Generation Jones

[Stephanie]

Finally an explanation. I never felt like a baby boomer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/weekinreview/17bader.html?_r=1&em&ex=1203310800&en=815949d5133a83de&ei=5087%
0A&oref=slogin

---snip---

This time, it’s not personal: it’s generational. The Republican front-runner, John McCain, ran a commercial with images of dancing flower children to mock the boomer Hillary Rodham Clinton for backing a Woodstock Museum grant. Mr. Obama, usually a uniter, divides himself from his divisive generational cohort in his book “The Audacity of Hope”: “In the back and forth between Clinton and Gingrich, and in the elections of 2000 and 2004,” he writes, “I sometimes felt as if I were watching the psychodrama of the baby boom generation — a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago.”

While it’s clear boomers are under siege, it’s less clear who they are. The baby boom itself, a quantifiable event that certainly produced Mrs. Clinton in 1947, nevertheless has controversial boundaries. A lowercase baby boom preceded the “Baby Boom.”

From 1940 to 1943, the birth rate rose four years in a row. It was only years later that “war babies” born in the early 1940s were excluded from the category by sociologists drawing boxes around modern history (though some of these “pre-boomers” would continue to think of themselves as boomers or be grouped with them).

Subsequent experts challenged the 1946-1964 start and end. The influential demographers Neil Howe and William Strauss argue in their book “Generations” that the baby boom actually began in 1943, when servicemen started coming home.

The generation-spotter Jonathan Pontell, on the other hand, argues the boom began in 1942 and ended in 1953. He places Mr. Obama in “Generation Jones,” a term Mr. Pontell coined to characterize those born during the years 1954 to 1965, who, according to his polling, largely do not identify either as boomers or Xers.

[WCGreen]

1. That's cool...

Cause I am, by other measures, considered a Boomer...

But I just can't see myself as such...

I'm not an X'er, that's for sure...

So A Joneser I am...

[drmeow]

2. I'm with you

Technically a boomer, don't feel like one
Don't feel like an Xer, either

I am Joneser, too ... or maybe I'm just Jonesin'?

[babylonsister]

3. That's me, too. I cannot be categorized, and I love it! I don't like

Generation Jones, but I was born in '56, so I guess I'm neither here nor there. I am accused of the best and the worst of both without my own definition. That's okay with me.

[Greyhound]

4. Pretty well sums up my feelings.

My parents were/are boomers and genX are the "little kids". 'Bout time we got our own label.

[Breeze54]

5. We even have our own website!!

:P



We are currently working on a major renovation of this site

Our new site will have considerably more content,
including sections covering the many exciting ongoing
developments with the Generation Jones movement

In the meantime...

http://www.generationjones.com/

http://www.generationjones.com/index_old.htm



http://www.generationjones.com/files/weare/home1.htm



http://www.generationjones.com/files/weare/home1.htm

If you were born between 1954 and 1965, ask yourself this question: "Do I feel like a member of
The Baby Boom Generation, Generation X, or neither?" Ask other people of this age which of the
two generations they feel a part of. You will quickly find that the vast majority of people in
this age group do not feel like Boomers or Xers.



http://www.generationjones.com/files/zone/home2.htm

[Stephanie]

9. That's cool

Did you ever hear of this before? I only heard it last night in another thread. But the idea has seriously been on my list of things to write about for a long time. Obviously I'm not the only one.

[Breeze54]

30. I'd read about Generation Jones when trying to find info about Gen X & Y...

I remember an OP here on DU about Boomer's and there were hundreds of replies there and that's when I did a little searching and it rung a bell for me but I never heard anyone else talking about it. I come from a large family. Two generations... My older Boomer siblings and then myself and my younger brother. I was never part of the Boomer's life style or privy to any of that because I was just a baby in the 50's and a kid in the 60's! I was the Class of '72. My older siblings were in college when I was still in grade school, so my experiences were very different from theirs and I never felt comfortable agreeing that I was a boomer. Even on DU, some of the Boomer's will relate names and events and they are only familiar to me because I read about them later in life or vaguely remember hearing things on the news or in conversations from my childhood. Do you know what I mean? I was the generation that first got to vote in 1972 at the age of 18! Before that you had to be 21 to vote! Older classmates were drafted to Vietnam too and that's how I met my husband, now my ex. He got drafted 6 months before they ended the war in Vietnam. I think our generation was always at the tail end of all of those events. Anyway, I was thrilled to read your OP last might! I resent being included in the AARP by age group too! How about you? There's even a Boomer messageboard website like a My Space called 'EONS' and it's full of Boomer's and I don't feel like I fit in there at all. This Gen. Jones website seems pretty good, once they finish with the renovations. I had never been there before last night. Thanks for posting that OP!

:hi:

[BurtWorm]

13. We have our own logo?

:patriot:

Top that, boomers.

[Birthmark]

6. I've always watched the Boomer generation...

...with something between mild disapproval and utter disgust. I've always been appalled that I was considered of that generation. I'd also noted that most of my contemporaries didn't act like Boomers.

[Perry Logan]

7. The preceding generation has always badmouthed us. Why not the next generation, too?

They first got mad at us when we balked at being sent to Viet Nam. They've been pissed off ever since.

[SpiralHawk]

8. We are all Generation Smith

1984's Winston Smith in the era of Big BushCo and republicon homelander totalitarianism...

[ellie]

10. I read about this

several years ago. While I was born in 1965, I consider myself an Xer. My brothers and sisters, who were born between 1952 and 1963, don't consider themselves boomers, having missed out on Woodstock and all of that because they were too young.

[BurtWorm]

11. Why Jones? Why not Lipshitz?

:shrug:

Why not Rodriguez?

[Breeze54]

36. Because we're "Jonsin'"... read more at link.

:P

http://www.generationjones.com/files/weare/home1.htm

[Name removed]

12. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Beausoleil]

14. What is a "boomer" supposed to feel like?

I was born in '55, right in the middle of the baby boom. Always considered myself a "boomer" but I never knew I was not supposed to feel like a "boomer". Hmm.

[BurtWorm]

15. I suspect this is the creation of a right-winger

who has always hated the idea of being lumped in with hippies, yippies and grunge kids. His site is loaded with references from Fox News, Free Republic, Townhall.com, etc. He just arbitrarily carved out a group of cuspers with views like his own, labeled them, called them influential, and the media, having nothing better to think about, went along.

Let a thousand Style pieces bloom.

[devilgrrl]

16. You are awesome!

I couldn't have said it better myself. :yourock:

[kineneb]

20. but he/she still has a point

I was 10 during the Summer of Love, and aways felt as if I have missed out on a lot of the fun times of the late 60's-early 70s.

No, we got stuck with disco (blech).

We did, however, get The Eagles (Hotel California is one of my favorites), Jethro Tull, and BTO. I certainly did not turn out to be a "conservative".

[BurtWorm]

21. Why are we named after a Counting Crowes song?

:wtf:

PS: Who died and left the Caretaker of Our Generation to this Counting Crowes loving asshole, anyway?

What a racket some people dream up.

[Stephanie]

22. Let's get a better name.

I don't like this guy.

[BurtWorm]

23. I was just listing a whole bunch of cultural touchstones of our generation with my brother

and Counting Crowes, believe it or not, wasn't one of them. ;)

The Blank Generation makes more sense to me. As long as it leaves out the Freep Generation this guy belongs to.

[Stephanie]

24. The Brady Generation

I seriously believed I was Marcia until about 12 years old.

[BurtWorm]

25. Generation Marcia Marcia Marcia!

:crazy:

I almost suyggested the Brady Generation myself. Could also be Generation Gilligan. Generation Fleagle (for the Banana Splits). Jetson Generation.

Anything but Generation (Counting Crowes song reference)!

[Breeze54]

38. Counting Crows (4 of the 5 band members are Jonesers)

But read here for some more Jones song references... http://www.generationjones.com/files/weare/home1.htm

Progressive rock was another popular genre during the 1970s!

Pink Floyd - "The Wall" - “Another Brick in the Wall”
Jethro Tull! - “Thick as a Brick”
The Ramones
The Sex Pistols
Aerosmith
Alice Cooper
Bee Gees
Black Sabbath
Blondie
Bob Dylan
Bob Marley and the Wailers
Boomtown Rats
Bruce Springsteen
Chicago
Commodores
David Bowie
Elton John
Gloria Gaynor
Ike & Tina Turner
James Taylor
Janis Joplin
Jefferson Starship
John Lennon
Kiss
Led Zeppelin
Marvin Gaye
Michael Jackson
Minnie Riperton
Mungo Jerry
Paul McCartney & Wings
Paul Simon
Pink Floyd
Queen
Rod Stewart
The Doors
The Eagles
The Jackson 5
The Osmonds
The Police
The Rolling Stones
The Who
Village People
ZZ Top


http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/70smusic.html

[kineneb]

63. more for list: don't forget Abba... even if they were "disco"...

Oh so 70s. Their music is still played and enjoyed (Mama Mia). I can't think of any other disco music that is still heard... thank goodness.

My definition of successful composers and bands answers the question:
Will people still listen to their work 50, 100, 200 years later?

Yes- then their work was something that touched and spoke to enough people
to make it memorable across generations.

No- then they probably should have been in a different line of work, or they were only writing for their own ego (20th c. avant garde matrix compositions come to mind-ugh.)

The list also forgets Bachmann-Turner Overdrive (still have vinyl) "Let it Ride"!

music history geek /off

[Breeze54]

33. Here's an explanation from that website... Because we're "Jonesin'"

Why the name Generation Jones?

http://www.generationjones.com/files/weare/home1.htm

"Jonesin'" is a hip, passionate slang word that means a strong craving for something or someone.
Our generation has the jones. As children in the 60s, at the absolute height of America's post-World War II affluence and confidence, Jonesers were promised the moon. Then, in the 70s, as the nation's mood turned from hope to fear, we were abandoned. While Boomers began with big expectations that were often realized, and Xers were never given much of anything to expect, it was our generation that was filled with the highest hopes and then confronted with the most dramatically different reality. Huge expectations left unfulfilled have deeply entrenched a jonesin' in us. This jonesin' has made us strikingly driven and persevering, and has given our generation a certain non-comittal, pending flavor as we've continued to hold out for our original dreams.


Our generation's popular culture since the 70s has been filled with this theme of craving, unrequited love, and perseverance.

Here's just a few examples:

Songs

Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen, '75)
Dream On (Aerosmith, '76)
Dream Weaver (Gary Wright, '76)
Stayin' Alive (Bee Gees, '78)
I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor, '79)
Fame (Irene Cara, '80)
Hungry Heart (Bruce Springsteen, '80)
Hungry Like the Wolf (Duran Duran, '83)
Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2, '87)
.
Movies

Bless the Beasts and Children ('72)
Breaking Away ('79)
Fame ('80)
Personal Best ('82)
Perfect ('85)
Top Gun ('86)
Wall Street ('87)
Working Girl ('88)
Sleepless in Seatle ('93)
Jerry Maguire ('95)



Originally, "jones" was an obscure, narrow slang word. It was our generation that transformed it,
in the 70s, into a much more widely used word with a broader meaning.

Our music provides good illustration of our generation's history with this word:

Love Jones (1972) : Billboard top ten hit written about, by, and for our generation. Performed by
the Joneser high school band The Brighter Side of Darkness, it told of a Joneser teen's intense
puppy love craving. (At least 16 other(not cover) songs titled "Love Jones" appeared during our era).

Basketball Jones (1973) : Cheech and Chong parody of the previous year's "Love Jones", it described
another kid our age jonesin', this time to shoot hoops. We made this song so popular it was made
into a cartoon for us.

Mr. Jones : A string of songs with this metaphorical title appeared, including versions by:
Psychedelic Furs ('87), Talking Heads ('89), and Counting Crows (4 of the 5 band members are
Jonesers) ('93)

Numerous other "jones" songs during our era, including:

Peter's Jones ('72)
(It's gonna take some time to make you mine/but my jones can't wait/it hurts to hesitate)

I Got a Jones on you, Baby ('77) (I can't kick this habit I have for you)

Jones Crusher ('79) (My baby's got jones crushin' love…that little girl's got the jones)


"Generation Jones" has an ironic, cool, postmodern feel to it. "Jonesin'" has quite a bit
of hip cachet. It's passionate, sexy, gritty; it has drama and movement, poetry and eloquence.

Our young hearts were politically stoked as children being formed during the 60s. We grew up watching the collective bonding and power of generational political activism in the Boomers ahead of us. Many of us looked forward to our turn in the 70s, an opportunity that never arrived. First we get ridiculously lumped in with the Boomers, then, in the early 90s, Gen X is much celebrated as "the" post-Boomer generation.

Hey, what about us? There has been a growing awareness, albeit unconscious, that we have been
passed over. Many of us have wanted our fair recognition as a generation, to be part of something bigger than ourselves, to be a page in a history book. Generation Jones has a generation jones.

As Joneser's were being born, the country was undergoing its own rebirth; with 90s hindsight, John F. Kennedy's 1961 inaugural reference to the "passing of the torch to a new generation" takes on added meaning.

We were actual children in the idealistic, childlike 60s, and then lost our innocence as the nation did in the seventies, as we searched for our identity in that adolescent Me Decade. And in the 80s and 90s, America's turn to materialism and security has paralleled our own drift toward middle-age.

More.....

[BurtWorm]

37. I can't relate to most of that shit.

That wasn't my experience. I'm a member of the Blank Generation.

[Breeze54]

41. You don't relate to ANY of that? What year were you born?

What is 'The Blank Generation'? :shrug:

Do you mean the 'Invisible Generation'? aka The Jones Gen.

[BurtWorm]

43. Richard Hell and the Voidoids?

Doesn't ring a bell?

I was born in 1959. Graduated from high school in 1977. I should be nodding my head at all that crap like they're icons from the Golden Age of my youth, if that's really my generation this freeper is talking about. But I guess I had a slightly different focus.

[Breeze54]

44. LOL...yeah, I know - but there are some I remember...

Maybe the person creating that website needs a refresher in popular music from the 70's? :P
But didn't you ever see Cheech & Chong? and there were some others I remember but they
weren't mainstream like the list I posted a few replies below. ;)

[BurtWorm]

49. Of course!

Distinguishing characteristics of our generation, as far as I know:



Grew up listening to the Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Archies, ‘Billy Don’t Be a Hero,” Derek and the Dominoes, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Cher, Jesus Christ Superstar, David Bowie, Elton John, Olivia Netwon-John, Cheech and Chong, Alice Cooper, Donna Summer, KC and the Sunshine Band, Supertramp, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, J. Geils Band, Cars, Todd Rundgren, Yes, King Crimson, NY Dolls, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Clash, Elvis Costello, PiL, Talking Heads, Michael Jackson.

Grew up watching Captain Kangaroo, Romper Room, Mr. Rogers, Gilligan’s Island, The Munsters, Batman, Bullwinkle, Walter Cronkite, Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, Benson and Hedges commercials, An American Family, The Brady Bunch, Banana Splits, The Great American Dream Machine, Electric Company, Zoom, Sesame Street, Apollo launches, Watergate hearings, Jetsons, Jeffersons, SNL, Richard Pryor shows and movies, Mel Brooks movies, Woody Allen movies, Robert Redford movies, Star Wars, Jaws, Godfathers, Chinatown, All the President's Men, Cabaret, Billy Jack, the original gross-out horror movies.

Grew up reading Mad Magazine, Tiger Beat, Look, Life, Saturday Review, Key comics, DC comics, Marvel comics (all printed on newsprint), Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, the backs of cereal boxes, National Lampoon, Peanuts, Dear Abby,


Grew up eating Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Maypo, Cocoa Puffs, Crispy Critters, Quisp, Quake, Cool Whip, Space Bars, Twinkies, Campfire Marshmallows and drinking Tang, Za-Rex, Ovaltine, and Bosco.


PS: I'll bet a lot of people of this generation will read my lists and just scratch their heads.

[Breeze54]

53. Are you my brother?

:rofl:

Did you include "The Dark Side'?

I can relate to all of that but you forgot the Allman Bros. and Jethro Tull!! :wtf:

:rofl:

I relate to everything on your list! ;)

[kineneb]

65. I passed! recognized all on you list

class of 76

I remember surf music (the Ventures- Hawaii Five-O theme!).

Don't forget one of the best TV programs ever: M*A*S*H! (Radar, what am I signing?) And Jacob Bronovski's "Assent of Man" program on PBS.

[BurtWorm]

66. By the way, those weren't necessarily songs, bands, shows, movies I liked

I just grew up with them. Also with Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, Roberta Flack, "Maggie Mae," "Sister Marmalade," Woodstock, Altamont, Gerald Ford, The Pueblo Incident, The Mayaquez incident, Boat People, HR Puffnstuff, Lancelot Link, My Weekly Reader, Tom Snyder, American Top Forty, Thrilla in Manilla, Munich 1972, Entebbe, Third Mile Island, Squeaky Fromm, DB Cooper, ... etc., etc., etc....

[devilgrrl]

45. Generation Jones refers to our generation's Conservatives....

I mean Jesus! Did you see that song list?

:wtf:

[Breeze54]

46. Richard Hell and the Voidoids? Where'd you see that??

I don't see it in anything I posted. :shrug:

[BurtWorm]

50. Must not exist, then.

;-)

[Breeze54]

52. LOL! You're right though... we need a better name!

That guy is as RW as they come!! :puke: My apologies. I didn't know. :(

I just saw a whole bunch of RW crap on there and now I feel all icky!

[Breeze54]

51. I think you're right! I just saw all the RW crap on that site... argh!

and a quote from Bush!! :puke: :puke:

Blah! Ack! Ugh! :grr: Patoowey! :nuke:

[kineneb]

62. how 'bout the "Watergate Generation"?

that episode left its mark on the entire decade of the 70s. Too young to participate in the 60's, but just old enough to be politically conscious through the later days of Nixon's regime.

Nixon resigned on my 16th birthday... one of the best birthday gifts ever!

[Breeze54]

68. No way.... sorry but I'd rather not be linked to that moron!

How about Boomers 2

or The Digital Generation or the Computer Generation

http://homepages.vvm.com/~jhunt/compupedia/History%20of%20Computers/history_of_computers_1970.htm">The 1970's, the decade of protests against the war in Vietnam, disco dancing, and great advancements in computing.

[devilgrrl]

26. How about Generation Alex Keaton?

I think that just about sums us up.

:popcorn:

[devilgrrl]

27. Generation Ann Coulter

:popcorn:

[Greyhound]

69. He was a GenXer. n/t

[devilgrrl]

28. If I based my generation on kids I grew up with, I'd call it "Generation Bob Jones"

Generation I came to age during the Reagan Administration.

[BurtWorm]

29. Generation Jim Jones.

:scared:


Generation Tanya?

[SmokingJacket]

17. I think of my parents as Boomers, born in '44 and '45.

And being born in '68... I'm not even CLOSE to a boomer. So yeah, I like the idea of sticking a buffer generation between the two.

[kineneb]

18. born in '58, HS class of '76, not really boomer, or gen-x

sort of a baby hippie... too young for most of the Vietnam stuff, graduated from college just as Raygun was elected (uck)... feel like I never really got a chance, the "dream" was already dying then...

still trying to figure out what I am doing after all this time...

[WitchyWoman57]

31. Same here!

I was born in '57, graduated HS in '75. I missed out on the whole hippie/war thing, and just never felt like a boomer. Now I know why. :)

[Breeze54]

34. Well, now you have a place!

:D

Welcome to DU, you Jonser you! :hi:

:P

[Zorra]

19. Obama lived in Indonesia during the late 60's-early 70's, one of the most vital

and transitional periods in US history - it was a time when concerned people did not just talk about change, they actually brought about fundamental changes through direct action.

This may partially account for Senator Obama's apparent lack of knowledge and understanding about the genuine essence of what was happening in the US at this time, despite the fact that he was part of the baby boom generation.

A whole lot of people that I know that were born between 1955 and 1965 are decidedly liberal in their politics and world view.

[AnnieBW]

40. That's what I like about Obama

I'm so sick of the Baby Boomer angst, and the fact that they think that they've "discovered" everything in life. I was four years old when Woodstock happened. The major event of my high school life was Reagan getting shot. The major event of my college life was the Challenger explosion. A lot of the kids that I grew up with were very conservative, because we lived in the 'burbs and it was cool to bash liberals during those days.

Obama may be a few years older than I am, but at least he's not fighting the same old culture war that started in 1965.

[Zorra]

48. Interesting. Do you still consider yourself a "cool conservative"? n/t

[AnnieBW]

67. I was one of the liberals being bashed

I've voted for two Republicans in my whole life. One of them was John Heinz when he was running for re-election. The other was whoever was running against Governor Schaefer here in Maryland, because I think he's a nutter.

[Breeze54]

56. What gen. does he say he's 'connected' to now? Gen. X?

:P

[mitchtv]

32. Born in '44 war baby

I am torn between the end of the beat generation and the early Hip generation.

[Breeze54]

35. That makes you officially a boomer!

;)

[Gormy Cuss]

39. Sheesh. Some people will go to any length to distance themselves from Clinton. n/t

[Breeze54]

42. I've never related to Bill Clinton.

President Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946

Besides the fact that when he was graduating college I was in 8th grade!!

How they hell would I relate to him? We had nothing in common.

[Gormy Cuss]

55. It was a joking comment about the candidate, not her husband

but I also think that the Generation Jones thing is hooey. The 2nd cohort boomers born prior to 1960 generally have more in common with 1st cohort boomers than with those born in the 1960s in large part because they were old enough to remember most of the social change even if not always old enough to participate. I've noted anecdotally the perception of boomer attachment also seems to differ based on age of siblings and parents -- if there were 1st cohort boomer sibs and parents born prior to 1930, the experiences seem to track more as boomers.

[Breeze54]

57. I didn't relate on a social level

with my older boomer brothers and sisters. Sure we both liked the Beatles and The Beach
Boys and The Stones but there were a lot of others things where we were very different!
Such as how we dressed. I wouldn't have been caught dead in any of my sister's clothes!
But we just didn't think alike, in many ways and it's showing up in this election. ;)

[Chovexani]

47. This is meaningless nonsense

I will never understand the human propensity for carving swaths of people into neat little categories. Everyone has to fit in a box. If people don't fit in the existing ones, they don't question the need for boxes, they just create a new one.

The whole generation labelling thing is just a tool for a lazy and complacent media to make quick judgments and stereotype people. And people continually fall for it. The categories themselves don't even make any sense. According to various people I'm either at the very tail end of Gen X or at the very beginning of Gen Y. Depending on who you ask and what their biases are, the numbers vary widely.

It's nothing but marketing bullshit, folks, don't buy into the hype.

[Breeze54]

54. Go away... we're having fun.

[Chovexani]

59. Sorry, I'm Gen X, we're supposed to be cynical.

:P

[Breeze54]

60. lol...yeah, but us of the Invisible (Jonesin') Gen. taught you how!

:rofl:

[Chovexani]

64. Hee!

:hug:

[blues90]

58. It's all so insane

Who the hell cares .

Each 10 or 11 years things change so damn much that we all have our memories and times as a youth that we hold onto . This is all that matters .

There is not way in hell one 10 period of people can have a clue what it was like for the next or previous 10 year span .

I went through the entire 50's as a child and then there were the 60's and by the 70's everything changed .

Obama does not know what the hell he is talking about if he had not lived it so he should just shut the fuck up and run his campaign based on where we are now and not judge any other time .

There are assholes in every generation and new ones come to adulthood every year .

To even say it matters what Hillary stands for based on when she was born is hog shit , everyone with a brain see's the changes of the times and deals with them in that respect .

Just about everyone in politics has a book out and what has this changed , not one damn thing . what we have in writting is a constitution that was supposed to mean something .

Oh yeah , I forgot , politicians walk on water and change the world all on their own .

[Breeze54]

61. Hey, are you Jonesin'? lol...

You're one of 'us'! The invisible Generation. HRC has no claim on us. ;)