What are the cool kids into in 2023?
Discussion
I got into a discussion with my wife the other day that descended into a bit of a grumpy old man moment as I started to lament that young people no longer know how to have fun. She said - perhaps rightly - that at 36, I was just past it and riling on the youth of today just as every generation does.
Being 36, I only seem to know people over 30 or under 5, so my knowledge of what young people are really into is distinctly limited, but it seems to me that previous youth counter-cultures have been suitably outward facing that fusty older generations would at least have been aware they were happening, so am I right to assert that young people today (shakes fish at cloud) don't know how to socialise or have fun or subvert the established culture in any way beyond criticising the past for its attitudes and ignoring the fact that said attitudes have often been addressed subsequently.
Mods and rockers, the beat generation, hippies, punks, new romantics, ravers, grungers, brit-poppers, metal-heads, nu-ravers etc etc
Is there an equivalent counter culture in 2023 that has an identifiable style of clothing and attitude, associated music and venue, and drink/drug of choice? Or has TicToc finished the teenager for good?
Being 36, I only seem to know people over 30 or under 5, so my knowledge of what young people are really into is distinctly limited, but it seems to me that previous youth counter-cultures have been suitably outward facing that fusty older generations would at least have been aware they were happening, so am I right to assert that young people today (shakes fish at cloud) don't know how to socialise or have fun or subvert the established culture in any way beyond criticising the past for its attitudes and ignoring the fact that said attitudes have often been addressed subsequently.
Mods and rockers, the beat generation, hippies, punks, new romantics, ravers, grungers, brit-poppers, metal-heads, nu-ravers etc etc
Is there an equivalent counter culture in 2023 that has an identifiable style of clothing and attitude, associated music and venue, and drink/drug of choice? Or has TicToc finished the teenager for good?
I always preface conversations on the kids of today by pointing out there are 6000 year old Hieroglyphics on a tomb in Egypt complaining that the youth have no respect for their elders.
What I can tell you authoritatively is that I have a 16 year old daughter who loves Suede (the band) & will only be seen in cargo pants & North Face, so my lived experience is a daily tour around my own youth.
To be fair, Suede are touring a new album so I can give over in the whole musical nostalgia tourism thing.
What I can tell you authoritatively is that I have a 16 year old daughter who loves Suede (the band) & will only be seen in cargo pants & North Face, so my lived experience is a daily tour around my own youth.
To be fair, Suede are touring a new album so I can give over in the whole musical nostalgia tourism thing.
President Merkin said:
I always preface conversations on the kids of today by pointing out there are 6000 year old Hieroglyphics on a tomb in Egypt complaining that the youth have no respect for their elders.
What I can tell you authoritatively is that I have a 16 year old daughter who loves Suede (the band) & will only be seen in cargo pants & North Face, so my lived experience is a daily tour around my own youth.
To be fair, Suede are touring a new album so I can give over in the whole musical nostalgia tourism thing.
Oh definitely. This is not so much about "the kids are wrong" as more "I am totally out of touch".What I can tell you authoritatively is that I have a 16 year old daughter who loves Suede (the band) & will only be seen in cargo pants & North Face, so my lived experience is a daily tour around my own youth.
To be fair, Suede are touring a new album so I can give over in the whole musical nostalgia tourism thing.
Your daughter sounds like she's doing the teen thing just right
On the subject of surprisingly alright kids and to bring Suede into it again, they advertised for a new guitarist in 1994 after Bernard Butler left & 17 year old school biy Richard Oakes sent them a tape of him chugging out Suede covers with a note attached saying take me or leave me. They took him & he's still at it today.
I've got 3 brothers in their early 20's. There doesn't seen to be much counter culture going on.
They drink less, a lot less.
They're a lot more environmentally aware.
No real car culture.
They do have,
Massive student debt.
Limited home ownership prospects in the area they grew up.
I wouldn't swap places, being an adolescent in the 90's seemed like a sweet spot but then I'd guess everyone says that about their own adolescence.
They drink less, a lot less.
They're a lot more environmentally aware.
No real car culture.
They do have,
Massive student debt.
Limited home ownership prospects in the area they grew up.
I wouldn't swap places, being an adolescent in the 90's seemed like a sweet spot but then I'd guess everyone says that about their own adolescence.
ChocolateFrog said:
I've got 3 brothers in their early 20's. There doesn't seen to be much counter culture going on.
They drink less, a lot less.
They're a lot more environmentally aware.
No real car culture.
They do have,
Massive student debt.
Limited home ownership prospects in the area they grew up.
I wouldn't swap places, being an adolescent in the 90's seemed like a sweet spot but then I'd guess everyone says that about their own adolescence.
Yeah but but but they could sell their iPhone and not have a Costa then they could have purchased a house 40 years agoThey drink less, a lot less.
They're a lot more environmentally aware.
No real car culture.
They do have,
Massive student debt.
Limited home ownership prospects in the area they grew up.
I wouldn't swap places, being an adolescent in the 90's seemed like a sweet spot but then I'd guess everyone says that about their own adolescence.
President Merkin said:
What I can tell you authoritatively is that I have a 16 year old daughter who loves Suede (the band) & will only be seen in cargo pants & North Face, so my lived experience is a daily tour around my own youth.
16yo daughter here as well. We bought her a Trespass parka for a school trip to New York at half term. Once she'd popped it on with her retro Reeboks it was like she was heading down the pub in the 90s!
Music the same - she's loved Taylor Swift since Shake it Off, but loves Fleetwood Mac and The Killers as well.
It's long been the case that what goes around comes around. My old man would stand in my bedroom doorway and tell me Metallica's Black album had shades of Wishbone Ash. Sometimes I wished he was like the other Dads who told my mates to turn that racket down!
13yo son remains somewhat of an enigma. In fact, as we dismantled his bed on Sunday, in readiness for today's arrival of a new one, he was forced to make an appearance in the lounge. I jokingly introduced him to my wife and daughter as the lad who lives in the middle room.
He seems to constantly play something on the Switch with his mates on speaker on his iPhone, but I have to concede I don't know what it is. He goes to a Dungeons & Dragons club after school on Wednesdays, so I'm not too worried about him getting into trouble! He had a brief dalliance with Imagine Dragons a couple of years ago, but music doesn't seem to bother him much. A far cry from mine and my brother's music-obsessed teens.
Spare tyre said:
Yeah but but but they could sell their iPhone and not have a Costa then they could have purchased a house 40 years ago
Don't forget that avocado toast is the mushy straw that broke the future of today's young. Our parents would've raised us in tents if that had been a thing back then. I have zero interest in modern youth. I'm sure they're lovely.
I do know that I sure as s
t would not want to be a youngster today. As long as I can remember I've been a bit of a music head & still keep an ear on things today. I''d say there is something of a golden era going on in indie music now.
The scenesters are definitely out there eating it up & probably always will be. It strikes me that music in particular is very divided now into little sub genres to the extent that you don't see it at the headline level the way you would have in preceding decades where you had say Prog leading to Punk & the moral panic that created, then new romantics, the rise of dance culture, Baggy, Madchester, Britpop, grunge - all those big scenes but it's still all out there going on.
The big difference to my mind is the kids don't get the financial headroom to indulge themselves as conspicuously as we did. When I went to university in 1990, the course was paid for by the state, rent was pennies, the grant cheque was welcome. I could spend three years dossing about in the union bar if I wanted, mooning over The PIxies.
We're looking at options for the child & it's a very different landscsape now, The comment above about the 90's being a sweetspot is probably on the nose, a decent state funded higher education was available with a reasonable prospect of long term employment & home ownership at the end of it. Doesn't feel like that now.
The scenesters are definitely out there eating it up & probably always will be. It strikes me that music in particular is very divided now into little sub genres to the extent that you don't see it at the headline level the way you would have in preceding decades where you had say Prog leading to Punk & the moral panic that created, then new romantics, the rise of dance culture, Baggy, Madchester, Britpop, grunge - all those big scenes but it's still all out there going on.
The big difference to my mind is the kids don't get the financial headroom to indulge themselves as conspicuously as we did. When I went to university in 1990, the course was paid for by the state, rent was pennies, the grant cheque was welcome. I could spend three years dossing about in the union bar if I wanted, mooning over The PIxies.
We're looking at options for the child & it's a very different landscsape now, The comment above about the 90's being a sweetspot is probably on the nose, a decent state funded higher education was available with a reasonable prospect of long term employment & home ownership at the end of it. Doesn't feel like that now.
Cool? Kids in 2023 are not into "cool" stuff. They don't even use the word cool any more as its uncool...
As for what they are into from my limited XP of the yuts of today, it seems to be
Watching people play computer games but not actually playing themselves
Watching people eat food / "unbox" things on youtube.
Watching people who are watching the above videos on youtube and their "reactions" to said videos, in their own video.
Attempting to acquire drinks or burgers that are branded by the people who make the above videos at hefty prices.
Uploading a minimum of 23 photos to insta per day. Girls doing "duck face" lads doing "gun fingerz"
Avoiding sunlight at all costs, then spending hours spraying their skin with fake suntan.
Saying "on trend" a lot.
Buying then returning their entire order from one of those online clothing companies, on a weekly basis.
Starting their own business that sells returns from Amazon.
Wearing all black and walking round with your hands down your trousers whilst saying "cuz, bussin and fam" a lot.
Think thats covered most of it...
As for what they are into from my limited XP of the yuts of today, it seems to be
Watching people play computer games but not actually playing themselves
Watching people eat food / "unbox" things on youtube.
Watching people who are watching the above videos on youtube and their "reactions" to said videos, in their own video.
Attempting to acquire drinks or burgers that are branded by the people who make the above videos at hefty prices.
Uploading a minimum of 23 photos to insta per day. Girls doing "duck face" lads doing "gun fingerz"
Avoiding sunlight at all costs, then spending hours spraying their skin with fake suntan.
Saying "on trend" a lot.
Buying then returning their entire order from one of those online clothing companies, on a weekly basis.
Starting their own business that sells returns from Amazon.
Wearing all black and walking round with your hands down your trousers whilst saying "cuz, bussin and fam" a lot.
Think thats covered most of it...
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