Generation Xcellent — Here We Are Still,

Entertain Us
Why Gen X is more than a forgotten middle child

Teenagers queueing for a Michael Jackson concert in Berlin, June 1988. Bundesarchiv, B 145
Bild-F079012–0030 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons

In 2019, news channel CBSN ran a report about the different

generations. They completely omitted Gen X. You know when you
suspect you’re being ignored, that you’re invisible? This time I wasn’t
being paranoid.
Squished between two large and vocal generations, the Boomers and
the Millennials, Gen X are what some describe as “Jan Brady of the
generation wars”. Following the Boomers’ heyday, we had a brief
moment in the sun during the 90s before we were washed away by a
wave of millennials.

But Gen X hasn’t crawled off into suburban obscurity, although some
of us live there. We are more than the “forgotten middle child”.

Gen X want you to know that we’re still here, we’re still relevant and
we’re still excellent — albeit slightly cynical.

Who is Gen X?

Statisticians argue the point, but Gen X is generally said to be born

between 1965 and 1980. I myself was born in the mid-1970s. My
parents, Boomers, were born in the 1950s and my youngest siblings,
Millennials, were born in the 1980s. My nieces and nephews are Gen Z
and Gen Alpha. It’s a family affair and this article isn’t going to be a
family fight.

According to the US Census Bureau, in 2019 there were 71.6 million

Boomers, 72.1 million Millennials but just 65.2 million Gen Xers. I’m
sure the proportions are the same in the UK, Australia, Canada and
other countries with a similar cultural and social history.

Why so few Gen X?

Well, the FDA approved oral contraceptives in 1960 and the US
Supreme Court legalised abortion in 1973. I’d say those are two big
reasons for our smaller numbers. Also, the Boomers were, well,
booming and Millennial numbers have been bolstered by immigration.

What is Gen X doing?

Right now, we’re in our 40s and 50s. Some of us are raising kids. Some
of us are looking after aging parents. Some are doing both. We’re
working, worrying about retirement and when that mortgage will be
paid off.

But now and then, we’ll dust off that Pixies CD or reminisce about that
great warehouse rave we once went to. Heck, we might still indulge in a
few intoxicating substances every once in a while.

Some of us have kept our old hairstyles and our old Docs. Hey, they’re
a comfortable shoe when you finally break them in.

How did Gen X get our excellent name?

The term “Generation X” was actually first applied to Boomers. In

1964, journalists Jane Deverson and Charles Hamblett wrote the
book, Generation X, which captured the thoughts and opinions of
Britain’s youth. A couple years later, a young Billy Idol read the book
and named his band after it.
“We immediately thought it could be a great name for this new
band, since we both felt part of a youth movement bereft of a
future, that we were completely misunderstood by and detached
from the present social and cultural spectrum. We also felt the
name projected the many possibilities that came with presenting
our generation’s feelings and thoughts.” Billy Idol

Idol, born 1955, may have been a Boomer but his words described to a
T the generation that came after his.

Then, in 1991, another book came out, Douglas Coupland’s Generation

X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, which told the story of young
adults “scarred by the 80s fall-out of yuppies, recession, crack and
Ronald Reagan”.

There’s also the simple fact that members of Gen X refuse to be

defined or pigeonholed. X is that unknown quantity, that random
variable that can be anything.

Gen X attributes and values

“Caught between vast, self-regarding waves of boomers and

millennials, Generation X is steeped in irony, detachment, and a
sense of dread.” Rich Cohen
Although, I think there’s more to us, just like there’s more to the other
generations.

Our childhood was marked by space exploration (and space shuttle

explosions), the Cold War, AIDS (safe sex for us) and the arrival of the
personal computer. My uncle got an Apple II when I was nine and we’d
play games that were designed for computers and not arcades.

Our adolescence saw the collapse of communism. Walls were torn

down and divorces were velvet. If we weren’t so cynical, we’d have felt
optimistic.

And then with our young adulthood came 9/11…

Independent

Members of Gen X were some of the first kids to grow up with both
parents working or in single-parent households. Brought up
with daycare and divorce, being a “latchkey kid” could be lonely. Sure,
it made us independent and self-reliant. It also turned us into
helicopters when it came to our own children.

“Though we started babysitting at age 9 (and were responsible

only for keeping our charges alive), as parents, we hire college-
educated, CPR-certified, well-referenced, background-checked
Pinterest enthusiasts who don’t just babysit our kids — they
construct elaborate origami, re-enact Shakespeare and tutor our
children in philosophy and Mandarin.” Anjali Enjeti

I was seven when I walked home from school by myself and 14 when at
night I babysat not a kid but an actual baby. 100% of my Gen X friends’
kids would never be allowed to do those things. On a good note, our
1980s fears about chlorofluorocarbons and holes in the Ozone layer
mean that we’re raising environmentally conscious kids who disrupt
climate change conferences.

Maybe it depends on the individual’s experience, but I loved my

independent childhood. I never felt neglected and I never felt unable to
sort my own shit out. So thanks, Boomer parents.

Flexible

Gen X had no choice when it came to flexibility, what with the drastic
social changes occurring during our childhood.

As a kid, I thought the Earth would explode either by deathly rays of

sun that would come burning in through the hole in the Ozone layer or
by a button pressed by one of the major Cold War participants.
Nothing could be certain, so you made do with what was happening at
the time. You partied like it’s 1999.

One minute we were typing “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy
dog” on a typewriter, the next we were chatting to a kid halfway around
the world courtesy of the “information superhighway”. One minute
Ellen was awkwardly dating men on her sitcom. The next she was
awkwardly dating women.

Critical thinkers

Remember that?

Gen X have a higher education level than Boomers (29% have a

Bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 25% of Boomers) and we’re
pre-cancel culture. Incidentally, 39% of Millennials have this same
higher-education level, but this article’s not about them.

We learned to think for ourselves. We could see through bullshit and

knew what was offensive, but we’d rather have a debate than ban
someone from our college campuses.

Equal rights supporters

We grew up post-civil rights movement and post segregation (well, if

we weren’t South African). So for most of us, diversity was the norm.

In my home country, the despicable White Australia Policy ended

around 1966.

“From now on there will not be in any of our laws or in any of

our regulations anything that discriminates against migrants on
the grounds of colour or race.” Sir Keith Cameron Wilson MP
Increased (non-white) immigration meant that all colours and creeds
of Gen X kids grew up together and formed lifelong friendships.

We were also coming out. Maybe not in high school, but by the time I
got to university, around the time Ellen came out in 1997, few young
people raised an eyebrow if you were LGBT.

Innovative

According to Sage’s State of the Startup report, 55% of startup

founders are from Gen X. We were the first internet generation. We’re
tech-savvy but also tech-daggy. For example, we have the highest
generational use of Facebook.

In debt

As a young adult, I noticed credit card debt amongst my friends and

peers that wasn’t present with my Boomer parents.

“Don’t worry, Uncle Visa will cover this,” was a popular saying in my
friend group.

We’re still supporting children, and perhaps caring for elderly parents,
and we’ve reached our peak earning potential. Our median retirement
savings, if we ever get to retire, are the same as Millennials but we’re a
generation closer to retirement.
Gen X are big spenders when it comes to non-essentials — hey, we like
our restaurants. We have the highest credit card debt and the highest
average debt of all the generations, although 62% of this is mortgage
debt. So unlike younger generations, we’ve been financially privileged
enough to be able to purchase a property.

Cynical

Given all of the above, can you blame us?

Unlike Boomers, there was nothing optimistic about the time we were
born in. JFK had been assassinated, Manson had killed off the rest of
the 1960s and oil was nowhere to be found.

Some say cynical. I say realistic.

Why Gen X is excellent?

Resilient

“Generation X, the last Americans schooled in the old manner,

the last Americans that know how to fold a newspaper, take a
joke, and listen to a dirty story without losing their minds.” Rich
Cohen

We may be cynical, but we’re self-deprecating. We’re not snowflakes.

We embrace and grow from negative feedback. The corporate 1990s
were pretty rough times. We quickly learned how to be assertive when
it mattered and also how to pick our battles. The 1999 black
comedy Office Space taught me all I needed to know about work
culture.

Analogue childhood, digital adulthood

We were familiar with technology, but not possessed by it.

We grew up with the independence of Boomers — riding bikes in the

street, going to the park without adults — but also the influence of
computer games brought to you by the likes of Atari and Nintendo.

We’re uniquely poised to empathise with and understand both

Boomers and Millennials.

Hard-working

Despite accusations of being slackers, we’re actually pretty hard

working. Maybe we took a gap year (or two) between school and work,
but we pretty much haven’t stopped working since. We may not trust
the corporate machine, we may switch jobs every three or so years, but
we keep on working.

All those corporate takeovers and yearly management re-structures roll

like water off a duck’s back. Like I mentioned earlier, we’re flexible.

We paved the way for what comes next

“Gen Xers laid the political, intellectual, social, creative and
personal ground upon which the Millennials today walk, talk and
text.” Christine Henseler, editor of “Generation X Goes Global:
Mapping a Youth Culture in Motion”

We have the coolest generation name

X is edgy. X is undefined. X is easy to spell.

We’re the ultimate in teen angst

I was 16 when “Smells Like Teen Spirit” came out. If I wasn’t so

apathetic, I would have been more excited by this.

I remember watching the video clip and those two guitar notes flicked
something on in my brain. Until then nothing in popular culture had
been created with me in mind. No one cared about me. Until then.
Finally, I had an anthem. And I had a mosh pit.

A lot of Gen X angst came from not having anything to rebel against.
There was no Vietnam War, no conscription. The Boomers had won all
the personal freedoms we needed. Some of us rebelled by becoming
conservative, like Alex P Keaton in Family Ties. The rest of us just
yawned and said, “Meh.”

But if we didn’t have historic social movements, we had popular

culture. We didn’t have the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, but we had
some damn good songs.
Xcellent moments in popular culture

Music

Boomer music changed the world, but it had gone as far as it could go.
Younger Boomers, sometimes called Generation Jones, gifted us with
the excellent sounds of the late 70s and early 80s — punk, new wave, 2
tone, rap, electronic. (This is actually my favourite musical period,
but that’s for another article.) All the Boomer music from the 50s
through to the early 80s whirled around in our heads. It was time to
take things to the next level.

Enter the MTV Generation.

A lot of the artists played on MTV were Boomers, but the audience was
Gen X. If MTV wanted the ratings, Gen X was who they needed to
please.

Hip hop emerged during the 70s, created by African American

members of Gen X. The genre further developed in the 80s, becoming
a popular music choice in the mid-90s and best-selling by the time we
got to the late-90s and 2000s. Hip hop significantly influenced
fashion, art (including street art), other music genres and youth culture
in general.

Alternative rock had been around since the 80s, but the style was so
beloved by members of Gen X it went mainstream in the 90s. The
alternative ethos of DIY, anti-commercialism and pain-filled lyrics
appealed to Gen Xers. As did the memorable guitar riffs. Even when
the genre went mainstream, great guitaring remained. There was indie
rock, there was shoegazing, there was Britpop and there was grunge.

Grunge emerged from Seattle in the mid-80s but it took off around
about the time Nirvana released Nevermind. I was more into the jangly
guitar of British alternative rock, but I was thankful to grunge for
dispensing with 80s hair bands. There’s no denying the ground-
breaking influence of grunge.

I don’t know if we’ll ever hear music like grunge again. There’s ample
evidence that it was the last American musical revolution.

In the 90s, when I wasn’t wearing baggy shirts and Docs, I was wearing
glow-in-the-dark bracelets, platform sneakers and flares the colour of a
rainbow. Rave culture was the other big component of Gen X identity.

Raves started in the 80s as secret dance parties held at undisclosed

locations. They were LGBT-friendly and focused on peace, love, unity
and respect. Oh, and substances that gave you the energy to dance to
questionable music all night…

No one was judged at a rave. You could wear what you liked, dance
how you liked, and be as weird as you liked. Everyone was accepted.
When Gen X put away the happy pants and donned a bad suit to enter
the workforce, our attitudes of tolerance have remained with us.

Movies

Gen Xers’ childhood imaginations were fired by stories set in a galaxy

far, far away. Extraterrestrials would come to visit and befriend us.
We’d sore on the back of a half-dog, half-dragon type of creature and
argue over which name Bastian called out.

We also had nightmares about Freddy and Jason and poltergeists and
dolls and clowns. So many clowns…

Then there were the John Hughes films. Finally, someone was able to
depict our awkward yearnings of suburban youth. I loved those movies,
even though I didn’t consider myself pretty and I rarely wore pink. I
loved seeing everything work out for the plethora of high school
caricatures, from the nerd to the jock.

I reached young adulthood in the 90s and one movie summed up my

life more than any other — 1994’s Reality Bites.

Gen X was dealing with AIDS (or at least AIDS tests that were
hopefully “negatory”), coming out, selling out, being unable to define
irony after 16+ years of education, and having to work at the Gap after
graduation because that’s the only job we could find.
The shitty jobs we got after all that education were also depicted in
films like Clerks and Office Space. And people wonder why we’re
distrustful of the workplace.

When we finally got a bit of money together (or a credit card) we filled
our apartments with Ikea furniture. We took jobs whose titles would
depress SpongeBob SquarePants, and we dreamed of doing something
totally different, like joining a club with a first rule that you do not talk
about it.

To escape we watched Tarantino movies. The violence and the

ultracool soundtracks somehow soothed us.

Television

In the 90s, television was not only still watchable, it was really good.
The closest thing we got to streaming was hiring a video, so Gen X was
mostly still dependent on the television guide for our weekday
entertainment.

My friends and I would have entire conversations in Seinfeld dialogue.

On my first trip to New York, I bought all the candies referenced by
this show — Pez, Junior Mints, Drake’s Coffee Cake, Jujyfruits.

The X Files made us wonder, Melrose Place fed our hunger for gossip,
and Friends stayed with us as the 90s drew to a close and we became
less cynical.
Fashion

As a teenager, I cut the shoulder pads out of all my clothes. The big
hair, big shoulders and big attitudes of the 80s were out. The thrift
shop look of Cyndi Lauper and Madonna remained, as well as a bizarre
period when flowing floral dresses accompanied by white socks and
boots reared its perplexing head.

I loved Gen X fashion, particularly from the 90s era. A certain time
comes in a middle-aged person’s life when they stop following the
trends and adopt a particular look as their permanent wardrobe. That’s
why you see so many people in the 40s and 50s still wearing rock band
tee-shirts, Converse and tracksuit tops. I recently considered getting a
pixie cut again, but I’m too lazy for the growing-out stage.

90s fashion was versatile. You could slouch around in flannels and
jeans, or fancy yourself up with a puffy white shirt. You could dye your
hair pink, shave it off or get a “Rachel”.

At the end of the day…

I don’t think you can pigeonhole a person’s entire identity just by the
decade in which they were born. But Gen X, like the other generations,
does have a shared experience. World events and cultural movements
do hold some sort of influence over us.
I’m happy with the life influences that contributed to making me the
person I am today. There were some excellent songs and some
excellent films that stand the test of time. The more laid-back style of
parenting suited me and made me independent enough to eschew
traditional career paths and travel the world instead.

Generation X gave you startups, online culture, and “over-bored” and

“self-assured” teen angst. We gave you a love of recycling and an ability
to look beyond the status quo.

Please don’t forget us in your Boomer-Millennial wars. Please don’t

omit us and our contributions from your CBSN reports.

“Generation X is not the dorky middle child. Generation X is —

and always has been — the moody kid from round the corner
who just came over to smoke out of Marcia’s bedroom window
and question the premise of the whole show.” Holly Wainwright

If the Boomers and Millennials are two slices of bread, Gen X is the
delicious spread in the middle that makes the thing a sandwich. Add
some spice from Gen Z and you’ve got yourself a pretty damn good
meal.