# 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:** 4
**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, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/61 "2022-09-14T16:24:08Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > The last Boomers were in kindergarten when they broke up. Yep, that was me and I still listened to plenty of Beatles growing up (though, as mentioned, I was more partial to the Stones). But yeah, I get your point and as Jackmanni said, “generation” is kind of an ill-defined thing in general. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/62 "2022-09-14T16:24:56Z")
I was born in 1980, which puts me in kind of a grey area where I’m either a really young Gen-Xer, or a really old Millennial. But it’s probably still Nirvana. While Kurt Cobain died when I was in middle school, they were still popular among my cohorts. If not them, then Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains, which were still going strong when I was in high school. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/63 "2022-09-14T16:40:48Z")
I don’t know how you can pick just one for the 80’s but in the spirit of the OP I shall try. [U.S.A. For Africa](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AjkUyX0rVw) ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/64 "2022-09-14T17:11:40Z")
Beatles for Boomer me. But the Beach Boys were a close second. ---
**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, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/65 "2022-09-14T17:12:29Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Heh, I saw Duran Duran at the Rose Bowl (I was there for Thomas Dolby), but when they started _Blasphemous Rumours_, a thunderstorm started and last for the duration of the song and then stopped. Did they cover Depeche Mode? ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/66 "2022-09-14T17:17:41Z")
Damn it! Depeche Mode. Duran Duran. They all blur together after awhile! I said I was a boomer. I’m _old._ ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/67 "2022-09-14T19:20:02Z")
You were probably hopped up on Bartles & Jaymes. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/68 "2022-09-14T21:01:25Z")
> [@TCMF-2L](#): > > For me, from the UK, it would have to be the **Sex Pistols**. > > When Punk went nationwide in 1977 there was a sense at the time of it ending everything musical (including the **Beatles** ) that came before. Then from 1978 onwards there were so many New Wave bands in different musical styles but all seemed to have been made possible by that one year of Punk. > > TCMF-2L ::sigh:: There’s no getting away from it, it’s the Pistols. A generous estimate would be two good songs in a career (Pretty Vacant and maybe Bodies). But they were never out of the headlines. Maybe they were enablers for a thousand better bands. It’s debatable. I’d like to claim Bowie, but I’m a hairsbreath too young. Starman was the first grown up song that grabbed me; but it was only much later that I found Hunky Dory. But hey, yeah, can I claim Bowie please? j ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/69 "2022-09-14T21:18:11Z")
> [@solost](#): > > 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. I was born in '73 and I also did not feel that Nirvana spoke to my particular angsty vibe. Which isn’t to say I don’t enjoy an angsty vibe: I like a lot of emo, for instance, and I think that a _grungy_ angsty vibe is more exemplified by the first hits of Our Lady Peace than anything by Nirvana. You can just hear the disaffectation in the singer’s voice. That said, Nirvana is still obviously the defining band of my generation. The only other choice that would come close, since they are the defining grunge band, would be some late 80s hair band like Bon Jovi. Because while I like new wave/post-punk nowadays, it was a little before my time except for the lingering remnants of it in the late 80s in which I could just hear that the sound was already getting tired despite never having heard it before. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/70 "2022-09-14T21:19:49Z")
Yeah, I’m a Boomer, and it’s the Beatles. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/71 "2022-09-14T21:29:44Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > You were probably hopped up on Bartles & Jaymes. I had a friend – a guy! – back in the day who loved that stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/72 "2022-09-14T22:03:03Z")
Probably not a “defining” band, but the Byrds deserve a mention. They started out making Dylan songs “palatable” to the Beatles crowd, and by the later 60s were well on their way (with Gram Parsons) to creating the country-rock genre. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/73 "2022-09-14T22:12:11Z")
Born in 1957, and I’d say for me, the Ramones. I remember the British invation in full swing and the Summer of Love in all its glory. There was a lot of really great music from both movements that I loved at the time and still do to this day, but I wasn’t old enough to feel any of that was “the voice of my generation.” As a boy who turned ten in August of 1967, I sure as heck wasn’t going to tie-dye all my T-shirts and hitchhike to Haight-Ashbury. (My mother did, however, let me tie-dye a couple, but I was by God staying home.) A lot of people point to bands that were popular when they were in high school. The Ramones’ first album came out a year after I graduated, but they were the first group that really resonated with me to the extent that they did. It was all so simple and direct. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/74 "2022-09-14T22:22:30Z")
I wouldn’t call myself a particularly devoted **Sex** **Pistols** fan but I would be more generous than you regarding noteworthy songs. I can listen to **Holidays In The Sun, Anarchy In The UK, EMI** and although not a real **Sex** **Pistols** song my personal favourite would be **Silly Thing**. With **Pretty Vacant** probably my favourite real song of theirs. But when it comes to cultural significance releasing a song like **God Save The Queen** (and for clarification to anyone unfamiliar it was not a version of the National Anthem) and doing it, a song with the line ‘_they made you a moron_’ in the Queen’s jubilee year. The band made themselves historic. TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/75 "2022-09-14T22:35:06Z")
> [@Jaycat.again](#): > > Probably not a “defining” band, but the Byrds deserve a mention. For someone coming of age in 1966 LA, I can definitely see that, just like someone in England might select the Sex Pistols as defining their generation. If I combined my generation with my geography and social group the answer would be X or the Go-Go’s. The influence can be seen in the way many 50-60 year-olds still dress in Southern California. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/76 "2022-09-14T22:35:46Z")
Led Zeppelin ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2022, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/77 "2022-09-14T23:43:13Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > _My High School French teacher was probably around your age. She loved that song. Ugh._ Well, you might expect that from a French teacher. (She wasn’t likely to play the somewhat scandalous 1974 hit, **“Je t’aime”** in a classroom.) For the rest of us, though, “Dominique” was “ugh!” Thought so then, think so now. “Dominique” was one of two foreign language songs that hit #1 in 1963. The other was **“Sukiyaki,”** by Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto. Top of the charts for three weeks. Now _that_ is a great song. No knowledge of Japanese is needed to enjoy it. I was in a store once and when that song played on the sound system, people all over the store could be heard whistling during the whistling parts. Including me, to my wife’s embarrassment. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/78 "2022-09-15T03:16:25Z")
Beatles, hands down. Saw them in 1965, I was 14. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/79 "2022-09-15T12:23:22Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Beatles, hands down. Saw them in 1965, I was 14 [Envious glare] Seriously, what a _great_ thing to have seen. Damn. I had a cube-mate in the 90s who’d been at Altamont. He claims the raised-lighter-for-an-encore thing started there. I wish I’d been old enough to see some of these events. I mentioned earlier the Stones were the defining band during my era, but my personal collection was more Janis, Mama, Procol, Steppenwolf, Doors, and even Herman’s Hermits. (OK, go ahead and laugh at the last one – I liked them for some reason) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2022, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525/80 "2022-09-15T12:35:03Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > [Envious glare] Seriously, what a _great_ thing to have seen. Damn. From what I’ve read, you certainly wouldn’t have been hearing them at one of those shows. > [@pullin](#): > > He claims the raised-lighter-for-an-encore thing started there. These days we hold up our phones with the flashlight on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-for-you-is-the-defining-band-of-your-generation/971525.md?page=5)