Thursday, March 5, 2009

Always Changing yet Ever the Same


Today’s youth, my generation doesn’t exactly have one place that exemplifies the London seen in the Time magazine piece written in the 1960’s.  I do believe however that we have many small places or events that make up something like that London.  There are many different ways that my generation has come to have that sense of hip ness and style.

I think some small “places” that are now hip among youth are concerts.  I don’t always mean the giant thousands upon thousands of people concert, though this can easily show cool culture.  Large concerts were popular even in the 1960’s, but today something that has grown in cool culture is a small concert.  Indie music played at small clubs or even how about big name artists who choose to play small bar concerts.  There is something that is modern about how these types of musical events have grown.  A young person wants to see something in person, to have his or her own personal experience with it.  To hear a cd or listen to something on the radio is not the experience that young people want.  I think young people are looking for a new experience, and most only think that can happen when it is experience in a new way to them.

I don’t think this generation is looking to duplicate any other generation, but I feel as though this happens in variations anyway.  Concerts have always been popular, take Woodstock Festival for example it was a couple of days filled with a large number of artists.  Today there are festivals such as Memphis in May or Bonnaroo, which are both very popular, though not just among youth.  Events such as Bonnaroo bring up topics that today’s youth has really taken to heart, such as going green.  This event that draws so much youth can bring about big changes, because the younger generations can really do a lot of they put their minds to it. 

No matter the time period, the place or events that best portray the youth of the time are also going to be full of ideas about change or how to improve the world.  When we are youthful we tend to be more passionate and when we grow old we tend to mellow out a bit.  I think this is the idea that goes with any young generation and I think that also goes with the style and cool culture of the time.  The topic may change but some passion is always going to be there for whatever it is.

1 comment:

  1. For some reason reading this post made me worry that we are too focused on the past. Do you think that we can ever have anything as cool as, say, Woodstock if we keep comparing everything we do now to it and the rest of the past?

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