In 2025, Will Our Generation\'s Music Be Remembered?

By Justic Caouette
Staff Writer

I don’t hold out much hope that my personal favorite contemporary musical artists – Kenny Chesney and Matchbox Twenty – will hold a special place in the national consciousness in 20 years. No big deal, since, if all goes well, I won’t spend my thirties and forties living in the past and dwelling on my crazy college years. Still, it could be fun to be that obnoxious uncle who speaks of Rob Thomas the way my uncles reminisce about Fleetwood Mac. Which brings me to the main question of this edition of my column: what is my generation’s music, exactly? What will we, as current college students in an age when popular trends shift daily, be remembered for in twenty years? 

I prefer to remain optimistic, but when it comes to the search for a contemporary artist or trend of the 21st century that has fully ingrained itself into the public consciousness, my speculations are discouraging. It seems that in our college-age generation, which I would consider to be the period of time dating back to about the year 2000, music markets are highly fragmented. There are specific stations for pop, rock, alternative, country, R&B, hip hop, etc. and individual artists who dominate their specific genres, but no great superstars that everyone listens to. Not only that, radio as it once was is nearly obsolete on college campuses, with Internet stations and file-sharing dominating the music scene.

The result of these two kinds of fragmentation is that hardly anybody ever hears what everyone else is hearing anymore. The good thing is that now more than ever, we all have access to music that appeals to us individually. But are we sacrificing that transcendent melody which everybody knows, and almost everybody loves? Certainly our generation will be remembered for the technological progress allowing us to experience a wider variety of musical styles than ever before. And who could argue that the tendency of Top 40 broadcast radio to overplay the nation’s top songs will be particularly missed? I couldn’t – but what I could argue is that the common recognition of heavy-rotation artists such as Alanis Morissette in the ‘90s may be lacking in our generation. 

I also consulted Facebook’s “Pulse,” which keeps track of popular trends according to profiles of college students. Again, the results were discouraging. Of the ten most popular musical artists noted on Facebook among Claremont students, only four have come to fame during our generation: Coldplay, The Postal Service, Jack Johnson, and Death Cab for Cutie. And of these, I would argue that only one – Coldplay – will likely be remembered in twenty years as a fixture of our generation. The rest of the top ten is comprised of artists from past generations (The Beatles, Radiohead, Sublime, Led Zeppelin) that we cannot claim as our own, and artists who currently still make popular albums but came to fame in an era long before we were college students (Dave Matthews Band, Red Hot Chili Peppers). Cassandra Cona of CMC may have put it best: “Personally, I think our generation is very fond of our parents' favorites.”

After my fluffy research on market fragmentation and Facebook yielded annoying results, I decided the best way to answer my question was to ask students themselves what they think.  So I surveyed fifty students at random from the 5Cs on one question: “What musical artist that has become popular in the past 5-6 years do you think will be remembered most in twenty years?”  The results were more encouraging than Facebook’s: almost 60% of those surveyed agreed upon four artists they believe will come to symbolize our generation: Britney Spears (20%), Eminem (16%), Kanye West (14%), and Coldplay (10%).  The rest of the vote was split among college favorites like The White Stripes, Norah Jones, and Kelly Clarkson. 

So what does this mean for our generation? There are a few who seem to express ambivalence about Mrs. Federline. Donavian Huskey of Harvey Mudd says, “The Mickey Mouse Club thing, her relationship with Justin Timberlake, supposed rivalry with Christina Aguilera, weddings in Vegas, and also the latest homewrecking story all contribute to the permanence of her influences.” Others begrudgingly admit her permanence: “I think one of the remembered artists will be Britney Spears not because her songs are good but because everyone hates her so much,” claims Liza Wo of Scripps. In fact, almost none of the 20% who nominated Britney were particularly excited about it. It seems she will be remembered more for her image and her trends than for anything musical. 

That leaves rap music in general as the most likely candidate in a musical sense (though many surveyed were just as annoyed about this as they were about Britney). Indeed, Eminem’s Grammy win for “Lose Yourself” may have solidified his status as a memorable icon of our generation. And though Kanye West is new, a number of students think he has already made a lasting impact on popular culture. “He embodies the modern hip hop movement,” says Cameron Joseph of CMC: “intelligence, politics, style, and swagger.”