Growing Up Gen X

I have to say that the 80s were a great time to come of age. The cold war ended, America was in great shape, the wall between communism and democracy was literally torn down and MTV was in it’s infancy. Just to be clear, for a while video did kill the radio star.

Though I loved the music from the 50s up until then. Our music was definitely, in my humble opinion at the time, the best. Almost every song was experimental and fresh. Though introduced in the 60s, the synthesizer ruled the New Wave scene.

New Wave wasn’t all we had though. There were hair bands, heavy metal, and we can’t forget the kick ass guitar solos. I really miss those solos. A great guitar solo could carry me away. For a while I would just float along with the music, and nothing mattered.

The concerts were always a big production, with pyrotechnics shooting lasers over the audience’s heads.

Big hair was the style. I really think it was my generation that began killing the ozone layer with all of the hairspray we used. There were also mohawks, some worn as spikes. Some kid’s hair was dyed vibrant colors and some girls had closely cropped hair.

There are many styles that I look back at now and think, “WTF were we thinking??”

We had the “brat pack”. If you’re not sure who I’m talking about you’ll need to look it up. They were young, talented actors and actresses that held my generation’s attention with an iron grip.

Roller skating was a national pastime and obsession, as was skateboarding. Skateboard bowls showed up everywhere and they were always packed. If there wasn’t a bowl nearby kids would build ramps, rails, and jumps in their driveways or yards. They always had punk rock or heavy metal blasting which probably drove their parents crazy.

The mosh pit began and was perfected during this time. A lot of young people throwing themselves into each other and basically trying to stay upright so they weren’t trampled by everyone else.

The mid 80s, however, revealed to the world that all was not so great.

We had famine in Ethiopia, apartheid in South Africa and in the US the number of thriving farms was rapidly decreasing. The US was starting to rely more on foreign trade than what we could provide for from our own land.

Musicians held massive concerts to raise money for both Ethiopia and the farmers. The concert that started this trend was amazing. I can tell you that because I was there. After that and the concert to aid the farmers it all became a bit of a joke. There for a while it seemed like concerts were being held just to boost the activist’s egos. Eventually the concerts being held for charities simply faded away.

Now that the 80s have come and gone I constantly hear the members of Gen X complaining about the generations that followed us. What a lot of the Gen X generation doesn’t think about is that it was us that brought these generations into the world. They didn’t ask to be born.