Thank you to Ted Anthony for his Washington Post story about Generation X and the the loss of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson as it relates to the larger picture of generational and life experiences. He echoed the sentiments expressed by the Gen X Files, Latchkey Man and me in posts earlier tonight:
"These people were on our lunchboxes," said Gary Giovannetti, 38, a manager at HBO who grew up on Long Island awash in Farrah and MJ iconography. "This," he said, "is the moment when Generation X realizes they're grown up."
It has been so interesting to see Generation X on Twitter and in the Blogosphere sharing in this sentiment tonight.
It was really something to read tweets from a local PR director about songs like Ben. Folks, I wanted to play Ben in my 8th grade piano recital instead of Bach. Connecting with someone who even knows Ben, who even remembers Ben, who understands the rats reference, man, it was a Gen X moment I'm savoring. There was another tweet from an Oklahoma City jeweler about Say, Say, Say by Jackson and McCartney. Remember that?
I don't just want some Comment Luv. I want some Gen X Luv. Kumbaya. Let us bond. =)
Thursday, June 25
Washington Post Reports Two Lost Icons: For Generation X, a really bad day.
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9 comments:
it is a very sad day. i loved both of these folks (the burning bed is a great movie) and all i have to say is: Thriller.
it doesn't get better than that.
Not sure you can really co-opt Farrah and Michael for Generation X. They both belong squarely to what is called Generation Jones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones). That's the group of us like me and my age-mate, Barack Obama, who are too young to be Baby Boomers and too old to be properly Generation X. We were the ones who "grew up with Michael Jackson". If I'm getting the birth dates of Gen X correctly, you only became aware of him in the latter stages of his career. His Jackson 5 days were before your time. As for Farrah, wouldn't you have been too young to have had Farrah hair? You generally would have had to be at least in Junior High to have the haircut, be allowed to have the poster or stay up late enough to see Charlie's Angels.
So much word, Re. And thanks for alerting me this piece from WaPo, Jen. I just wrote a tribute to Michael Jackson on my blog.
@RE - I agree - she was underrated as an actress.
@LISA PAUL - Haven't heard? Generation Jones doesn't really exist. JUST KIDDING!!!! Here are two memoirs from two Xers - YOUNGER THAN ME! - about Jackson and Charlie's Angels. http://www.thelostogle.com and http://missqokc.wordpress.com.
I definitely played Charlie's Angels on the playground (like Mis QOKC), fawned over their doll likenesses as the Wacker's in West Texas.
Jackson adorned my locker my throughout high school - 1983 - when Billie Jean and Beat It both became #1 hits two months apart.
When does a generation claim it's icons? I danced to She's Out of My Life in my high school gym; I saw Ben as a kid, grew up with I'll Be There. I was born in '67 and as the Lost Ogle explains in his post (Chad) earlier today - he pretended to be "Michael effing Jackson" in his carpeted garage, and he was born in '76. Michael Jackson was the first album most Gen Xers bought.
So, I think you're in the minority on this one. And, yes, we all tried to have Farrah hair. Emphasis on TRIED . See Dave Sohigian's blog, The Gen X Files.
@JENNIFER K - That was a great article and as someone posted on Facebook, anthony cranked that out fast.
If the Baby Boomers are judged by those born during the huge birthrate period of the ten years after WWII (1945-1955) or, more accurately, by the shared experiences of young adulthood of Woodstock, Viet Nam and the Beatles. And if Generation X is defined as those born 1963 to 1981 who came of age in the era of Reagan, Bush and Clinton. That puts a group of us born in between (and sharing neither of these sets of experiences as defining experiences) as sort of a lost generation. That group would include me, Barack Obama and Michael Jackson who were all born about the same year. We're Generation Jones.
Yes, I'm old enough to remember the Beatles, but I was a small kid, so they really belong as cultural markers to the Boomers. Yes, you remember Michael Jackson, but only the later period.
Let us poor Jonesers have him. We get little enough between the Boomers and the Gen Xers. And we have an identity crisis. We have enough of the idealism of the Boomers that some of us became community organizers. WE have enough of the mercantile instincts that mark Gen Xers to have spearheaded the early days of the Internet revolution (which the Gen Xers then capitalized on.) Yet we're often forgotten.
I say those of us who danced alongside Michael Jackson when he was with The Jacksons (and Black) as well as when he was a Thriller (and White) can properly lay claim to him.
But we'll share.
JenX, GenX set the world free. Look back at the Berlin Wall, it was people our age taking a sledge hammer to it. I'm sure they were listening to the same songs we were. And the guys on the other side of the wall couldn't have torn it down faster to eat a big mac, fries and a shake with Michael Jackson and Farrah. Rob
My college classmate, Gwendolyn, got a sympathy card from her mom about Michael Jackson's death. My mom better get me a sympathy card when Bono kicks the bucket.
Everybody, if you want to read about some Gen X love, please read Jeff Gordinier's fabulous book, "X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft but Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking."
Jen, I tagged you on my blog today in a Photo meme.
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