# What, for you, is \*the\* defining band of your generation? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [September 14, 2022, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525 "2022-09-14T00:25:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/21 "2022-09-14T07:03:18Z")
Oh God, I’ve a horrible feeling it might be Duran Duran. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/22 "2022-09-14T07:08:30Z")
We’ll save a prayer for you. (I like Duran Duran) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/23 "2022-09-14T07:41:19Z")
My generation, in my particular subculture? Joy Division/New Order. ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/24 "2022-09-14T08:14:35Z")
I missed out on the Beatle era. On, for instance, the excitement of _Sgt. Pepper_ coming out and everyone on college campuses playing the LP at once. In the mid-1980s, when I started college, there was obviously no band with an impact comparable to the Beatles. However, in terms of a band at that time that seemed ubiquitous, that seemingly nobody disliked, and that reached people on many different levels, I’d say it was REM. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/25 "2022-09-14T08:15:09Z")
My generation? Mashina, Fortis/Sakharov and unfortunately, Aviv Geffen. > [@dorvann](#): > > And if I remember correctly Kurt Cobain (of Nirvana) **hated** that media was pushing Nirvana ( and him) as supposedly being the “voice” of the Generation X. Which is _exactly_ the quality that made him the voice of Generation X. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/26 "2022-09-14T08:28:02Z")
Emotionally, I cannot answer, since as a teenager / young adult I was passionate about music that was made 20 - 30 years earlier, and hated most of the current stuff then. But academically / objectively, being 15 in 1992, I would have to say Nirvana. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/27 "2022-09-14T10:44:48Z")
I remember where I was and what I was doing on the day the Beatles broke up as clearly as I remember the same about 9/11. **The Beatles** , by a long and winding country mile. mmm ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/28 "2022-09-14T11:01:24Z")
Canadian people my age do a lot of gushing over **The Tragically Hip** , I find. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/29 "2022-09-14T11:16:38Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > My generation, in my particular subculture? Joy Division/New Order > [@Smapti](#): > > I’m the right generation for Nirvana, but grunge was never as big in southern CA as punk and ska were, so No Doubt, Green Day, and/or Rancid were probably more definitive for my cohort add in social distortion bad religion and the pet shop boys who are timeless …(the joke is neil and chris cut a deal with a demon or something ) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/30 "2022-09-14T11:26:30Z")
Probably U2, as I was a young teen when they hit it big, and we’ve both hobbled along together over the subsequent decades. R.E.M., though, was my favorite band through college days and into my mid-20s…but U2 probably defined my generation’s era better. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/31 "2022-09-14T11:42:39Z")
I was born in 1978 and I’d say: **Nirvana** However, it is mainly that Kurt died, the band broke up, and they kind of became eternally iconic. Who knows if they would have stayed awesome? Anyway, if not Nirvana, it’d be Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains, both bands still going even though Chains stopped for an extended time with Layne Staley dying. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/32 "2022-09-14T11:45:48Z")
If it doesn’t need to be a band… Elton John. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/33 "2022-09-14T11:56:17Z")
Beatles for me. Elvis for my older siblings. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/34 "2022-09-14T11:56:46Z")
Ge-Xer here, born in 1968. It’s a tie between Nirvana, R.E.M. and the Smiths. Nirvana definitely were the most influential, when “Nevermind” stormed the charts, they blew away the boring MOR/AOR of the time and popularized the whole Indie scene that had developed in the 80s. All those Indie bands suddenly got big record deals and began to dominate the charts for almost a decade. Of course I already had a musical past in 1991, and two of the giants on whose shoulders Nirvana stood were R.E.M. and the Smiths, which defined Rock of the 80s for me (though IMHO R.E.M. did their best work in the 90s). ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/35 "2022-09-14T12:21:00Z")
I can’t really speak for “my generation”, because having been born in late '64, I’m on the dividing line between the Boomers and Gen X. And as such, I’ve sort of had one foot in each generation, never really feeling like I fully belonged in either. I listened to a lot of Boomer rock growing up, and speaking for the generation, it would have to be the Beatles, hands down. No other band was as influential on the era. For me personally, I was always more of a Stones fan. As for Gen X, again generationally speaking, I would have to say Nirvana. But personally, even though Cobain was just a few years younger than me, I never really got into their angsty teenagey vibe, being well into my late 20s to 30 by the time they got big. Grunge, or ‘Alt Rock’ in general for sure was the defining musical style of Gen X, and there was a lot of it I liked more than Nirvana, like Soundgarden or Pearl Jam-- Ten really blew me away from the first time I heard it. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/36 "2022-09-14T12:25:04Z")
I was a 1954 baby, so of course the Beatles. Regarding the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I think of them more as the Hall and Oates of their generation, but maybe that’s just me, since I’m obviously from a different generation. But still I’d think Nirvana or Oasis or Green Day would all have better claims. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/37 "2022-09-14T12:25:05Z")
Ain’t nothing wrong with some Duran Duran! As much of a punchline that _Rio_ is, the bass on that song slaps so hard. For me, probably The Pixies. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/38 "2022-09-14T12:39:25Z")
The Beatles for white America of the 60s. Possibly James Brown for Black America, but others can speak to that. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/39 "2022-09-14T12:48:20Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I can’t really speak for “my generation”, because having been born in late '64, I’m on the dividing line between the Boomers and Gen X. I think generations in music are a different thing from Boomers/Gen X/Millennials/Gen Z. Those generations are about demographics, which is a whole different thing. Like I said, I was born in 1954. My wife, like you, was born in late 1964. And she grew up on totally different music than I did, which makes sense because she started seventh grade after I graduated from college. She’s of a different generation, musically speaking, than I am, and that’s about nothing more than the passage of time, regardless of Boomers and Gen X and all that. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/40 "2022-09-14T12:54:27Z")
Given that “generation” is an artificial and sloppy construct, the Ramones and Flamin’ Groovies tend to define my kind of people at a particular point in time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525.md?page=3)