I wish I had been born 13 years later

I was a teenager from 1996 – 2002.

I spent much of my early adolescence seeing movies at my local shopping centre (mall). Even at that age, and even though I had been exposed to little else, I was somehow conscious that most of the movies I watched were complete and utter crap. It was all hackney plots, tired cliches and mind-numbing dialogue. Films seemed to move in waves of whatever was marketable: a rash of natural disaster movies, then horror movies, romantic comedies, teen movies.

Things were not much better in the music department. The ironic and witty personalities of Britpop had already passed. Instead I was left with cynically contrived record label creations, like Britney Spears and an endless factory line of boy bands. These pop stars were all sugary spin and no real musical talent.

In 2001 I began university and fell in love with dance music, only to be told by old hands that the scene I was in today was “terribly commercial”. I heard from them, with a sense of wistfulness, about the time when electronic music was wild and underground. And yes there was some good pop coming from Pink, Franz Ferdinand and The Strokes. But in terms of flamboyant personality can they be compared to Jarvis Cocker, Madonna or John Lennon? I was still waiting for some true rockstars to call my own.

And politically … well! My entire period as a teen was spent under the Howard government (here in Australia), and partly in which the world’s top dog was being led by the Bush administration. They generated fear, a thirst for war and an us vs. them mentality. No wonder I was so uninspired to develop any passion for politics.

My brother is 13 years younger than me, and next year will start high school.

The films available to him are, for the most part, witty and adventurous children’s films and action films based on interesting and conflicted comic book heroes. And the music scene, though still devoid of personality, is at least populated by talent. Nowadays you simply can’t use a massive marketing budget to buy yourself an audience.

And here in Australia he will grow up in a Labor Rudd-led government, and hopefully Obama will shortly take the US. These leaders inspire us to look at the bigger picture, and forward into the long-term future, to come together, to work for a just and common goal. Even their language inspires hope and excites all of us, particularly the young.

And best of all if he is dissatisfied with any of this he is empowered to change it because of course, he has the internet. Yes, I had the internet as well. But I can still (just) recall a time before the internet, so it’s not second nature to me like it is to him. Already his pop culture upbringing, in which he has incredible access to the long tail of creations, in which he can express and connect as well as consume, is marking his childhood as very different to mine.

And I envy him!