Baby Boomers Vs Millennials

Reaching adulthood from 1983-1999, Generation X would stereotypically be classified as a generation that lacked direction and for their cynicism. They were also a generation that adapted to their surroundings with various technological advancements and set out to educate and bring awareness to the social and political issues in the country during their generation. With an overall feeling of alienation, Generation X feels like the middle child, stuck between the large generations of the Baby Boomers and the Millennials. The origin of Generation X came from a Photographer in 1953, describing people growing up after World War II. A writer in Britain, a decade later would then use the phrase as the title of her book after she “came across a group
of young people who were living outside of acceptable conservative mores by sleeping around, rejecting religion and disobeying their parents” (Wise Geek). Later this term would be used to title another book, this time by Douglas Coupland, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, this name caught onto the generation, and became part of popular culture in America.

Generation Xers became independent from a younger age, having to look after themselves more while their Baby Boomer parents worked to create two income families and in some cases, due to the rise in divorce, single-parent families.
Generation Xers “possess a natural self-sufficiency and are resourceful enough to work their way out of any problem” (Ashley Ellis). Generation Xers were not worried about how much money they made like the Baby Boomers before them, instead, looking for a balance between their work and family life, they are also not scared to change up their working environment if something better comes along.
They adjusted to the technological advancements, they were the generation that grew up with cassette players and VCR’s to the advancement of the personal computer, where they would be introduced to the World Wide Web.
There is a common overall feeling within the generation to judge fairly, with not a very high respect for authority, they prefer and want the world to look at both the good and the bad and judge equally. Following in the footsteps of the Baby Boomer Generation, a generation that stood up for equality for all, there is a strong sense of social responsibility in Generation X. This could be seen in many ways through this generation; movies, music, theatre and advocate groups like Greenpeace, but one common way many social and political topics have been discussed through all of the generations is through
Art.

{Art movements}{Stand out artist- emotions and reasoning behind art}
Unlike the bold consumer and celebrity driven art of the Baby Boomer generation, Generation X decided to use their art to discuss everyday people and everyday life.
Using art as a tool to discuss issues such as race, consumer culture and poverty. An artist that perfectly represents these feelings is Jamaican-born, New York sculptor Nari Ward. The art movement would be called, Relational Aesthetics, “in which artists created multimedia pieces that aimed to foster interactions among their viewers” (Kiger). Ward would build large installations, rather than traditional paintings on canvas, from his Harlem neighborhood to bring attention to the social and political issues of the time. Installations allowed the viewer to really immerse themselves into his artwork.
His work Amazing Grace, was created out of strollers, fire hoses and a soundtrack of Mahalia Jackson singing the song Amazing Grace. Ward comments that the “song was written by a white slave owner, it’s basically a song about his transformation and repentance. He was on a slave ship, in a furious storm… he got on his knees and prayed to God to spare him, and promised that he would stop being a slave owner and slave trader” (Jaffe, pg 36-38). The installation of Amazing Grace is to symbolize the slave trade, the shape of the installation is a pointed oval bow-like shape of a slave ship. Ward describes his
work;
“on the exterior of the piece the strollers are like frozen in time, and then in the interior they are intertwined with the fire hoses, knotted and tied…So the idea was that the strollers on the interior are overwhelmed by some kind of energy, and then the strollers on the exterior are sort of watching their situation. And you, as the viewer, participate in that theatre by walking through” (Jaffe, pg. 38). The choice for Ward to use the song amazing grace, especially performed by Jackson, was an important factor to the piece, it was recorded during the civil rights movement in 60’s and 70’s, with Jackson being a big supporter of Dr King.
These decisions are what mattered to generation X, Ward wanted to make an impact from his installation and selected the exact pieces to do that. The firehoses give the texture of the wooden planks, the overwhelming number of strollers compressing on each other are very representative of people stuffed into the hull, but the combination of the actual tangible pieces with the music creates a full artistic atmosphere for the viewer to be immersed in. Taking in the emotion of the piece to create a reaction from the viewer, to make them understand exactly what that ship full of slaves would have been like.

In comparison to these art installations, graphic design was diving into another realm. Creating packaging designs to target the growing extreme outdoor lifestyles of sports that were becoming popular like skateboarding, rollerblading, and BMX riding. A popular beverage at the time, focused on the extreme sports market, called Surge. The packaging design of this can was unseen before, as Campbell-Dollaghan describes it “It had none of the sleek, gradient cool of this decade or the decades that came before it. It was kind of a mess, and the theory was, that's why teens would like it.” Designed by the design team at Coke, one of those designers, Colin Nekritz describes the stereotypical era that the marketing teams wanted the designers to target;
“I'd like to point out, every time I type 'extreme' I see/hear a generic air guitar whammy wail sound of the 80s-90s and someone throwing devil horns, ‘to the exxxtreeeeme bro!’ Which of course, nobody actually did or said that, except in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure or Wayne's World, but try convincing the suits giving marching orders not to believe everything they see on TV or the movies” (Campbell-Dollaghan).
Whenever someone mentions the 90’s, most automatically think of happy pants, bright color shapes on black, and that “rad” feel that many movies of the time had submerged into pop culture. Surge would be included in these thoughts, a bright pop print that could have been influenced by the Baby Boomer’s pop art, but taking on the extreme “cool” edge to entice Generation X.

Generation X were risk takers, exploring, experimenting and saying what they feel. Involving themselves in activism, extreme sports and making sure everyone knew the truth in every political and social matter. Their mistrust in institutions and belief that everyone should be judged equally is something that has been passed on to generations today, and something I am grateful for today.