>Be very wary of survivor bias when looking back in time, especially when there is a risk of nostalgia.

Case in point: MTV of the 80s would play little to no black music. There's a famous 1983 interview bit of David Bowie where he asked the MTV VJ why they play no black music, and the VJ waffles a bit on the white suburban market. That does not sound very subversive to me.

Here's the excerpt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg&feature=emb_logo

Another excellent catch. I'm obviously a white dude and I was addressing white dude issues: college radio was largely white punk bands; and rap and hip hop was being marginalized until it exploded in the mid-80's. I don't have perspective on underground black music as a black teen. Did it have the same contour as white experience? Is "nonconformity" just a wypipo problem? Thanks for comment.

Somewhat problematic to think of black music as 'subversive' or 'rebellious' in relation to white suburban kids

what do you mean by that?

you understand black americans have historically been repressed, right? this is pretty uncontroversial.

black american art, especially music, is absolutely saturated with themes of resistance, and even the mildest, most innocent examples have historically been perceived by racists and the establishment as dangerous and rebellious.

the 80s were at the tail end of white flight, when relocation of white people from diverse cities to majority-white suburbs was an explicit response to the desegregation and rebellions of the preceding years. mtv agents making a statement about suburban markets in that time has a clear meaning.

MTV was just one of the first businesses trying to make money on (safe) rebellion tendencies of the youth. Now everybody does that, with for example large clothing brands scouting what the hippest kids are wearing on the streets, and quickly turning that into the next collection.

It seems like there are serious sample size issues either way. When you're a teenager, assuming you're not home-schooled, you knows hundreds of other teenagers, being vaguely acquainted and introduced in some way to thousands, not exactly "randomly" sampled but a pretty broad cross-section of all teenagers at least in your region. As a person in your 50s, you might know 2 or 3 teenagers. personally, I know 0 teenagers. Trying to draw conclusions about what "kids these days" are like in general from personal experience seems unreliable when your experience is that limited.

There's also the issue of how well you know them. When I was a kid myself, as far as I could tell, all 40 year-olds had dull, shallow personal lives and were boring people. I don't have that impression now than I'm in my 40s and my experience of the lives of 40 year-olds goes beyond being told what not to do by them every now and again. How well do you seriously know and understand the inner motivations of your friend's kids?

Good catch. I'm not sure how to internalize that.