Why are there no youth cults now?

[shadowmoon]

Growing up in the 80s I was exposed to all types of youth cults from Ant-people to Ravers.

Looking at youngsters now its like seeing clones, joggy trousers, hoodies and same haircuts.

The country that produced a huge majority of youth fashion copied worldwide over the last 70 years just stopped doing it.

[andy1033]

Yep, in 90's when i was young we had grunge.

 

I think its probably linked to music, and there probably is not much new music being made.

 

Since turn of the century there has not been a new music scene, from what i have seen.

Edited August 30, 2020 by andy1033

[Captain Falcon]

It's probably a number of things that have combined to repress young peoples imaginations etc. Social media, video games, education system... instead of being the creators of new movements and genres and things, they just seem to have become followers of empty trends. Maybe they're not spending as much time together any more.

 

 

[rideforever]

Degeneration means there are few individuals any more.  It's like when you mix paints together you just get shades of "the same".  The internet has made this process very rapid so any individual becomes instantly copied.

Real individuals are like pillars of the culture, without them there is no Sources.

The internet and particularly "social media" has damaged many things and human beings ... not only are there few individuals but people leak their energy out of the eyes, rather than working on something for themselves.

Social Media is nothing of the sort ... it is a kind of parasitical banking system that convinces people to participate so it can fleece you and take a margin.  These kinds of industries, businesses, sectors, technologies ... are always harmful because their basic mechanism is parasitism, which means insincerely taking from people.

[Smokestack Lightnin']

1 hour ago, andy1033 said:

Yep, in 90's when i was young we had grunge.

 

I think its probably linked to music, and there probably is not much new music being made.

 

Since turn of the century there has not been a new music scene, from what i have seen.

 

I used to play in a band and we were awesome. Every night we played we would walk off to the thunderous roar of our own footsteps.

The truth is that there's only so much you can do with guitars and drums and it's all been done which is why bands like Cream, Beatles and thousands of others from the 60's and 70's will always be the best in that genre. World music from the likes of India, Colombia or Kenya is limited, distinctive and culturally owned. I feel for youngsters...there is no outlet for them to be creative. The best music is classical, the most complex was jazz, the most soulful was blues, the most spiritual was gospel, most intellectual was opera, most outrageous was rock and punk, the most depraved was hip hop and metal.  Bowie was 100% right when he said 'one day music will just be like electricity, able to turn it off and on at will'. And with that, the appreciation dies.  

Edited August 30, 2020 by Smokestack Lightnin'

[shadowmoon]

On 8/30/2020 at 4:59 PM, andy1033 said:

Yep, in 90's when i was young we had grunge.

 

I think its probably linked to music, and there probably is not much new music being made.

 

Since turn of the century there has not been a new music scene, from what i have seen.

You are right, in 20 years there has been nothing really new.

My neighbours kids play music that sounds pretty much the the same as stuff from the early 2000s.

I wonder if it is that learning instruments is not so popular now?

 

[Fluke]

 

[Mr H]

I don't regard myself as that old! lol... but yeah I remember going to uni, and you could join all these different societies and movements even prior to uni I was in the drum and bass jungle scene which was kind of a movement in itself I guess looking back in hindsight - although it was just life back then..

 

So maybe there are movements about nowadays that I don't know about? who knows...

 

Think the biggest movement since I was a kid is the mobile phone and internet social media thing. It's still all quite alien to me now, I try not to use mobile phones and have just got used to facebook - I can't say that these things have improved my life or really even view it as a movement, just means I get to listen to more people's opinons and bollox! where b4 It used to be in a 20mins section on the ol dog and bone!

 

Just as a bye the bye observation- kids in general seem to be less independent than before, in terms of where they can go, what they can do - with all the focus being on safety and health and that kind of stuff, so the stuff kids can get into is limited by their parent's own beliefs. Which I think must have a barring on anything creative.

[Mr H]

Just as an example I was talking to my sister in law about their kids who like football. I just mentioned that when I was young you used to go over the park on your bikes and play football with jumpers for goalposts. She was like no no no no can't do that nowadays it has to be organised football either through Arsenal youth team or the local youth team not allowed to do that!

 

I was like ok!!

[HeartSpirit]

2 hours ago, Mr H said:

Just as an example I was talking to my sister in law about their kids who like football. I just mentioned that when I was young you used to go over the park on your bikes and play football with jumpers for goalposts. She was like no no no no can't do that nowadays it has to be organised football either through Arsenal youth team or the local youth team not allowed to do that!

 

I was like ok!!

Sorry but I have to ask, why on earth is it no longer allowed to just play football with a few mates? As a child we used to go out all day on our bikes, climbing through wire fences, paddling through streams, balancing on pipes going across the stream and nobody ever came to any harm. The whole population seems to be frightened of their own shadows these days, and it shows when all they can talk about is remaining safe, no matter what restrictions this entails. 

[Mr H]

I have no idea to be honest. Things weren't exactly rainbows in my day, plenty of kids wielding knives and weapons you just stayed away from them! 

 

 

[shadowmoon]

2 hours ago, Mr H said:

Just as an example I was talking to my sister in law about their kids who like football. I just mentioned that when I was young you used to go over the park on your bikes and play football with jumpers for goalposts. She was like no no no no can't do that nowadays it has to be organised football either through Arsenal youth team or the local youth team not allowed to do that!

 

I was like ok!!

 

 

This is very true, my nephew plays football but he doesn't play in the park with the lads, he has to be driven to organised football sessions, & the same with everything else it all has to be organised stuff. The days of the free spirited games are over.?

 

When I was 14 a group of us would get on the train and go 20 miles to the nearest skatepark to ride our bmx's all day there, no adults involved & we wouldn't have wanted them around

[Fluke]

93 baby here but a lot has changed. I lived in a coldisac and from 4 onwards I was out playing. The whole street was alive. All I wanted to do was play in the street all day, and "knock" on my friends doors. Ride my bicycle, play football, play manhunt. It was good and phones didn't really come into fashion until about the early2000s with those early Nokia's.  

 

Used to make camps in the woods, go out catching grass snakes.

 

In my teens I used to go to the skate park as well, I would be lying if I said I met girls (but I did try). Also used to do some naughty things like get drunk and smoke a bit of the devil's lettuce. Ride motorbikes (a phase I grew out of as soon as I come off one) and shoot the ol 22. Air rifle. Make fires and let off fireworks. (Though only camp fires no arson only accidental) 

 

In my teens we did have trends like grungers, emos, 'chavs'. Nothing like what the zeitgeist of the 70sand 80s would have been like on the young ones. But it was still there. You couldn't access porn as easily as now either. I had to watch it on my laptop, or if you were lucky someone had a dirty video going around on their Sony Erikson and would Bluetooth it to you on the school bus "Can't wait to get home and watch these shaved peaches in a 69 together". 

 

Bands have definitely degraded. At the time I used to listen to metal and rock but looking back it's not that great though I can understand why it would sound good to a teens ear.  I think there will always be good bands about, just not in the mainstream, albeit very rarely in the mainstream. 

 

I'm hoping this lockdown and the next few years will inspire kids to get into an old garage and start producing some stuff. The old cliche 4 piece band and 3chords start a band. 

 

I'll be astonished if some talented people currently unheard-of don't come out of the woodwork this next few years. Perhaps when the economic crisis hits it will spur it on even more. Will see. 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by Fluke

[Fluke]

4 hours ago, Mr H said:

Just as an example I was talking to my sister in law about their kids who like football. I just mentioned that when I was young you used to go over the park on your bikes and play football with jumpers for goalposts. She was like no no no no can't do that nowadays it has to be organised football either through Arsenal youth team or the local youth team not allowed to do that!

 

I was like ok!!

We used to use plastic bottles, jumpers, or sticks!

[Mr H]

3 minutes ago, Fluke said:

We used to use plastic bottles, jumpers, or sticks!

 

Tut tut tut! Health and safety!!!! You could have been distracted by that flying plastic bottle, trodden on and subsequently slipped on that jumper of yours and impaled yourself onto that stick!  

[Mr H]

Surprised you're alive to tell the tale to be quite honest...

[shadowmoon]

21 hours ago, Fluke said:

Used to make camps in the woods, go out catching grass snakes.

 

In my teens I used to go to the skate park as well, I would be lying if I said I met girls (but I did try). Also used to do some naughty things like get drunk and smoke a bit of the devil's lettuce. Ride motorbikes (a phase I grew out of as soon as I come off one) and shoot the ol 22. Air rifle. Make fires and let off fireworks. (Though only camp fires no arson only accidental) 

 

It sounds much like what my generation did.

Perhaps your generation was the last to still do these things with any freedom?

 

[Fluke]

@shadowmoon it seems that way mate. It was a bit like eastenders as everybody knew each other down my street. Used to have parties and that. Which can have its downsides if you just want to keep your head down.

 

We were probably a bit more "snowflakery" but i dont recall having a computer until 2001 dial up internet. 

[Grumpy Owl]

I don't know whether its just me, but I look around at the 'youth' of today, including some younger 'millenials' and all I see is 'identikit'.

 

Young folks all seem to wear the same clothes, all have the same hairstyles. They all walk around with a smartphone in their hand, if they're on their own they've usually got headphones on.

 

Men walking around with 'man-bags' Girls wearing fake eyelashes and hideous fake tans.

 

Also, so many young people plastering themselves with tattoos and piercings.

 

It's strange, when I was younger, people got tattoos and piercings because they wanted to be seen as being 'different'. Nowadays, you are considered 'abnormal' if you don't have any tats.

 

The youth of today are definitely a 'programmed generation'.