Generation Y Music and Culture

816 Words4 Pages
Generation Y’s people who were born between the years of 1980-1995, also known as the “echo boomers”: children of the baby boomers. Other names for this generation are “millennial generation”, “net generation” and “generation next”. This generation focuses mainly towards acceptance within society. It is evident that music helps fill the void in which we create. The song “The way I am” by Eminem is a great song to represent generation y because of its message of acceptance. When it comes to what matters the most to generation Y, acceptance is what every echo boomer seeks the most. In the song “The way I am” it says “I don’t mean to be mean but that’s all I can be is just me,” (Eminem, 2000, line 23). What this means is that Eminem doesn’t care about other peoples’ view on him, as long as they accept him for who he is because he isn’t going to change. At the same time generation Y is also commonly worried about what individuals think about them and not about issues that their parents would worry about such as future planning. With technology being so hard to keep up with, material goods and entertainment become one of the struggles every teenager has when trying to fit in. This is when “technosis” becomes common within gen Y. They become over obsessed with being able to fit in that they forget their priorities and focus too much on what technology can bring them. When trying to compare the baby boomers to their children (Echo Boomers) we found that their values were very different from each other. For example, when it came to the baby boomers they believed in, “work ethic, respect towards authority, loyalty, commitment, financial conservatism and long term planning,” (McCrindle, p.3). Generation Y on the other hand is very different from the last generation. In our song “The Way I Am”, Eminem wants everyone to accept him the way he is and not the way society
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