Gen X Music Was The Best Music For Gen X

Was the music of our generation the best? Does today’s music just not connect as well? Kind of. There’s a lot to unpack.

When I was a teenager I got to constantly hear Boomers and the Silent Generation tell me that my music was simply noise. Unless that Boomer was Tipper Gore or a Minister, then the music I loved was also evil and needed to be legislated or banned.

Today I hear many of my peers speak fondly of our music while telling Gen Z what they enjoy is not real music and not as good. Some even echo Tipper Gore and Ministers and want it taken away from “the kids”.

I Love the Music I Discovered in the 80s!

The music I discovered in the 80s is simply amazing. When my old friends or people my age gather, we will speak of our music ad nauseum. When you go to Gen X content pages the music of our generation dominates the memes and discussion more than any other topic. We love the music of our time and it was an amazing thing in our lives. It was our soundtrack.

I have music playing in my home almost constantly. I do not watch a lot of television or streaming movies. It is music from the moment I get home. Most of it is music I discovered in the 80’s between the ages of 12 to 22. This is important and we’ll circle back to it later.

In my case I know exactly why I need the music playing all the time. As someone with severe complex trauma with severe recurrent depression music therapy is one of my most essential core coping skills. This is important and we’ll circle back to it later.

The other night I was a guest at a dinner party and I heard a song I had not heard in decades. I was able to quietly sing it to myself without missing a beat or a lyric. But I honestly cannot tell you what I had for lunch 3 days ago.

There’s some shit going on we need to talk about that makes the music awesome to us.

Reminiscent Bump

Music is highly integral to a psychological phenomena called the reminiscent bump. Adults over 40 have enhanced recall of events that happened in their lives in adolescence and young adulthood. Different scholars have different age ranges, but 12-22 seems to be the sweet spot. If the memories of one’s life were to be placed on a curve, that period of our lives is the one we have the most clear recall of after we hit 40.

The bump is a widely accepted idea, but there are various hypothesis as to why this happens.

So though we do not know why this happens, we do know there is something going on here. In our understanding of this recall music is one of the core connections. There is a disproportionate emotional nostalgic connection and recall of music connected to this period of our lives.

It is so powerful that music is used to help elderly people with cognitive issues “come back” to us. The music of our day could be used to aid us in a nursing home to ease the suffering and loss of dementia.

So when a bunch of us gather together for a reunion and every story is remembered as if it were yesterday, that is because on the curve, the memory of yesteryear is more powerful than the memory of last week after we hit 40.

The music we discovered then is more important to us now.

Auditory Lines: The Drug of Music!

There is something that happens to our brains and bodies when we hear music. With the first beats our auditory cortex is stimulated as it converts the various sounds into a coherent whole of the song. The premotor cortex, parietal cortex, and prefrontal cortex all get stimulated as we engage with the song. This leads to the emotional rush.

Our brain gives our bodies a dose of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and a whole bunch of other chemicals that makes us feel good. These are literally the same chemicals and pleasure when someone takes cocaine or other substances or when we have an orgasm. The more we like a song, the “higher” we get.

This spark happens regardless our age, but in that unique time of puberty that spark in a rapidly growing brain pumping out these chemicals at an insane rate makes that spark a raging hormonal infused inferno. The lobes lock and hardwire the connection of the song with the rush for life. The song and the high are forever intertwined into our memory.

My Trauma and How This Helps Me

Two common things complex trauma survivors have is an overactive amygdala and hyperarousal.

My brain cannot shut off the fight, flight, freeze, or fuck mode as well as other brains do. This constant on of the amygdala leaves one with hyperarousal. Many of us with complex trauma are persistently irritable, angry, and paranoid. For some of us this hyper sense of arousal will have us seeking the highs I described that we get from music.

I am one of the some. Chemical substances, risky behaviors, and an insatiable sexual appetite were all parts of my journey. I know that the insatiable sexual appetite may sound awesome, but it isn’t. Like an addict seeking the high you can lose yourself and blind yourself to unhealthy things in a relationship that need to be dealt with.

So music, especially music during the time between ages of 12-22, gives me the dopamine and serotonin to calm the storm, focus, and not go into spaces and activities that will hurt me.

I am not stuck in the past. I am using the musical aspect of the Reminiscent Bump to stay present. And from a space of calm I can be the time machine that has a relevant message to today since the memories are so front and center of my prefrontal cortex.

The Music of a Generation

Yes. Our music was better…for us. And as long as we are mindful of that we can ensure the music of Gen Y, Z, and Alpha is better…for them. Why music connects with people matters and is important.

Channeling music can help people who suffer from various emotional and physical disorders as it does me.

Our social and music columnist, Jeremy Ritch, has spoken of the danger that gatekeepers to musical discovery have. Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, and Jelly Roll may not be the music ingrained into the very essence of you that may save your life one day, but is for many in the generations after that. A cruel word from a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt or godparent can, in a heartbeat, take that moment of joy from someone in their development and give them one less critical pleasant memory to ingrain into them to fight for a better existence for themselves.

We have power. We can inspire or we can destroy, or we can just let them be to discover their beat and chase their joy. Latchkey kid to latchkey kid, I have a favor to ask. I love these kids with every fiber of my being. If you cannot inspire, that is fine. But please shut the fuck up and them be to discover their beat and chase their joy. Life is way too short and what is left is too precious for bullshit.

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