Soundscape 3.06 Songs of a Lost Generation

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We wanted to identify what makes Generation X different from other generations. Many books that lay bare this question, but the one that informed most of my thoughts about Generation X was the book Generations by Jean M Twenge. Twenge did not make any real statements about the music of the generation. Instead, she identified differences mostly based on how we interacted with different technologies. For instance, Generation X is the last generation to grow up on analog music and the first to experience digital. We were the first generation to experience MTV which changed the face of music as we knew it. There are many more data points that Twenge pointed out that provide the parameters for Generation X. However the questions I wanted to answer were more related to the content we listened to.

What music defined Generation X? When we started creating our music, what were the trends we created? What impact did Generation X have on our beloved prog rock? Some of the answers may be contained here in this episode, in short, the results of my findings in this all-too-brief exploration of generational music were:

Regardless of the generational divide that seems to show up in culture wars, there is no escaping that the music we listened to growing up came from the previous generation. Progressive rock itself is a Boomer genre of rock music. We grew up on Classic Rock, Punk, and 80s pop. When Generation X did start speaking musically, we developed Grunge, and Hip-Hop. However, on the prog side, we had prog metal and post-rock. The earliest rock music from Generation X appears to have been Gun’s and Roses (although some members just miss the identified cutoff). The earliest band to speak prog that was a Generation X fronted band, was either Majesty (later known as Dream Theater) or Echolyn.

The episode provided here is not even close to answering all of the questions, but the research and theme did make for some enjoyable listening. We hope you enjoy this all-too-brief dive into this question.

Artist	Title	Duration	Album	Year
Porcupine Tree	Time Flies	11:39	The Incident	2009
Foghat	Slow Ride	8:10	Fool For The City	1975
Kansas	Miracles Out Of Nowhere	6:17	Leftoverture	1976
Styx	Snowblind	4:46	Paradise Theater	1981
Genesis	Land Of Confusion	4:41	Invisible Touch [Remix]	1986
Yes	Our Song	4:07	90125	1983
Rush	Between The Wheels	5:29	Grace Under Pressure	1984
Peter Hammill	Losing Faith In Words	3:35	A Black Box	1980
Adrian Belew	The Lone Rhinoceros	3:56	Lone Rhino	1982
Marillion	Chelsea Monday	8:14	Script for a Jester’s Tear	1983
Pendragon	The Black Knight	9:50	The Jewel	1985
Blind Melon	Tones of Home	4:21	Blind Melon	1992
Foo Fighters	Everlong	4:05	The Colour and the Shape	1997
Blind Melon	Tones of Home	4:21	Blind Melon	1992
Foo Fighters	Everlong	4:05	The Colour and the Shape	1997
Radiohead	Exit Music (For a Film)	4:21	OK Computer	1997
Smashing Pumpkins	Porcelina of the Vast Oceans	8:54	Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness	1995
Muse	Supremacy	4:51	The 2nd Law (Deluxe Edition)	2012
Echolyn	21	5:37	Suffocating the Bloom	1992
Kevin Gilbert	Ghetto Of Beautiful Things	4:48	The Shaming of the True	2000
Phish	Monsters	5:09	Evolve	2024
Big Big Train	Welcome to the Planet	6:30	Welcome to the Planet	2022
Dream Theater	Light Fuse And Get Away	7:15	When Dream And Day Unite	1989
Pain of Salvation	Idiocracy	7:03	Scarsick	2007
Threshold	The Latent Gene	7:57	Clone	1998
Riverside	Friend or Foe?	7:23	ID.Entity (Deluxe Edition)	2023
Moon Safari	198X (Heaven Hill)	3:51	Himlabacken Vol. 2	2023
The Tangent	Paroxetine – 20mg	7:39	Down And Out In Paris And London (Limited First Edition)	2009
Frost*	The Boy Who Stood Still	7:33	Day And Age	2021
Anathema	Summernight Horizon	4:06	We’re Here Because We’re Here	2010