Anonymous
08/27/2025 17:01
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
We Are the World, lol
Anonymous
08/27/2025 17:01
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
Anonymous wrote:I don't know these songs you all are listing.
Michael Jackson – “Rock With You” or "Billie Jean"
Prince – “Purple Rain”
Anita Baker – “Sweet Love”
Luther Vandross – “Never Too Much”
Sade – “Smooth Operator”
Cameo – “Candy”
New Edition – “If It Isn't Love”
Mary J. Blige – “My Life” / “Real Love”
Boyz II Men – “End of the Road”
Jodeci – “Come and Talk to Me”
TLC – “No Scrubs”
Maxwell – “Sumthin’ Sumthin’”
Ginuwine – “Pony”
D’Angelo – “Lady”
SWV – “Weak”
EU's "Da butt because School Daze was an accurate description of what it was like to go to an HBCU in the '80s and '90s.
You think that “Candy” by Cameo is in the running to be the definitive song of a generation?
Anonymous
08/27/2025 17:01
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Goo Goo Dolls Iris
Ew no
"Slide" might be a better choice
Anonymous
08/27/2025 17:01
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I don't know these songs you all are listing.
Michael Jackson – “Rock With You” or "Billie Jean"
Prince – “Purple Rain”
Anita Baker – “Sweet Love”
Luther Vandross – “Never Too Much”
Sade – “Smooth Operator”
Cameo – “Candy”
New Edition – “If It Isn't Love”
Mary J. Blige – “My Life” / “Real Love”
Boyz II Men – “End of the Road”
Jodeci – “Come and Talk to Me”
TLC – “No Scrubs”
Maxwell – “Sumthin’ Sumthin’”
Ginuwine – “Pony”
D’Angelo – “Lady”
SWV – “Weak”
EU's "Da butt because School Daze was an accurate description of what it was like to go to an HBCU in the '80s and '90s.
Good point — the black community will likely have a different answer rooted more in R&B.
One other thing is GenX is also kind of defined by New Wave or “alternative,” which opens the door to another canon — Kate Bush’s Running Up that Hill, Echo and the Bunnymen’s “Lips Like Sugar” or “Bring on the Dancing Horses,” etc.
But for mass culture, the soundtrack is dominated by rock and roll, not R&B or New Wave or even grunge or metal. So that brings us back to Teen Spirit, Don’t You Forget About Me. The Take on Me by Aha nomination is also valid.
Aw, you missed The Cure "Just Like Heaven"
Anonymous
08/27/2025 17:00
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
Anonymous wrote:Goo Goo Dolls Iris
Ew no
Anonymous
08/27/2025 16:59
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:867-5309
That came out in '81, so really, it's a boomer generation song. I was 11 when that song came out.
I was 9. We used to call the number, collect, from the payphone at my public school bus stop and ask for Jenny. It is really amazing how long it took that person to get her phone number changed! Also amazing that the operator would actually put the call through instead of being like "Will you crazy kids stop calling for that number!!!" I actually love that phone companies have STILL banned that number from being issued.
Where did you live then? I grew up in MoCo and that number connected us to a pary line!
Anonymous
08/27/2025 16:57
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
Anonymous wrote:I don't know these songs you all are listing.
Michael Jackson – “Rock With You” or "Billie Jean"
Prince – “Purple Rain”
Anita Baker – “Sweet Love”
Luther Vandross – “Never Too Much”
Sade – “Smooth Operator”
Cameo – “Candy”
New Edition – “If It Isn't Love”
Mary J. Blige – “My Life” / “Real Love”
Boyz II Men – “End of the Road”
Jodeci – “Come and Talk to Me”
TLC – “No Scrubs”
Maxwell – “Sumthin’ Sumthin’”
Ginuwine – “Pony”
D’Angelo – “Lady”
SWV – “Weak”
EU's "Da butt because School Daze was an accurate description of what it was like to go to an HBCU in the '80s and '90s.
Love all these songs, but I bet many here don't know them.
Anonymous
08/27/2025 16:56
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
Anonymous wrote:"What's Up?" by 4 Non Blondes. I like it o.k. even if it's not necessarily my favorite. But, somehow to me, it's the "most 90s" song I can think of. The 90s, in turn, was peak Gen X.
Peak Xennial. Peak GenX in terms of the bell curve is mid-to-late 1980s.
Anonymous
08/27/2025 16:55
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
Anonymous wrote:Goo Goo Dolls Iris
The hell you say.
Anonymous
08/27/2025 16:54
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
Anonymous wrote:I don't know these songs you all are listing.
Michael Jackson – “Rock With You” or "Billie Jean"
Prince – “Purple Rain”
Anita Baker – “Sweet Love”
Luther Vandross – “Never Too Much”
Sade – “Smooth Operator”
Cameo – “Candy”
New Edition – “If It Isn't Love”
Mary J. Blige – “My Life” / “Real Love”
Boyz II Men – “End of the Road”
Jodeci – “Come and Talk to Me”
TLC – “No Scrubs”
Maxwell – “Sumthin’ Sumthin’”
Ginuwine – “Pony”
D’Angelo – “Lady”
SWV – “Weak”
EU's "Da butt because School Daze was an accurate description of what it was like to go to an HBCU in the '80s and '90s.
Good point — the black community will likely have a different answer rooted more in R&B.
One other thing is GenX is also kind of defined by New Wave or “alternative,” which opens the door to another canon — Kate Bush’s Running Up that Hill, Echo and the Bunnymen’s “Lips Like Sugar” or “Bring on the Dancing Horses,” etc.
But for mass culture, the soundtrack is dominated by rock and roll, not R&B or New Wave or even grunge or metal. So that brings us back to Teen Spirit, Don’t You Forget About Me. The Take on Me by Aha nomination is also valid.
Anonymous
08/27/2025 16:52
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
Oh god, OP, Counting Crows? That's sad!!
I would say Beastie Boys...You've got to FIGHT. For your RIGHT. To paaaaaaarty!
I would say Beastie Boys...You've got to FIGHT. For your RIGHT. To paaaaaaarty!
Anonymous
08/27/2025 16:50
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
"What's Up?" by 4 Non Blondes. I like it o.k. even if it's not necessarily my favorite. But, somehow to me, it's the "most 90s" song I can think of. The 90s, in turn, was peak Gen X.
Anonymous
08/27/2025 16:45
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
Anonymous wrote:I don't know these songs you all are listing.
Michael Jackson – “Rock With You” or "Billie Jean"
Prince – “Purple Rain”
Anita Baker – “Sweet Love”
Luther Vandross – “Never Too Much”
Sade – “Smooth Operator”
Cameo – “Candy”
New Edition – “If It Isn't Love”
Mary J. Blige – “My Life” / “Real Love”
Boyz II Men – “End of the Road”
Jodeci – “Come and Talk to Me”
TLC – “No Scrubs”
Maxwell – “Sumthin’ Sumthin’”
Ginuwine – “Pony”
D’Angelo – “Lady”
SWV – “Weak”
EU's "Da butt because School Daze was an accurate description of what it was like to go to an HBCU in the '80s and '90s.
But at least two of us did list Billie Jean, and at least one person suggested a different Prince song. I do think of Luterh Vandross as being more Boomer-y, along with Smooth Operator. My guess is that you're on the older side of Gen-X -- born in the 60s?
Anonymous
08/27/2025 16:41
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:867-5309
That came out in '81, so really, it's a boomer generation song. I was 11 when that song came out.
I was 9. We used to call the number, collect, from the payphone at my public school bus stop and ask for Jenny. It is really amazing how long it took that person to get her phone number changed! Also amazing that the operator would actually put the call through instead of being like "Will you crazy kids stop calling for that number!!!" I actually love that phone companies have STILL banned that number from being issued.
Anonymous
08/27/2025 16:38
Subject: Definitive Gen X song?
Goo Goo Dolls Iris