Generation X: Why today's 45-60-year-olds are cooler than their reputation
Generation X has often been forgotten when it comes to the question of which generation is the coolest – and wrongly so.
I was nine years old at the time, and my mother—in her mid-20s at the time—was vacuuming the living room while " My Favorite Game " by The Cardigans blared from the speakers. Wearing low-slung jeans , she paced the carpet to the beat while I watched from the sofa. This memory will always be linked to that song for me.
Although I was born in the '90s —and am therefore a millennial —I grew up in a Gen X household and was therefore exposed to the culture from an early age. Our CD shelf was full of bands from the '90s: Pixies, PJ Harvey, Placebo. My favorite movies also all come from that era: "Big Bang," for example, "Fallen Angels," "Run Lola Run," "Hackers."
Later, as I delved into Bret Easton Ellis, Elizabeth Wurtzel's "Prozac Nation," and Irvine Welsh—all Gen X authors—I realized something: I was simply born 15 years too late. This means that instead of making mixtapes and hating my corporate job in the 1990s, like Gen Xers, I have to deal with Instagram and ASOS packages.
In recent years, the war of generations has become so omnipresent that it's almost become boring to talk about it. Gen Z versus Millennials, Millennials versus Gen Z, and everyone versus the Boomers. Meanwhile, Generation X, that is, everyone born between 1965 and 1980, has largely been forgotten. Besides the mutual blame game, there's also constant discussion about who the really cool ones were. But what if this is actually the one generation that no one ever talks about?
Kate Moss and Alexander McQueen
Generation X is also known for being often uninvolved in social contexts—a luxury that comes from privileges they are often unaware of. Yet, despite this, some of the coolest people of all belong to this generation: Kate Moss , Naomi Campbell , Alexander McQueen , Winona Ryder. Much of the art created by Millennials and Zillennials is based on Gen X foundations, such as Riot Grrrl, David Lynch, and MTV. Considering that the generation often goes unmentioned, it is surprisingly common.
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