“it didn’t define them as much... it really isn’t her defining period”
Then there are people who sorta tune out during what is supposed to be their formative years, and therefore are defined more by what happened in other generations. This doesn’t work for current events and such, but for entertainment surely. It’s very common, for instance, to grow up with music, movies, tv and books from 20 years ago, since people from 20 years ago are now in charge of music, movies, tv, and books and their nostalgia rubs off on you.
Take me, again, who feels a certain nostalgia for stuff from the ages of about 5 to 14, but who tuned out of what was contemporarily popular as a teenager in favor of older stuff. If ever I go to a high school reunion they’ll probably be playing Eminem and Creed, or somesuch godawful crud, instead of what I listened to when I was in high school.
Such are the vagaries of generationhood.
LOL. I just grew up loving music. I’m very eclectic and was sort of trained that way. I was indeed influenced by the elder generation, both pop culture (Happy Days, L&S, and the blatant influence I could see in the ‘80s from the ‘50s including retro music) and directly by my parents. They were listening and singing in the car all the time, as well as playing music when working at home. Mostly early ‘50s-type pop and also REAL musicals (not the R-rated garbage post-’60s). Also watching old movies influences that, which we did as much as possible in the limited-TV then.
Then there was my sister, my idol. She was always into pop music, so ended up a disco queen in the era. I was always in her room and she was always playing the radio. My brother didn’t seem to hang around as much so he didn’t get to me as much - he had Aerosmith and the like around, but I didn’t hear it much because he wasn’t around.
When I was living through the ‘80s it was a double life. I was pretty much emblematic of the era, dressed/hair pretty radical without being genuine punk, listened to most of the regular music, but right in high school I - as well as a shocking number of my classmates - was listening to the local oldies station (i.e., rock era ‘50s-’60s) and buying latter-day tapes of the old stand-bys. We sang and parodied old songs in class and working at the theater.
Sorry to go on. I do love nostalgia! Even for history I was never part of.