it's a clout-farming, attention-whoring shitpost. Anyone who identifies as a generation is only there to piss or preen on the thing someone else identifies as a generation writes. Deciding that "brunch" is a millennial thing is a tell. What is it telling? I prefer not to speculate but it's bad for credibility. so why did you post it asshole MY BEEF is that GenX culture was largely about jaded ineffectual anticonsumerism while Millennial culture was largely about this shit. I hadn't seen so scathing a summary of the lack of permanent impact the Millennials had on culture but it makes sense; the pendulum shifted from "don't trust The Man" to "The Man gives you toys and prizes" and now that the Millennials have aged out of the target demo there ain't much left. And for the record I cannot wait for IPAs and smash burgers to go away.
I don’t understand the comparison between smash burgers and ipas. IPAs took off in the early 2000s, you can get a mouth full of hop grass at any local restaurant, they have crowded out many decent beers. Smash burgers are still pretty rare, maybe a half dozen places that will make a decent one in Seattle and definitely a more recent late 2010s phenomenon. Not the same generation of trends.
Being fair, it’s really not that easy to have much impact on culture when most of the disposable wealth is in the hands of retirees. Gen Z and alpha will have even less impact than millennials as they’ll have even less money than millennials do and millennials are broke. Most of the popular culture is trying to appeal to late boomers to early generation X because they’re the ones with the money. And if you’re paying attention it’s even in the image. Star Wars was 1977. My mother was pregnant with me when Star Wars came out. LOTR was released as a book in the 1950s, and Legend of Zelda was a franchise in 1980. This isn’t stuff that millennials just got into. It’s stuff that was first loved by boomers and that the millennials were introduced to by boomers. I’m technically Xennial. My “culture” the stuff I was into as a kid — nobody gives a fuck. I fell in love with Farscape and Babylon 5. Does anyone care about that stuff? There was, briefly, a plan for the retelling of B5, but it fell through. My music was grunge rock, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots. Nobody cares about appealing to that stuff. I don’t expect a return to the aesthetics of grunge rock any time soon. Compare that to stuff that came about in the much better off 1980s and before — it’s much more prominent in culture, fashions, music, movies. We’re reviving He-man, Strawberry Shortcake, how many shitty iterations of Star Trek TOS and TNG (but no DS9, because that doesn’t trigger nostalgia). Musically, pop has an 80s vibe. But it’s not really about how good or bad the cultural landscape was during my generation. Xenials and later generations don’t have enough money to bother appealing to. The creators and curators of culture don’t care whether the ideas are good or interesting. They want to sell merch, tickets to self-indulgent cons, theme-park experiences, and subscriptions. If the product appeals to a demographic that can’t afford to indulge, it’s a waste. Gen Z culture like millennial culture will be ephemeral because once they stop being teens and young adults — and have less access to mom and dad’s disposable income — they won’t be able to afford to collect things, to go to cons, to subscribe to a service that shows their content. Thus nobody will bother to appeal to their ideas.
GenX didn't have any wealth either; Millennials dealt with 2008 while GenX didn't but both generations suffered comparative poverty. The principle difference is that in general, Millennials had 'boomers for parents. You're making my point - the stuff 'boomers and GenX marketed to Millennials was almost as sticky as the stuff Millennials found themselves, which is pretty much Harry Potter. Grunge started out as the GenX anti-consumerist anthem Smells Like Teen Spirit, passed through Smashing Pumpkins' 1979 and by 2007, The High School Musical 2 Soundtrack spends 4 weeks at number one. IN 2000 you could presume that 80% of any movie audience was under 25. Now it's 50%. 20% of retail spending is for Christmas, 65% of that is to family and friends and most of that is to children. brand lock-in happens before the legal drinking age. As you catalog, the brands created when GenX were kids are truckin' along while the brands created when Millennials were kids had no traction. The argument of the article is that there's nothing popularized by Millennials as kids and young adults that had any holding power. You seem to argue that this is because they "had no money" when in fact, spending on children in the top 50% brackets increased steadily when Millennials were kids. And the argument put forth by the article is Millennials were the least-discerning young consumers of recent memory, which is why their culture is sinking into the sand. This isn’t stuff that millennials just got into. It’s stuff that was first loved by boomers and that the millennials were introduced to by boomers.
Xenials and later generations don’t have enough money to bother appealing to.
The creators and curators of culture don’t care whether the ideas are good or interesting. They want to sell merch, tickets to self-indulgent cons, theme-park experiences, and subscriptions.
millennials will be hailed as the new boomers in like 20-30 years and not just because they'll age into that demographic slot