Are There Two Gen Xs?

What separates and unites us.

My partners Lori, Zena, and I are planning Gen X Con for 2027 — an event that brings together Gen Xers under one roof (preferably a mall) to celebrate the past and prep for the present.

We launched a survey to understand what people wanted to see and hear, and one question seemed straight-forward enough:

What songs, TV shows, or movies would you like to see represented?

At first, this seemed obvious to me. I came up as a teen in the ’80s, so my cultural references and preferences are heavily swayed by John Hughes movies, “I want my MTV” ads, skinny ties, and parachute pants.

Many of the respondents were on the same wavelength.

“Duran Duran,” wrote one. “New Wave Bands” “The WLIR playlist from 1981-1985.” “All the 80’s!” Multiple people mentioned The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Someone even voted for Land of the Lost. Beware the Sleestak!

Then I kept reading.

“Reality Bites.” “Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden.” “Anything grunge.” “My So-Called Life.” “Matthew Sweet, The Replacements.” “Hole, Biggie Smalls.”

That’s when it struck me like an errant Frisbee in a game of Ultimate:

Gen X isn’t one generation—it’s actually two generations wearing the same pair of Converse Chuck Taylors.

Let Me Explain

Gen X was born between 1965 and 1980 — a fifteen-year gap.

That means while some of us were 17 singing along to "We Are the World," others were 2 years old spitting up on their Cabbage Patch dolls.

Early Gen Xers (born roughly 1965-1972) and Late Gen Xers (born roughly 1973-1980) didn’t just grow up listening to different music or watching different movies. They came of age at different cultural moments.

Early Gen Xers were teenagers during Martha Quinn and Kurt Loder’s MTV, 99 Luftballoons and the Cold War’s end, Reaganomics and yuppies, big hair and skinny ties, Material Girls and “Greed is good.”

Late Gen Xers were teenagers during grunge—Nirvana, Pearl Jam, flannel shirts and Doc Martens. Slacker culture, Indie films like “Reality Bites,” Super Nintendo, the OJ trial, and hacky sacks (which are back, by the way).

But here’s the thing: We still had the same childhoods. We were all latchkey kids. We all made mixtapes. We still remember rotary phones, blue books, Liquid Paper, mailing letters, Boom boxes, fixing cassette tapes with a pencil, Fotomat, Zima.

What We Listened To

Early Gen Xers grew up on new wave, punk, post-punk, and the birth of MTV. Some popular survey responses from people born in the late ’60s and early ’70s:

• “Duran Duran” (mentioned repeatedly)

• “The Cure, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Men Without Hats”

• “The playlist from WLIR (92.7 Long Island) from 1981-1985”

• “The Clash, R.E.M., Talking Heads, Joy Division/New Order, Michael Jackson”

Late Gen Xers came of age during grunge, Britpop, and the golden age of hip-hop:

• “Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Hole”

• “Tribe Called Quest”

• “Biggie” “TuPac”

• “Matthew Sweet, Oasis, The Cranberries'“

• “Seattle vibes, Freestyle, TLC, Beastie Boys”

What We Watched

Early Gen Xers lived John Hughes movies in real time and were swept away by popcorn classics.

• “All the John Hughes movies - Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”

• “Rambo, Dirty Dancing, ET, TopGun, Back to the Future, Heathers”

• TV: “Saturday Morning Cartoons like Scooby-Doo, Schoohouse Rock,”

• Star Wars in an actual movie theater.

• Battle of the Network Stars, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Late Night with David Letterman, Scooby-Doo

Late Gen Xers came of age during the indie film/TV explosion:

• “Reality Bites” (mentioned multiple times)

• “My So-Called Life”

• “Singles”

• “Clueless”

• Also mentioned: The X-Files, Twin Peaks, Murphy Brown, Beverly Hills 90210

Tech

Early Gen Xers had a fully analog adolescence. Rotary phones with extra long phone cords so you could walk around. No internet or personal computers until adulthood. They memorized endless phone numbers. They watched Saturday morning cartoons and played Asteroids, Pac-Man, and Pong on Atari.

Late Gen Xers had an analog childhood but a digital adolescence. They remember rotary phones, but they also went cordless, 16‑bit game consoles like the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis ruled their world, Sony Discmans, early internet like AOL Instant Messenger arrived in high school.

The Economic Whiplash

Early Gen Xers graduated into the brutal early ‘90s recession. Hiring freezes. Low wages. Baby Boomers hoarding senior-level positions (and they still are). They came of age in an economy of layoffs, mergers, and downsizing

Late Gen Xers had a brief moment of hope during the dot-com boom, then watched it all collapse. Things ramped up again, then 2008 hit during their peak earning and wealth-building years. They got whipsawed—boom, bust, boom, bust—every time they tried to get ahead.

Different patterns but always the same result. Economic insecurity despite doing everything we were told to do.

What Unites Us

Here’s what the Gen X Con survey revealed: despite the cultural differences, Early and Late Gen Xers want the same things now.

Top interests across both cohorts:

• Financial security

• Career transitions & side hustles

• A decent “into the sunset” plan

• To pursue creative projects

• Friendship and community

Yes, Early Gen Xers want to hear Duran Duran. Yes, Late Gen Xers want STP. But underneath, we all want the same thing: community, practical help navigating midlife, recognition that we exist, and a return to partying like its 1999.

Planning Gen X Con taught me that the differences between Early and Late Gen Xers are real. We didn’t come of age to the same soundtrack. We didn’t watch the same movies define our adolescence. We didn’t experience the same global events during our formative years.

But somehow we both developed the same ironic, self-deprecating, cyncial “whatever” posture toward a world that kept trying to define us. And we’re living through the same midlife now—stuck between generations, economically squeezed, culturally invisible, quietly holding it all together.

You can argue about whether The Breakfast Club or Reality Bites better captures the Gen X experience. You can fight about whether “Smells Like Teen Spirit or “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” is our anthem. But at the end of the day, we all know what it means to be adaptable and resilient.

And we all learned to wear those traits proudly like our Chuck Taylors.

If you’d like to help us build a truly iconic Gen X Con event, please take our survey to be added to our mailing list for more details.