For me, it was Rush. (Class of '82)
I’m a late Boomer so it’s the Beatles. Some early Boomers and war babies might go with Elvis. That’s not to say it was the defining band of each person’s individual life, but for my entire generation it is absolutely the Beatles.
From a UK perspective, perhaps I should mention the many bands that were indispensable, but not
the defining band of my generation. These were the Beatles, the Stones, Floyd, King Crimson, Blondie, Talking Heads, the Blockheads, the Pogues… More recently, Fatboy Slim and The Killers.
But who were the real ‘defining’ bands?
Because they still resonate today, I nominate Abba and Queen.
Oh yeah seconded. While Oasis defined my later teenage and early adult years (where music becomes a huge deal) my younger years were defined by Queen. Which probably says something about how ubiquitous (and good) they were as I wasn’t that into music when I was younger (and the other bands I was into were mainly awful hair metal and soft rock, which I now despise, whereas queen still holds up)
I kind of think that “defining band” is kind of a concept that doesn’t really apply after the 1960s because it seems like music fragmented in ways that it hadn’t before then.
For me, in Gen-X, the defining act could be any of a dozen acts that were definitional in some way. But I don’t really think one single band defined the generation. Maybe a specific style of music, or a specific time, but not the entire generation. I mean, Nirvana was the definitional band for the 1991-1995 grunge period, but Guns N Roses or Motley Crue was kind of the definitional band for Gen-X hair bands. And Michael Jackson (or maybe Madonna) was the definitional act for mid-80s pop.
Even at the time I thought: there’s the Beatles, then there’s everybody else. They were overwhelming.
The Beatles changed a lot of pop culture, but more importantly, they changed me.
(The details would be a long tangent…)
But I’ve always been frustrated by the fact that when I was a kid, they played nearby on my birthday. Gee, mom and dad, that would’ve been a perfect present…
But it just occurred to me that if I had gotten to go, I would’ve been SO frustrated with all the fans screaming, because I would’ve been trying to hear the instruments, and each of the lads.
And that would’ve turned me into an old curmudgeon, and starting that in your pre-teens is not a good idea.
That’s great it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, and aeroplanes…
Probably a tie between R.E.M. and U2.