Those damn kids and their music

I often feel like my generation is the America of generations. The analogy is a bit tortured, but quite apt on a certain level. While it seems all other generations have had outspoken leaders and activists working to make the world better, while my generation has a couple of those, try to name one. This is much in the way American's tend not to care much for even talking about social equality issues, while most of the rest of the world at least pays attention to, say, a certain illegal and immoral war that has killed well over 600,000 people.

But more to the point, the analogy came to me the other night while I was thinking about the Beatles. I've never really been into the Beatles, and while I don't deny that they're a good band, I would probably call them the most over-rated band in history and I really prefer most of their solo stuff to Beatles music (of course with the exception of Paul's music, because nobody has ever liked Paul's music. Linda was just faking it to push her vegetarian agenda).

Nonetheless, those Beatles did make a huge impact on both pop music and pop culture. To think that they went from wanting to hold your hand to having blisters on their fingers in such a short time span simply amazes me. The only equivalent for my generation would be if all of a sudden N*Sync had switched from glossy, over-produced boy band music to openly experimenting with illicit drugs and radical politics while pushing the definition of pop music in strange and new directions.

Think about it--until they started with the jazz cigarettes, the Beatles were just an N*Sync that played their own instruments. Depressingly, that would make Justin Timberlake the John Lennon of my generation. I guess that would mean that Cameron Diaz is our Yoko, and Britney Spears is…uh…the Pete Best of my generation.

Yep, that seems to sum it all up. My folks had John Lennon and I have Justin Timberlake. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm quite glad that sexy has finally been returned to its rightful place, but it's just that exhorting a crowd to rock their bodies seems somewhat less meaningful than asking them to give peace a chance.