Boomers are back in fashion but kids still rule the cash

Pete from Sydney says:

09:20am | 03/09/09

“Given the Boomers spawned the crazy consumer consumption habits” Where did this pearl of wisdom come from? Some Gen Y or Gen X bunny with a chip on her shoulder no doubt…the boomers aren’t in the same ball park as the later generations in terms of consumption, conspicuous, over consumption some might say.
Baby Boomers occasionally use things twice, something unheard for the future gens.

Liz says:

10:17am | 03/09/09

Why bash the Boomers? You wouldn’t be here,have all the advantages as a woman if those before you hadn’t made it happen.Woodstock was about love of life,music, saving the world and a repugnance for the Vietnam war and any other war.Don’t you have that? Or isn’t it cool enough? At least it wasn’t shallow and consumerist, transitory and inflationary.

jonathan says:

11:02am | 03/09/09

These generationalist rants are really getting tired/boring/repetitive.

It seems that when a journalist has nothing else to write about they will wheel this old chestnut out, because they’re at least guaranteed a few comments from whichever generation they happen to be offending this time.

Okay, we get it:  Boomers have all the money, x-ers missed out cos the boomers have all the money, and y’s think it’s all about them.

Time to move on, please.

stephen says:

12:18pm | 03/09/09

I like young people. I think they’ve got it. I go to a bookshop and I see teenagers sitting on the floor flicking through the latest ‘teen magazine looking for the latest fashion, or the ‘coolest’ thing to do. We did the same thing in 1969, (and those Levis’ were hitched right down low.)

Gillian says:

12:39pm | 03/09/09

I think the youth will always hold the appeal of advertisers but as a Gen X, I do love the fact that the 80s supermodels that I grew up with are still on the cover of magazines, on the catwalks and endorsing products and that there are more role models for older (notice I didn’t say old) women to aspire to. Advertisers should recognise that baby boomers also have a lot of disposable income and disposable time as their children grow up. It would be foolhardy to ignore this cash cow.

http://www.30isthenewblack.com

Emma M says:

12:39pm | 03/09/09

No one likes to be reminded they’re heading for fuddy duddy territory.True, young people should be grateful for all the ways in which boomers made life fun, easier and fashionable. By the same token, older generations should be pleased to have Gardening Australia and Hey Hey, and the other boomer-targeted developments you mentioned, there to help reassure them that they and their money still matter, and to distract them from the new ‘coolness’ of the MySpacing and YouTubing and spending the kids are doing.

JB says:

01:34pm | 03/09/09

Perhaps a little harsh to compare Lily Allen and Short Stack but then again, taste is always relevant to whoever’s listening.

Beyond the old inter-gen arguments, what’s interesting to me about this article is the psychology behind youth marketing. Could anyone imagine Zac Effron with a beard, for instance? He wouldn’t be girly enough haha
If you’re a male star right now it’s almost obligatory hair free bodies (almost everything visible except for long styled locks), unblemished skin etc. etc.

In a very sexist way, the media focus on female role models as a point of contention regularly, but for the blokes growing up it’s a matter of “man up”.
A psychology lecture I went to recently highlighted our possible progression to more child-like symbols/representitives in our culture.
A comparison was made between stick-like catwalk models, who largely lack the hourglass figure and body proportions (ie broader hips) most adult woman in society have generally.
An interesting link was also made between our constant sketchings of aliens - people from the future! - over recent decades, and how generally similar their bodies are to children (big eyes, oversized heads, hair free etc.)
I’m hoping this doesn’t continue much longer, cause I enjoy going to the beach without waxing my chest and doing a million pushups beforehand!
(But stereotypes projected to young men in the media is for a whole other comment)

Brando says:

04:09pm | 03/09/09

I love how generation X & Y try to make us boomers to be technologically illiterate. A quick question to the youngies. That technology you’re using, who do you think invented it? Your mobile phone, your gaming system, your computer , your I-pod etc etc etc were all developed by us boomers. We grew up with technology, do you really think we don’t know hoew to use it.

Generations X & Y are the technology generations? Don’t make me laugh. They’re great if you want some help seeting up a facebook page or programming your I-pod but try asking them to do something useful like putting together a basic spreadsheet and all you end up with is blank looks.

Tim says:

05:32pm | 03/09/09

Haha Brando nice try,
XBOX inventor Seamus Blackely born 1972
I POD inventor Tony Fadell born 1969
Both Generation X.
The best you boomers hav done is invent some massive brick size mobile phone and old computers. Did your first computer have vacuum tubes Brando?
All technology has been massively improved by Generation X and Y. As for spreadsheets, i bet you still use an abacus.

G says:

05:49pm | 03/09/09

Nice work Tim…

Tsk Tsk Brando, you didn’t even fact check before making wild accusations.  Go watch some lassie

Brando says:

06:00pm | 03/09/09

Gee Timmy that’s another thing. I find a lot of Gens X & Y to be not overly bright. The X-Box and I-pod weren’t invented they were just updates of earlier inventions. I didn’t say they haven’t evolved over the years.

I’ll back my computer skill sover most of the gen X & Y uni grads I’ve met. Guess who the younguns in the office ask for the second anything remotely unusual occurs on their computers?

marley says:

09:02pm | 03/09/09

Hey guys - the worldwideweb.  Invented by a boomer.  And that is a helluva lot more important than gadgets such as the Ipod.

Every generation has its inventors, its creators, its visionaries.  The boomers had Tim Berners-Lee and a host of others, Gen X had the Google guys, and Gen Y those Facebook people. 

For those not involved in creating breakthrough developments, the issue is how you use the technology that’s already there - and if you’re using that technology to tell someone you’re now in the third aisle of Woolies looking for the pasta, you’re not exactly on the leading edge.  Too many people of all generations think that having the latest gadget makes them (a) tech savvy and (b) creative/intelligent.  It doesn’t.  It just means you have the latest gadget.  It’s what you do with it that counts.  And as far as I’m concerned, Gen Y shows no particular superiority on the results front.  They just get the wrong solution a bit faster.

John in Alice says:

01:32am | 04/09/09

Sorry but any person who idolizes someone named “Gaga” has to be, well, gaga!  Ultimate proof of the international dumbing down of our species.

Dane Knows says:

05:21am | 04/09/09

Everyone here is putting the cart before the horse.  The generation you belong to accounts for, ready for it? SQUAT. There were geniuses 1000 years ago, there were lazy selfish beings 500 years ago, there were rebels 250 years ago, and there were cranky old men the entire time. Judging people based on when they were born is like basing your opinion on their hair colour; It’s an unfair generalisation.
Anyway, back to the article at hand; the transition of cool. All this article proves is the more things change, the more they stay the same. Bands have been expressly aimed at teens since the Beatles, for god’s sake. Lily Allen and Short Stack found an alternate entryway into the marketplace. You might remember a band by the name of the Arctic Monkeys, the original myspace hype band. Their debut album sold like hotcakes; how did their follow-up album fare? Not so well, because the novelty wore off. Lady GaGa doesn’t sell in the over 20 market, wow hold the phones! Did Britney, N*Sync, the Spice Girls, the New Kids on the Block, Bros, the Psychedelic Furs, or the Monkees?  Flash in the pan has always been around, and always will be. Let’s see Short Stack or Lady GaGa sell out a concert in six minutes like Pearl Jam did. A 40 000 person concert, no less. And in the days before online purchase, where you had to line up the old fashioned way.
Finally, the point that the market now dictates what they want to hear, is so redundant its laughable. Remember a little thing called grunge? The bane of the music industry, that had poured all its energy into Michael Jackson’s perfectly produced ‘Dangerous’ album, only to see it knocked off top spot by a band that hated the limelight so much they would play their biggest hit backwards to annoy a crowd, or trash the stage and play a song called Territorial Pissings on the Ed Sullivan show. They were called Nirvana, you may have heard of them.

NNick says:

10:42pm | 04/09/09

“You might remember a band by the name of the Arctic Monkeys, the original myspace hype band. Their debut album sold like hotcakes; how did their follow-up album fare?”

Extremely well: (from Wikipedia) “Favourite Worst Nightmare’s first day sales of 85,000 outsold the rest of the Top 20 combined, while all twelve tracks from the album entered the top 200 of the UK Singles Chart in their own right. In the USA, the album debuted at number seven, selling around 44,000 copies in its first week. The album has since gone 2x platinum in the UK and the album was nominated for the 2007 Mercury Prize. At the 2008 BRIT Awards it won Best British Album.”

Patty Huntington says:

12:43pm | 08/09/09

Apple Inc – Steve Jobs (54), Steve Wozniak (59)
Microsoft – Bill Gates (53)
BlackBerry – Mike Lazaridis (48)
The MP3 player – Kane Kramer (53 - and acknowledged by Apple as the true inventor of the iPod)
Nintendo’s Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Pikmin, F-Zero, Nintendogs and Wii Music - Shigeru Miyamoto (56)
Sony PlayStation – Ken Kutaragi (59)
The World Wide Web – Tim Berners-Lee (54), Robert Calliau (62)