Remember when you could actually be unreachable? Join us as we count down the cultural touchstones that defined Generation X but have largely disappeared from today's world! From the glorious days of hair metal to the simple pleasure of making mixtapes, we're diving into the nostalgic treasures that shaped a generation's youth.
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00:00Nobody has more fun than Blockbuster, so if you want great takeout without the calories, make it a Blockbuster night.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the biggest things associated with Generation X
00:12that have all but vanished from mainstream culture.
00:14The Sony Walkman has forever changed the way the world listens to music.
00:21Number 10, Hair Metal.
00:23Gen Xers grew up with all kinds of music, from new wave to old school hip-hop,
00:27but if there was one sound that's especially specific to that era, it's hair metal.
00:35Also known as glam metal, this was heavy metal with an emphasis on pop appeal and aesthetics,
00:40particularly in terms of fashions and grooming.
00:42Bands like Motley Crue, Poison, and Twisted Sister were anything but subtle,
00:46but their best songs were ones with hooks and riffs for days.
00:50We're not gonna take it!
00:53No, we ain't gonna take it!
00:55As the 80s turned to the 90s, tastes shifted from the Sunset Strip to Seattle, with the rise of grunge.
01:01But even if hair metal never came back in full force, the affection for it among Gen Xers remains.
01:05We're not gonna take it anymore!
01:09Just keep trying to make us!
01:11Number 9, Afterschool Specials.
01:13There's nothing quite like the Gen X experience of coming home from a long day of school,
01:17turning on ABC, and kicking back with a TV movie about trauma or other heavy topic.
01:22I won't take the blame for your drinking anymore!
01:25These Afterschool Specials began in the early 70s and lasted until 1997,
01:29and if you're a Gen Xer, you'll likely remember them in all of their melodramatic glory.
01:34Mom, I need a new microscope lens for biology. Mine's broken.
01:37Borrow one from school.
01:38I need it for tonight, for my homework, for tomorrow!
01:41I'm gonna fail, Mom! I can't believe this! Do you want me to fail biology?
01:44Your microscope lens is fine! Your microscope is fine! You never unwrapped it!
01:49You just want to go out because you want the shoes, and I'm not going, so drop it.
01:52However, while they might have seemed over-the-top,
01:54they did cover important issues like substance use disorder and racism.
01:58So what do you do? How can you deal with it?
02:05You just do.
02:07And no matter how tough it gets, you just have to.
02:12You don't have a choice.
02:13And they also put future stars like Viggo Mortensen and Marissa Tomei on her radars.
02:18I want to be a nursery school teacher.
02:20Why would you limit yourself? I knew you wouldn't understand!
02:25Before smartphones and even before cell phones became commonplace,
02:28the best way to reach someone while out and about was with a pager.
02:31Okay, guys, here's how it looks for today.
02:33Motorola has made it easier to stay directly in touch with those important to you.
02:37Mom, we got a better idea.
02:39We'll page you.
02:40These were devices, also known as beepers, that sent and received alerts.
02:44You mind telling me where the hell you've been the last 12 hours?
02:47Huh? I've been paging you all night.
02:49We got a situation here that I think you need to know about.
02:52Communications could be received via other pagers as well as landline phones.
02:56If you're a Gen X-er, you likely have memories of receiving a page
02:59and then finding a payphone, also widely available, to call the person trying to reach you.
03:04Pull your back.
03:04As cell phones grew in popularity, pagers' time in the spotlight inevitably faded.
03:09However, they're still widely used in essential professional fields,
03:12such as healthcare and emergency services.
03:14You paged?
03:15Number 7.
03:16Gee, your hair smells terrific.
03:18Want to give a Gen X-er an instant nostalgia flashback?
03:21Just say these five words.
03:22Gee, your hair smells terrific.
03:26Gee, your hair smells terrific was a fragrance shampoo from the Andrew Juergens Company.
03:30And when we say fragrance, we mean it.
03:32Described as a blend of chamomile, bubblegum, and sage,
03:35it was an appealing scent that caught the nose of anyone in your radius.
03:39Susie, I did not borrow your Gee, your hair smells terrific shampoo
03:42so Jimmy would notice how good my hair smells.
03:44Oh, no. I used it to get my hair really clean and shiny, like yours.
03:49And that's the only reason?
03:50The only reason.
03:52And they didn't forget the importance of visual appeal, either.
03:55The colorful bottles made them stand out on store shelves.
03:57Though US production of Gee, your hair smells terrific has ended,
04:00the formula has since been licensed to a corporation in the Philippines,
04:03where it continues to be made and sold.
04:05I don't know any bathroom small talk.
04:06Um, Gee, your hair smells terrific.
04:08You didn't socialize me properly.
04:10Number six, making mixtapes.
04:12If you're a millennial or Gen Z,
04:14you probably know about making mixes in the sense of burning songs to a CD
04:18or creating a streaming playlist.
04:19Start the music.
04:21I see your little mama doing your thing, but you will look much better underneath my wing.
04:26Wrong playlist.
04:27While those are each perfectly valid ways to compile your favorite songs,
04:30we urge you to pay your respects to your Gen X ancestors,
04:33who would make mixtapes by recording songs on the radio to actual physical cassette tapes.
04:38And there was nothing worse than your favorite song coming on
04:40and not hitting the record button in time.
04:43You may also remember songs being interrupted by the DJ cutting in.
04:46With somebody who loves me.
04:49Woo-hoo!
04:51Well, this was technically copyright infringement.
04:53Can you blame us for wanting to hear a mix of our favorite songs whenever possible?
04:57So I spent the entire night making an epic mixtape.
05:00It was the perfect blend of Chicago, R.E.M., NXS, and Weird Al.
05:05It was pure romance.
05:06And that's our first official mixtape.
05:09I hope you like it as much as I like you.
05:12Number 5, Atari.
05:14Years before the dawn of Nintendo,
05:16the brand most synonymous with video games was Atari.
05:19Atari's Air Seabat.
05:21It comes with 27 games, but that's just for starters.
05:24You can get 9 cartridges, 187 games.
05:26And if you're a Gen Xer,
05:27you likely logged countless hours playing games of Pong and Pac-Man on your Atari 2600
05:33or at the local arcade.
05:34Only Atari makes the Pac-Man home video game.
05:37And you can only play it on an Atari video game system.
05:41Unfortunately, Atari's initial success was swiftly thwarted by shoddier competition
05:45flooding the marketplace, resulting in the video game crash of 1983.
05:48Due to the crash, all of the consoles and games were marked down to bargain bin deals.
05:53The infamously bad E.T. video game produced by the company
05:56was another massive blow to their reputation and future.
05:59Home gaming consoles did recover thanks to Nintendo a couple of years later.
06:03And while Atari does live on as a brand name,
06:05by the end of the 80s, it was effectively game over for them as any kind of industry leader.
06:09It's definitely an Atari.
06:11And a Woody?
06:12Number 4, Walkman.
06:14Listening to music on the go is nothing new these days.
06:17But for Gen Xers, it was something very special.
06:19You really feel the music with a Sony Walkman.
06:22The Sony Walkman is a tiny stereo cassette player with truly incredible sound.
06:28The Sony Walkman, a portable cassette player, revolutionized how a generation consumed music.
06:33Sony introduces the only cassette player as small as a cassette case.
06:39Sure, having to rewind a tape with a pencil might be inconvenient
06:42compared to pulling up any song on your phone at a moment's notice,
06:44but it helped build character.
06:46The rise of the CD as the dominant musical format in the 90s
06:49was a major hit to the Walkman's relevance.
06:51However, Sony kept producing the cassette player until 2010,
06:55and game-changing devices like the iPod arguably wouldn't be possible without the Walkman paving the way.
07:00The Sony Walkman. The world hasn't been the same since.
07:05Number 3, Blockbuster.
07:07In the days before Netflix and chill,
07:09we had Blockbuster and hoped that the movie you wanted was still available.
07:12Well, the perfect video store...
07:15Welcome to Blockbuster Video!
07:17...is popping up all over the country.
07:19While they weren't the only video rental store around, they were the biggest.
07:23And if you're a Gen X-er, you might remember the layout of your local Blockbuster,
07:27as well as you do your childhood home, if not better.
07:29What a difference, Blockbuster Video!
07:33And in those pre-DVD days, you needed to make sure to be kind rewind.
07:37Though they enjoyed Blockbuster fortunes past the new millennium,
07:40the rise of Netflix soon marked them as a brand behind the times.
07:44And in 2010, they filed for bankruptcy, with mass store closures beginning in 2014.
07:48One store in Bend, Oregon, known colloquially as The Last Blockbuster, remains.
07:53The video store is a community hub like any other community hub.
07:56Like a movie theater, like a rec center, it allows us to connect with each other.
08:01The video store is the place, but oftentimes,
08:04it's just a conduit for us to have conversations with other humans.
08:07And that's really beautiful, and something we'll never get with streaming.
08:10Number 2, Classic MTV.
08:13I walk by MTV.
08:19If you were a teenager in the 80s or early 90s,
08:22one particular TV channel was much more than that.
08:25For countless Gen Xers, MTV, in its prime, was a statement.
08:29I think in a few years, I mean, there's gonna be no such thing as radio.
08:33Whether introducing them to their new favorite artists via unforgettable music videos,
08:37or holding mirrors up to society through cutting-edge shows like Beavis and Butthead,
08:40and the real world, MTV made every other station look all the stuffier.
08:44I got slammed for being dirty, for picking my nose, or whatever, you know?
08:48They were just slamming me left and right.
08:50But as the youngest members of Generation X started reaching adulthood,
08:53MTV lost much of its sense of danger,
08:55not to mention its connection to its original name, music television.
08:58However, there's no denying what an incredible impact it had on a generation,
09:02and their perception of the world around them.
09:04Nothing you say can upset us.
09:06We're the MTV generation.
09:07We feel neither highs nor lows.
09:09Really? What's it like?
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09:30At the time, it may have seemed like Gen X was getting inundated with mass communication,
09:34and losing touch on a more personal level.
09:36Dean?
09:36Sup?
09:37Did you get your report card?
09:38Yeah, I'm toast. How'd you do?
09:41I totally choked. My father's gonna go ballistic on me.
09:44Mr. Hall was way harsh.
09:47He gave me a C minus.
09:48Well, he gave me a C, which drags down my entire average.
09:52But pagers and dial-up internet seemed rather quaint compared to the age of smartphones and social media.
09:57One of its greatest achievements appears to be as an aid in scientific research.
10:01By tapping into internet, scientists can share knowledge with another scientist at lightning speed.
10:08And so, experiences like concerts didn't have thousands of people pulling out their phones
10:12to capture videos of their favorite artists to post on TikTok.
10:15Most of all, Gen X could log off in a way that's still possible today,
10:19but much more difficult to accomplish, given how normalized constant communication has become.
10:23No matter when you were born, you can still embrace your inner Gen X-er
10:26by leaving your iPhone at home, and exploring the world around you through fresh eyes.
10:30Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while. You could miss it.
10:36What's your favorite memory of growing up Gen X? Let us know in the comments.
10:44Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from WatchMojo.
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