This is another dip in the old search-query-that-brought-someone-here-mailbag.  This question is honest and simple, and I spent a good part of my mid-20s trying to figure it out.  Here’s what I came up with:

Generation Y.

Yes. Everyone who was just becoming a teenager as the 90s wore down, I’m talking about you.  This is what happened:

Your boomer parents gave you a lot of disposable cash for no good reason.

You spent it on Britney Spears, boy bands, and clothing that wasn’t ironically cool (that is, clothing that cost more than $4.)

You did not spend it on Oasis or Nada Surf or Harvey Danger.  You did not spend it on The Flys or New Radicals. You absolutely did not spend it on REM. You also didn’t didn’t spend it on AOR or Adult Contemporary (goodbye, that whole genre).  No New Bohemians, no Mazzy Star.  Good bye John Mellencamp.  It’s been fun, John Secada.  Peace out, Tonic, Gin Blossoms, Dishwalla, Joan Osbourne, Black Lab.

Hello, TLR.

Hello, all delighted teensters with your expendable non-work-related dollars.  Hello, Generation Bigger Than The Baby Boom.  Hello, malleable taste-makers, hello.

Goodbye, alternative radio formats.  Goodbye, Y-100.  Goodbye, you last hangers on of Generation X, you would-be Cusacks.  Goodbye, Empire Records.

Hello Music Town.

That’s pretty much it.

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