Grunge music was "Gen X sound" but why is hair metal not ever associated with Gen X. In fact the 80s is hardly ever associated with X like the 90s are.

Grunge music was "Gen X sound" but why is hair metal not ever associated with Gen X. In fact the 80s is hardly ever associated with like the 90s are.


I think it's because Grunge was much more influential on pop culture than hair metal ever was. Don't get me wrong, hair metal was still very influential in it's own right, however it never had the same longevity (and arguably, the same amount of appreciation) as Grunge. The remnants of Grunge could still be seen until as recently as 2010, in the form of post-grunge. Grunge not only shaped the music scene, but it also influenced the fashion and image of the decade. Not to mention the fact that Grunge was produced by members of Gen X. Kurt Cobain, Billy Corgan, Scott Weiland and Layne Staley were all born in 1967.

In regards to the Gen X association with the '80s, I think it's because the pop culture of the '80s was not entirely reflective of Gen X. Even though most of the pop culture was geared towards Gen X, the majority of it was in fact produced by Baby Boomers and there was still a considerable Baby Boomer influence on the decade. For instance, Madonna and Michael Jackson were both born in 1958 and 1959 respectively.

In contrast, I think the main reason why a lot of people associate the '90s more with Gen X, is because the pop culture was not only targeted at Gen X, but most of it was also produced by members of Gen X as well. I personally consider the '90s to have been my parents "generation" and they were born in 1964 and 1967. Overall, I think the '90s are more representative of the characteristics Gen X have.

I think it may be due to the fact that hair metal largely evolved out of 70s rock bands like Kiss, Aerosmith, and AC/DC, which were iconic to Generation Jones. Also, the grunge movement was more grassroots than hair metal, making it more directly associated with its audience and not just the older executives who promoted it.

I'm not sure about that. I always hear MTV (and consequently, hair metal) being strongly associated with Gen X.

They are the MTV generation, after all.

IMO it has to do with Gen X is a wide range, i.e. older Gen X not = younger Gen X.  The same argument where Boomers are the "Woodstock generation", but as a late boomer I was only age 9 during Woodstock.  Hair metal seemed more popular with late Boomers like myself, as well as early Gen Xers.  On the other hand Grunge seemed most popular with middle/later Gen Xers.  (To clarify, I'm not a hair metal fan, but many friends around my age are.)

IMO, hair metal was the final flowering of rock that was true to its beginnings back in the 1950s, going from clean but edgy for its time rockabilly to surf to Merseybeat to hard rock based out of psychedelia to glam and arena rock to finally hair metal. This also carried over to other genres, with soft rock simply having more modern production, but of course singers like Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, and Billy Joel still major impacts on the airwaves in 1989 as they were in the early '70s, and that decade's R&B music in a similar position, just with those "twinkly" synths as opposed to old horn and house bands from the '60s/'70s.

It was one continuous canon that had a major uprising by the grunge/alternative revolution and the fracturing that happened in the early '90s, along with hip hop's rapid rise as the new face of youth. IMO the old school '80s rap was much cooler to the younger half of Generation X than the rock was, and the music was definitely seen as "for kids". As a result, most Boomers in the '90s turned to soft rock, country crossovers, or classic artists since they just couldn't identify with the Limp Bizkits, Snoopy Doggs, and Jay-Z's, and even still, grunge didn't broadly crossover as heavily as hair metal ever did, as there was never a song that topped the pop chart that was grunge, with Smells Like Teen Spirit the highest at #5.