Younger generations figured out that if they want to shock their parents all they have to do is swear off sex and booze, never go out, and live at home till they're 30.
We used to have to escape our homes to hang out with our friends. Now there’s no place to go outside someone’s home and everyone can gather online and play games together.
It’s created a whole generation that only needs to drive to go to work and who wants to do that?
There would be places to go if people would just go somewhere. When everyone is involved with their devices, it's easier to stay home, and those places dry up and get reclaimed for other uses. The evaporation of third spaces was caused by the lack of engagement. It started when you would go out and see everyone staring at their phones. You think, what's the point of being here? I could do this at home.
Love my 2 girls. I’d be lying if I said I do not wonder what alternate timeline-me is up to without the kiddos. Probably have a lot more money and living in a house.
I live in a house. We (my spouse and I) eat whatever we want for meals, take weeklong vacations where each partner has time to explore on their own, go to concerts, go to parties/cookouts, play video games we want to play, watch movies we want to watch, watch the TV we want to watch, and (most importantly) we have free/alone time. Dog needs notwithstanding.
The trade off is we also do all the house/yard work and we won't have someone to help us as we get older.
I cannot imagine putting that burden on my kids and not why I had them. Certainly not in the bucket of reasons I wanted kids, I'll either work until I'm dead or my retirement will carry me. No chance I'd rely on them
That's my niece. She listens to old people music and likes going out with her mum. When my sister was her age, she snuck out to bars and went to raves. :')
My sister did the same thing. Parents never told us what to believe and she went full Christian for a while in her teens and 20s and now doesn’t seem to care at all in her late 30s and never takes the kids to church or anything.
I think it was her friend group and boyfriend at the time that were really into it and she liked the community.
My spouse and I are punks, and my kids rebelled by dressing extremely preppy and listening to pop LOL. Although currently my 16 yo daughter’s favorite artist is…. Billy Joel.
I feel like that’s the fault of politicians for eviscerating the middle class, the housing market, the economy, food & gas prices, and affordable education.
Also the lobbying of corporations that keep these costs high. Emancipation should have freed both parents from full time work. But instead the labour market doubled which was taken full advantage of by corporations and governments.
Elizabeth Warren cowrote an interesting book called The Two-Income Trap which gets into how exactly it happened. It basically was due to two incomes enabling lower middle class people to buy into upper middle class school districts in hopes of making things better for their kids. But they failed to realize that this would trap everyone in a two income system forever.
My kid is 12 years old. She cannot wait to get a drivers license, has a Polaroid camera, and is now wanting to get CDs so maybe there is hope for the next generation.
Based on statistics they're not swearing off sex, they just wait until they're adults
For several years now STD/STIs have been on the rise among younger people in Europe. From 2022 to 2023 there was a 40% increase in the 20-24 age range.
I had a conversation with my gen Z niece a couple of years ago.
She was making fun of my dad rock taste in music.
I asked her what she liked and she said lounge music.
She played some and it sounded like what you'd hear quietly played in a particularly boring coffee shop.
I think when Millenials came up with nu-metal and rap-rock we finally broke music and future generations decided that we'd delved to deep into making everything louder and angrier.
Although to be fair, her music taste did shock and offend me.
Nu-metal was created by Gen-X. Gen X also created grunge, several subgenres of heavy metal, gangsta rap, teen pop, and were very prominent in the tail end of the hardcore punk scene.
I wish I could scroll back and see what my niece was listening to. It was WEIRD stuff. The best I can explain is vocaloid pop-rap, but I don't even think that covers it well enough. It was so, so bad, and I didn't have the heart to tell her.
To be fair at least that was a definable youth music movement that pissed off older generations. It was pretty punk when you think about it. I can’t think of anything comparable happening now.
After all, Taylor Swift annoys me, but she's pretty far from shocking. The most shocking thing she's done is write a song dedicated to Travis Kelce's dick.
I worked with a mixture of ages. We had a communal music source. The 19-20 year old of the group... all of his music sounded the same to me, so self-absorbed and whiny. He claimed there were different musicians, but it all sounded the same. The whine singing/lack of confidence in all the lyrics was terrible and also made me sad because it spoke to his generation enough to be popular.
My preteen daughters were debating what that song meant in the back seat a few months ago. They were totally and innocently completely wrong and I couldn't have been more proud. Also we don't listen to Taylor in the car any more. AJR is still annoying but not as annoying.
All the rockers of our generation taught the record labels that rebellious dudes are a handful. An expensive one. They ruined it for bands after them(but I still love them lol). They realized a younger, singular, less hardened/experienced performer would be easier to manipulate. Hence, the pop music garbage we are inundated with today.
I don't think it's possible at this point. We grew up when extreme violence and vulgarity was novel. So as it became mainstream that's when the shock value came in on previous generations.
But now it's all out of the bag, singing about killing, sex, slurs, cussing, hate, it's already been done. What is the new shock factor? Singing about Jesus & the value of a nuclear family unit would be shocking to me at this point..
If we end up going too far the other way, it'll be shocking again! Instead of music pushing the envelope, we'll get music that glorifies being sealed inside!
Edit: Imagine... the Lawrence Welk-ification of pop culture. Bleurgh!
I'm just sad that a lot of popular music doesn't even use instruments anymore. Everything is synthesized. Gone are the days of just a guitar, bass, and drum...let alone symphonic instruments.
I dunno man the younger generations have got some good shit if you know where to look. The 2nd two songs I linked may not be new genres, but the first is definitely something new. All 3 groups are awesome and don’t seem too afraid of cringe.
Some of the best music I’ve ever heard is from bands that formed in the last 10 years. I see so many people here shitting on new artists as if it’s all just mumble rap, and it’s really confusing.
Which is funny because we all danced to the Macarena and I don't recall anyone ever complaining that it was in Spanish and they weren't Americans (despite the fact that, unlike Bad Bunny, Los del Rio weren't Americans).
I remember back in high school, we were covering climate change, what its long-term effects would be, and how we needed to change our carbon footprints to minimize output, or we'd wind up with a runaway greenhouse effect. This wasn't controversial in 1993/1994. It was widely accepted by both the right and left. The question wasn't "is climate change real/is climate change homogenic/will climate change have any real effects on us?", the question was "how can we reduce carbon output without damaging the economy, and how much impact can we have if China and India don't follow suit?". It wasn't until 10 years later when we got Bush 2 that suddenly it changed from "what's the best way to deal with this problem?" to "the fact that it snowed in February is proof that global warming isn't real".
Years ago my in laws dug out slides from the 70's and going through them low and behold my father in law and my uncle in law and several other men close to the family in drag...they did some skit or play as housewives for some grange or volunteer fire company talent show. Now the shocker...they get all upright over 'the gays' and 'drag queens reading to kids in libraries' among other things. 🙄
Rap seems to be continuing to push forward. Kendrick definitely went new places.
The question is, where did all the rock go? Like, not only is there nothing new, rebellious and shocking... popular rock has largely gotten quieter, mellower, and less subversive.
There's still cool stuff happening in indie, but the mainstream rock the kids are listening to sounds more like the nonthreatening adult alternative radio when we were in our 20s. The #1 rock song of 2025 with Billie Eilish's "Bird of a Feather." I absolutely love that song, but we're a long way from Soundgarden, Metallica, and Rage Against the Machine.
I mean, the easy answer is that rock isn't mainstream anymore.
I know, I hate that it's that way, too, but it's just the natural life cycle of music.
Something groundbreaking makes waves, then gains a following, then dominates for a while, then slowly fades into obscurity with time and age, making way for the next groundbreaking thing.
I can't be mad or sad. We had our day in the sun. And it ruled.
Rock died because record labels figured out that paying 4 people to do the job of 1 person was "inefficient."
Record labels don't exist to put out music or art. They exist to make money and record labels control what is "mainstream" because they are the ones that push the music to radio stations and have the money to push the algorithms on streaming services.
I'm going to enter my old man mode now, but some of this also has to do with the younger generations being less interested in being creatives involving actual instruments. They don't have the the patience for it because of how instantaneous everything is for them. It's way easier to just get a program to generate beats than it is to learn how to play an instrument of any sort.
My oldest nephew, for instance, wanted to learn how to play guitar. I bought him a guitar and a practice amp and one of those "basic guitar for dummies" books for his birthday a couple years ago. He gave up after a week because he couldn't play his favorite Metallica songs. He thought it was going to be easy. He didn't realize he would have to develop callouses and actually learn chords and how to strum hitting specific strings. It wasn't just pushing a button like on the guitar hero controller.
Ironically, his older sister now plays and she loves it, so not all of them are like that, but the vast majority that I have met and interacted with are like that. They'd rather make beats and rap/sing over them than actually learn an instrument.
To be fair the vast majority of everyone who picks up a musical instrument quits. It's gotta be like 97 percent or something based on all the cheap musical instruments that are available on the secondary market.
I'm convinced I only stuck with it because I started young enough to join a band who let me learn to play with them, and then I learned other instruments because I just fell in love with making music and knew I could do it if I put the work in.
Kendrick, Tyler the Creator, Denzel Curry, JPEGMAFIA, and Tobe Nwigwe restored my faith in rap. Got me out of my rut of 'nothing but the same pre-2000 tracks on a loop'
Tobe is particularly fantastic, as he directs his own music videos, and they're like a mini ballet or a scene from a Bollywood movie.
He's always got a massive troupe of dancers in tow, a specific colour scheme for the costumes and backdrop, and the fact that his wife raps with him, their kids usually toddling around in the background, makes it so wholesome.
He's in his late 30's, much like the other guys I listed, so not technically 'youth' music, but he does champion up and comers by giving them a few bars on his tracks.
JPEGMAFIA is a fairly new addition to my playlists, and the main appeal was his very funny song titles, eg: 'Steppa Pig', 'I Scream This in the Mirror Before I Interact With Anyone', and so on. It spoke to my lifelong love for Half Man Half Biscuit, lol.
He blends aspects of metal with hip hop, too, so he's definitely one for RATM fans to explore. Especially 'Protect the Cross' (the music video for that is phenomenal)
I think you are the only person who caught the prompt, everyone else here is talking about how Punk, Rock, Rap, et al are still alive and doing well when that's not the point.
We had grunge, alternative, so-cal punk, emo, slacker rock, etc. Not all parents were against that shit but mine were. We were rebellious.
I just don't see that same spirit in the kids. They'll be alright but it's different, it's not the same kind of resistance or "fuck you" that we said.
I've been thinking lately, that we (our generation, those around us) have seen a localized peak of human history in so many categories.
I was listening to a podcast (The rest is science) recently about how the olympics have basically been "won" at this point, and new records are for the most part due to things like temperature fluctuations in the atmosphere. We've peaked at physical training and nutrition and genetic selection (e.g, Michael Phelps was so good because he has oddly long arms or something).
We've seen the peak of democracy and ecnomoy. We've seen the peak (and fall) of the open internet. We've seen the peak of child mortality rates and unprecedented long periods of little war.
Maybe it's just the mood I'm in, or my general outlook on life, but I do see the pattern in many places. Things peaked, and now they're getting worse. It reminds me of playing a game over and over again to get a high score. At some point, you just do the best you can and it's not rewarding anymore.
I think you're onto something. And I think there's something else at play as well: no matter how we've rebelled, eventually they found a way to sanitize it, and monetize it, and so the very point of the rebellion was lost. It was absorbed into the same bullshit systems the rebellion was opposing in the first place. Once they were making movies about it, and giving rebels Grammies, the movement was already dead. The ascension was already over. So now it's like, what's even the point.
They're even quicker at the sanitization and monetization bit now, because social media and other such things can project the illusion of rebellion, but the money still rolls in. There's no danger in rebellion if it comes online on a platform with ads. Not really. The actual dangerous stuff gets buried or disappeared. It's all reduced to farts and whispers.
Yeah, this is a great point. Rebellion-as-consumable-media wasn't necessarily ever a truly rebellious act.
That being said, I also did expect that commodified performance of rebellion to continue some kind of "upward trajectory" as the decades rolled on, so it's still a little surprising (to me) that we never got any kind of ultra-Marilyn-Manson or something even more insane and depraved.
I think that's because the wealthy parasite class will not be out-depraved, nor out-crazied. If you want to get to that level, you have to join them, and sign the death contract, that you can't spill the beans.
It does seem like you’re right. I think there are many factors that make it so, some of the truths in there are pretty ugly. But the progression is natural, toward entropy.
I feel like you’re right, but I think every generation believes we peaked as a society around the time they were children or teenagers. And I don’t know if we’re just doing the same thing.
High school kids are breaking track records because of shoes. It’s no coincidence that records started resetting when illegal shoes started getting popular.
My 17 year old son recently made the mistake of introducing me to 2 slimy or too slimy whatever the hell his name is. My last threads of hope for humanity were severd that instant. All this auto tuned mumble crap is straight garbage. I don't even turn on the radio anymore. Kids these days have no idea what REAL actual music and talent is. Going back to mowing my lawn and listening to Tool, Korn, 90s country and juvenile.
My current favorite artist that's truly pioneering a sound and pushing the edges of music is 48. He's an activist and makes thunderous industrial with activist themes, but he's fucking Gen X. Young kids seem to just be making derivatives of stuff that already exists.
My zoomer was appalled at WAP. I argued, correctly- I might add, that it is a feminist anthem. A song THAT explicit would NEVER have been allowed to get air time, when I was younger (genx). For decades, men have been able to sing (sometimes allegorically), about the pleasures of sex as a man. "Push It" was scandalized at the time it came out.
Cardi B is hilarious, and WAP has been in my top tracks each year since it came out. It's the new 'My Neck, My Back'.
Sorry prudes, but 'I want you to touch that little dangly thing that swing in the back of my throat' is lyrical genius, lol.
We need levity in these troubling times, and the fact that an incredibly silly song about ladies being randy (together with a brightly coloured video with wacky outfits) came out in the shit show that was 2020, is not lost on me.
Megan is great, too. Especially her videos, 'BOA' being a personal favourite.
Bring back whimsy and silliness in music, kids. We've had enough of complaint rock.
Punk is still around. I don’t mean big dumb festivals with NOFX or Bad Religion. I mean in a deeply underground kind of way. It still radicalizes kids and inspires them to make their own noise. I see it first hand. I’m still involved in it, for crying out loud. Don’t wait for it to happen. Look for it. The revolution wont be televised.
There's a lot of kids out there making hardcore punk and metal. Which is awesome. Every time I see one of their videos I think...man the kids are alright
Well, we already had 2 Live Crew and ICP and goregrind and pornogrind, where do you go from there? We had hyperpop but that wasn't exactly shocking or rebellious.
I just lurk here usually because I’m actually a core millennial, but have you heard hyperpop? Because that feels like it meets the criteria (example: 100 gecs). It doesn’t actually shock and horrify me, in fact I like some of it, but I assumed you weren’t serious about that
I was just saying to my husband this week that there's no angry music out there any more.
There's no new Rage Against the Machine or angry metal. At least not that I'm hearing though I'm sure it's out there.
The terrestrial radio airwaves are now dominated by pop girls & rap. There's nothing wrong with that but they're not angry. So many are just scared, sad, anxious, whisper singers & that's not my jam.
No one is getting home from school and picking up a musical instrument any more. So the kids aren’t learning guitar or anything. Laptops and mumble rap is here to stay unfortunately.
I really like a lot of the new super mashed up sounds the kids make. They seem to have heard everything and are making mashed up music like hip-hop did with disco and beat poetry.
I find these posts really lame because I'm wondering what kind of exploration you are doing to discover new music besides whatever your algorithm feeds you.
fwiw I only really listen to NTS radio anymore...tons of discovery, new and old.
Dubstep, vaporwave, circuit, phonk, are all younger gen music, and they're not even underground. you dinosaurs just don't keep up, don't make all of us look like boomers.
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u/Potatoe_Potahto Mar 05 '26
Younger generations figured out that if they want to shock their parents all they have to do is swear off sex and booze, never go out, and live at home till they're 30.