy guitar beginning of Smashing Pumpkins "Today" in some series of ads. Help! We're them (the boomers). Selling out when you can no longer push record sales (and that's about everyone now).
All right. I know we have to face up to responsibility sometime. Life is difficult. But the transition was so fast, from the boomers to their Gen Y children. We had about four years of media attention. Kurt died and that was about it.
Economists and the like say that caring for the aging boomers is the growth industry of the future, since they are a much larger generation than us, and they are living much longer than in the past. That's where the money is - serving them.
That's probably true, though they better knock off the supercilious attitude about how they magically ended the Vietnam War and resistance to civil rights in the south.
I grew to loathe them when in Madison because the campus and city were practically uncontrollable in the late 1960s, with the National Guard as frequent guests. But the violence lasted for under four years, after which the Nixon draft was curtailed and students in late 1970 (after Kent State and the bombing in Madison) quickly went back to knocking back pitchers at the student union.
But were talking about music here. At this point, with so many outlets, it's hard to see what's really popular. U2 is the last big band. Nobody knows what's next. But please, Gen Y, don't copy our worst material. Listen to the past, take what you can, and leave the rest.
I'll be damned if I'm going to become one of those obnoxious Boomers who think their music and experience is the end all and be all. Put us out to pasture where we belong. Moooo.