Maybe the reason why apparently empty messages like these resonate with my generation is that we don't have any icons of our own.

When someone recently asked me why people my age (I'm 21) listen to bands from our parents' generation, I had to explain that, with a few exceptions, we don't have any real musicians any more. Without massive advertising campaigns, a lot of the "music" you can buy today, like Beyonce, wouldn't exist.

We're a voiceless generation. We have nothing we can point to and say: "This is us, this is where we stand." We're lost and silent and we don't know what to do about it. We're sold a parody of culture that we buy because, well, what choice do we have?

This article really hits the nail on the head. Gold Star.

I've ruminated several times on MemeStreams that music sucks right now. When I go out to MJQ on Wednesdays I don't see a scene. I see an amalgamation. Gangsters, Hipsters, New Wavers, Grungers, Ravers, Punks, all dancing together to a potpourri of music that has no consistant style or era. It means nothing and it says nothing, like those tshirts that are designed to look like advertisements but aren't. Its a fish out of water, flopping around randomly in hopes of landing in a stream.

I'm concerned that this is a byproduct of September 11th. The gravity of the threat of islamic terrorism is so great that any domestic youth cultural movement seems trite in comparison, and so nothing really resonates with people, but unlike previous existential crises there is nothing for most people to do. And so they are left in the lurch, wallowing in echos of previous generations' ideas, waiting for a fight they can get behind or a technological innovation with deeper possibilities than the text message.

It might also be a byproduct of copyright law. We should have seen an explosion in interesting prosumer internet radio shows and art movements. It hasn't happened. We have the tools, but the products are illegal and the RIAA is watching.

What do you think?

We're All Borf In the End