91X Radio, San Diego, Calif.

Man with a gun in a coffee shop:
“Just give me the coffee and nobody gets hurt.”
 
 

Generation X Field Guide & Lexicon
By Vann Wesson
Illustrated by Chris Kendall and Erik Aukerman
Published by Orion Media
ISBN 1887754059
List price: $9.95

GENERATION X: A 1960's English paperback about sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll in the London mod scene.

GENERATION X: The 1970-1980s British band led by Billy Idol and Tony James, created from the breakup of their previous bank, Chelsea.  The name was taken from the paperback novel (see above).  Generation X broke up in the early ‘80s.  Billy Idol went on to a successful solo career with songs like “Your Generation,” “Dancing with Myself,” “White Wedding,” “Eyes Without a Face” and “Flesh for Fantasy.”  Many people no long take Billy Idol seriously.

GENERATION X: The 1991 novel by Douglas Coupland, subtitled Tales for an Accelerated Culture, that depicts the lives of young Americans with few options beyond “low-pay, low-prestige, low-dignity, no-future McJobs.”  When asked how he thought up the name for this generation, Coupland replied, “I didn’t come up with the name for a generation.  I just came up with a title for a novel.”  Even so, Coupland was pretty much on target in this book, especially in his perception of Generation X as one that resists being pigeon-holed by demographics and targeted by advertiser.

GENERATION X: 1990s target-market term that alerted the media and advertisers that there was a vast portion of the American populace that they were ignoring.  Karen Ritchie, in her book Marketing to Generation X, examined the possibilities of targeting this generation as an untapped consumer group in extensive detail.  (Ms. Ritchie herself is a Boomer.)  Media and advertising now try their darndest to keep up with what’s going on with this generation, although sometimes the best they can do is fill their commercials with actors in flannel shirts and have them drink lots of coffee.

GENERATION X: A handy term that cannot begin to describe the true diversity of a generation that is, still, resistant to being manipulated by media, advertising, and politicians.  “Generation X” isn’t about to sit still and let anyone on TV tell them who they are, what they thing, or what they should buy.  Even so, it seems likely that this is the term history books will use to describe those of us born between 1961 and 1981.