This.
Is it? Not being argumentative, just genuinely wondering. If someone asks “what is the defining (X) of your generation?” I’m automatically thinking “Boomer vs. Gen X vs. etc.”. I guess it would be up to the OP to confirm or deny their intention, but I wouldn’t think ‘generations in music’ is a different thing. But Jackmanni probably says it best…
I was born in 1973 and while my music taste started getting respectable in around 1987 or so, I’d say it comes down to three bands: Nirvana, R.E.M. and U2. The first represented a seismic change (albeit one that had been building for a while) and the period from “Smells Like Teen Spirit” hitting to the day Cobain killed himself is a well-defined period of excitement and a sense of upheaval that brought a lot of other bands along for the ride. For the latter two, they were around for a long period of growth and evolution and increasing fame, and their album releases (and tours, and videos…) became events unto themselves. I suppose U2 is still around but I can’t remember the last time I heard anything about them.
I suppose a case could be made for Guns 'n Roses among certain demographics as well.
I wish it were someone like Bowie, but despite my love for him, I feel like his impact and influence was a lot more targeted, even in his mainstream dabllings.
“If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.”
– Aaron Copland
Graduated in 1979 - The first band that comes to my mind is Boston.
It is interesting no one has mentioned any country singers or bands.
I don’t if it says something about the popularity of country music in general or more about the demographics that use this board.
Almost too young for the Beatles, but they still would be the majority choice for “defining” band. Since I was late 70s high school / 80s college, the first band that came to mind when I saw this thread was the Rolling Stones. They were more of the background music to my youth.
I was born in 1968 and was a child of the 80s. While I loved Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and everything that happened in the early 90s, I know from being around other people my age that the 80s are the defining time of their lives and that the music of the 80s is their music. Sadly, the answer for someone born at the same time as me is probably Bon Jovi.
My brothers, born just 3 and 4 year before me, would say it’s the Rolling Stones. They were too old to care already by the time Nirvana came around.
I was born in 1971.
My first thought was U2.
Same for me. I suspect my problem, like other posters here, is that what was important and had a significant impact on me was not what people outside of my art-damaged peer group would pick. And we would be diametrically opposed.
That’s my answer, but you could add the Eagles, and The Who.
For some of my generation, the Grateful Dead
Thinking of what had an impact during my HS, I think it would depend on who you asked.
I would say Led Zeppelin.
But other might say REO Speedwagon, or the Bee Gees. The Bee Gees had a bit of influence on the 70s.
Or, as mentioned above, Boston. That really was a “defining” band of their time.
Born in 1952, I was 11 when The Beatles arrived in America and 17 when they broke up. They defined my teenage years. Unless you were there, you have no concept of the impact they had on pop music.
1963 had to be one of the most dismal years in pop history. The final Billboard #1 song for that year was “Dominique” by The Singing Nun. It held that position for the last four weeks of 1963. Though there were some gems in the Top 40 that year, most of it was watered-down pop crap, a la Steve Lawrence and Bobby Vinton. It all changed almost overnight when the Beatles arrived, ushering in a whole new style of music. 1964-65-66 are still to me the most exciting years in pop music history.
Well, for one thing, country music isn’t as band-oriented as other styles.
For another thing, many of the “definitive bands” that people have been mentioning here have been in some sense revolutionary or innovative, having a distinct sound and/or appeal of their own that went on to become influential. Country music (it seems to me from my outside perspective) doesn’t value that sort of thing nearly as much.
And rock/pop during the parts of the twentieth century when most of us grew up was far more youth-oriented and generational than country, which has had a more cross-generational appeal (again, this is my outside perspective, not being an afficionado of country).
And my generation in particular was characterized by MTV (and other music video channels) and Live Aid, and country just didn’t have much of a presence there.
My High School French teacher was probably around your age. She loved that song. Ugh.
The Dead.
Also '78, and ya, Nirvana is the correct answer. They’re not my defining band, but the’re certainly my generation’s defining band.
It’s tough to pick just one. Michael Jackson, Madonna, Guns N Roses, Boyz II Men were all big. But Nirvana is probably the defining band.
Well, for one thing, the Baby Boom generation lasted 19 years. The first Boomers were seniors in high school when the Beatles first came to America. The last Boomers were in kindergarten when they broke up. Both of those cohorts had very different pop music on the radio as they were growing up than I did. Practically three different musical generations in one demographic generation.
But that makes sense. The Baby Boom generation was defined by the sudden jump in birth rates between 1945 and 1946, and the fairly steep drop-off between 1964 and 1965. To some extent, obviously, that bump in the birth rates drove cultural phenomena, but plenty of other things that had nothing to do with birth rates did too, and absent causation, you wouldn’t expect them to correlate.
Sure, for Gen X, Nirvana has got to be the defining band on the rock side of things. Maybe Public Enemy or NWA on the hip-hop side. But the question seems to be more personal. So, for me, I picked The Pixies, which to be felt like the college/alt-rock archetype of Gen X.