Anonymous wrote:This thread is about Gen Xers.

I have literally never been in another gen Xer's car or at someone's house or cottage and they have "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on some playlist and we rock out to it. That song nor that band had any staying power among our generation.

I think it's alleged popularity is because of the lore of the junkie lead singer dying and the song is astroturfed on all of those lists, so now "edgy" Gen Zers play it. I rather safely assume a powerful entity owns the rights to Nirvana's catalog & licensing and keeps astroturfing the band to younger generations.

There was a group of guys that had the suite across from ours in college in maybe 1991 or 1992 that played Semlls Like Teen Spirit every day at either 4 or 5 on full blast. It was their signifier that happy hour was starting. I wasn’t super into it but I do think it is a pretty decent song and it does resonate for me but not in the way some other songs do, like Blister in the Sun, Safety Dance, Just Live Heaven, Freedom.

Anonymous wrote:The answer is Smells Like Teen Spirit. Hands down

No. I am dead center Gen X - born in 1972 - and that is not the definitive song for anyone my age or older, and probably a few years younger too. The people arguing for it are younger, and are so vehement about it because they exhibit more than a few millennial characteristics.

Anonymous wrote:Definitely not Counting Crows!

There are many, many options here. I feel like Prince's 1999 is a top contender, both for popularity that crosses many demographic groups plus older/younger Gen X, plus the lyrics/theming of song.

Other options:
Smells Like Teen Spirit (not sure why you DQed Nirvana)
Blister in the Sun
Billie Jean
Don't You Forget About Me (Breakfast Club!)
Just Like Heaven
Safety Dance
Vogue or maybe Material Girl
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

I wouldn't pick End of the World as We Know It, but I recognize that as a very valid viewpoint.

I’d remove Billie Jean but I can appreciate all the rest of those.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nirvana and grunge in general provided a much needed musical douching of late 80s hairband crap. Yeah there were fun songs here and there, but it all became a parody of itself with hits like Cherry Pie, Unskinny Bop, dirty rotten filthy stinking rich etc

+1

It's so interesting when people say they think Nirvana is overrated or they and their friends didn't like the song...I don't think that's what is meant by a song that is definitive for a generation.

Nevermind CLEARLY resonated with people when it came out. Yes, the music industry was different then and the industry pushed it...AND people bought it. The record industry has pushed many things that people have said 'no thanks' to.

Yawn. It wasn’t organically popular with mass appeal. Nirvana and that genre was astroturfed suicidal crap from Seattle junkies shoved down flyover state’s throat by a handful of media conglomerates.

You do realize… Correct that you probably don’t… That Dave Grohl was a part of Nirvana. And he has achieved an extreme amount of success. Not just Foo Fighters , he’s a successful producer and collaborator. But FF tours all year. 60 shows a year, filling arenas. Year afree year. And the tickets aren’t cheap.

You can say these bands are foisted upon us, but the fact is traditional record studios and the 50 year old men who were running them at the time had no idea what they were dealing with - the stuff coming out of Seattle and the like were so different than what was popular in the 80s.

For what it’s worth I wasn’t into Nirvana and some of those other bands, but I can at least acknowledge their popularity was organic and some things that they did shaped and changed the genre and pushed it in a different direction.

Whole thread reads like someone's making a mix tape of soft rock hits for supermarkets

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an older Gen X and I’d say Alphaville’s Forever Young. Or Big in Japan.

Forever Young-good one!

That one is really good. We had the Berlin wall, "commies" 99 Red Balloons all entrenched in us.

"Hoping for the best but expecting the worst
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?"

We didn't know day to day in the cold war.
But today it feels like we don't even remember yesterday and there are much more despotic and crazed people at the wheel. What happened to us Gen X? Are we complacent? Or are we just tired of feeling rudderless and powerless and now that our anxiety and blood pressure medicines are so expensive, this is just self-preservation?

Anonymous wrote:This thread is about Gen Xers.

I have literally never been in another gen Xer's car or at someone's house or cottage and they have "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on some playlist and we rock out to it. That song nor that band had any staying power among our generation.

I think it's alleged popularity is because of the lore of the junkie lead singer dying and the song is astroturfed on all of those lists, so now "edgy" Gen Zers play it. I rather safely assume a powerful entity owns the rights to Nirvana's catalog & licensing and keeps astroturfing the band to younger generations.

We get it. You keep saying the same thing over and over. The song was about deodorant anyway.

Montell Jordan "This is how we do it"

This thread is about Gen Xers.

I have literally never been in another gen Xer's car or at someone's house or cottage and they have "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on some playlist and we rock out to it. That song nor that band had any staying power among our generation.

I think it's alleged popularity is because of the lore of the junkie lead singer dying and the song is astroturfed on all of those lists, so now "edgy" Gen Zers play it. I rather safely assume a powerful entity owns the rights to Nirvana's catalog & licensing and keeps astroturfing the band to younger generations.

There are too many! You have to consider if you were in Europe or in the U.S. You got Born in the U.S.A, but then you have Take on Me, and then, Like a Virgin, and so many of the 70s songs that were actually popular in the 80s, such as some Queen songs. We should not forget the obsession with the lame Duran Duran songs. And Total Eclipse of the Heart was a totally the best song for slow dancing. I could go on and on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Melt with You" by Modern English.

Yesss

+2 good one!

You not liking it is OK, but they were just one of many bets the music labels made at the time and the success of it came as a surprise. Don't know what kind of idiot you are to claim they werent massively popular.

Wow, that is a very strong opinion right there.

I didn’t really get grunge. It was depressing. And I just didn’t relate to Nirvana or Kurt at all. I mean, it was sad that he offed himself, but it wasn’t a shocker or something that deeply affected me. This right here always made me feel out of step with Gen X, so when the X-ennial micro generation idea came up, it finally made sense to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nirvana and grunge in general provided a much needed musical douching of late 80s hairband crap. Yeah there were fun songs here and there, but it all became a parody of itself with hits like Cherry Pie, Unskinny Bop, dirty rotten filthy stinking rich etc

+1

It's so interesting when people say they think Nirvana is overrated or they and their friends didn't like the song...I don't think that's what is meant by a song that is definitive for a generation.

Nevermind CLEARLY resonated with people when it came out. Yes, the music industry was different then and the industry pushed it...AND people bought it. The record industry has pushed many things that people have said 'no thanks' to.

Yawn. It wasn’t organically popular with mass appeal. Nirvana and that genre was astroturfed suicidal crap from Seattle junkies shoved down flyover state’s throat by a handful of media conglomerates.

Anonymous wrote:I’m an older Gen X and I’d say Alphaville’s Forever Young. Or Big in Japan.

Forever Young-good one!