Something has to give.
A lot of young folk are less than enchanted by the script they were handed:
We don’t expect much from you, just try not to cause too much trouble, okay? We’re trying to figure out how to get you into the asset column but, frankly, at this point you’re a liability. Which is not to say we don’t appreciate your disposable income. We are not ungrateful and if, from time to time, we fail to express our appreciation it’s only because we’re caught up in devising new, better ways to get your money. So, for now, just leave it on the counter and please don’t let the door hit you on your way out.
I Buy, Therefore I Am? The message is a disconnect for lots of young Americans: If that’s all you think I’m good for...well that sucks.
For the record, the young sometimes exhibit a lamentable capacity to live down to generational expectations. Back in the day, when he was a high school senior, my friend Brian said: “Lazy, disaffected, drug doin’, MTV watchin’, video game playin’ snots?’ Okay, we can do that.” When the core message from the next generation up is get in line, stay in line and, by the way, make sure you color inside the lines, simply checking out may seem pretty appealing. And that’s one version of how it looks to the people who monitor what Americans values most closely: the Advertising Industry.
America’s marketeers characterize young people as a moving target, flighty, unpredictable, difficult to reach (which is of course how advertisers try convince big bidnez that they, the tastemakers, are necessary and worth every penny). But it’s not all hype. Look how the pop music business was forced to adjust to ever shrinking clusters of listeners. It’s not that there are fewer listeners—Millennials outnumber Boomers, and Boomers, as well as Xers, still listen to music—it’s that the marketplace is splintered into dozens of mutating genres, none of them destined to be the Next Big Thing on the scale of the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, or Michael Jackson. I am not invested in the megastars of yesteryear (I, too, am part of the problem for the recorded music industry), so I make no qualitative judgment when I say there is no Next Big Thing. I’m simply talking about sales. Michael Jackson’s Thriller became the biggest album of 1983, selling more than 15 million copies and going on to become the biggest selling album of all times.* As a point of comparison, the best selling album in 2013, Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience, sold around 2.4 million copies it’s first year.** Add to that the disruption of digital and streaming content and it’s plain that the music business will never return to what it was. Whether you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing, it is undeniably a thing.
