re: What does Woodstock 99 say about late-Gen X/early-millennial?

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Being a misanthropic dick is no way to go through life, son.

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I’m generally not a dick. Usually pretty affable.

That shite was fricking wild. But it says more about corporate America than it says about a generation. They sold 250k tickets at $150 a piece that's $37,500,000.00.

Then they searched everyone who went in and took away any water, food, etc they had and then was charging them $4 for bottles of water. This was in 1999 and there was a dude there that said he paid what for water and a salad? Like $9?

They got the cheapest "security guards" they could find, which was just some random people who was selling their shirts to people, one dude said he got $400 for his shirt because he had another one in his bag, which was more than they were being paid. They had no training. I'd love to see the financial records for it. Between ticket sales, the vendors who I am sure paid a decent amount to have a booth there and all the corporate sponsors they had, there is no way they lost money. Do you think it cost more than $37.5M to pay each band/performer that was booked?

I know they had to rent the old military base (well I assume, maybe the mayor let them use it for free since it was bringing in so many people into the town).

But I watched the special on netflix and through the first episode I thought "this is a perfect example of corporate greed. Find something to sell people on, build it as cheap as possible and anything that happens to people because of it is collateral damage".

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After watching the 3 part doc, the biggest thing I came away with was that’s a culmination of what happens when a generation of nihilistic hippies raise kids.

I believe it showed a generation of people that had been brought up in such luxury, spoiled their entire lives, that they just do not give a frick about anything. I think it drove home Dostoyevsky’s point on utopia

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Gen X is a really small generation - there are more 65 year olds in this country than 45 year olds. Birth rates were low, only children or siblings with ridiculous age gaps were common.

The 90's was also the culmination of the latchkey kid concept that had been growing through the 70's and 80's and the early Gen-X period. Single parenthood was steadily increasing and even if not single parents, families became increasingly dual income.

This is also right before the internet and cell phones started to permeate every bit of society and allow for virtual network of friends. Often times your friends were who ever was approximately your age and lived within a 3 block radius - and that's it.

Combine everything together: A lot of bored teenagers in the mid-90's looking for ways to entertain themselves, navigating life primarily through their peers and with very little parental involvement. Some of those peer groups took on destructive tendencies with very little chance of being caught.

"We're alive now, entertain us!" - Nirvana.

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So the greatest generation got skipped over by the silent generation?

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Well - I’d say that LBJ did his best to ruin this country and Nixon sealed the deal …

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My 10 y/o boy likes Limp Bizkit. Especially Break Stuff.

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And I was wrong about Nixon - he was in the navy

Anyway - my point was both sets of people were players in Washington for a long time

I’m not sure who of the greatest generation went in and out of politics while our country crumbled

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When I heard about the 4 assaults, I was like…there

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Sure there were way more than that. 300,000 people drinking, doing X, smoking weed for days on end with no sleep, walking around naked and topless and only 4 assaults were logged? BS!

Then the most basic sanitation needs were completely neglected while port-o-lets over flowed beyond capacity within the 1st 24 hours to the point where the idiots were wallowing in pure shite and piss yelling come play in the “mud” with us. WTF?

It was a disgusting scene in which the promoters were totally unprepared to handle at any level. 300,000 people frying on a tarmac in sweltering heat and sun for 3 days of no showers or any form of hygiene.

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You were allowed to bring food and water in. I just didn’t because I was a dumbass. They did have free running water, which I drank the entire time. I’m fairly certain it would be illegal not to. The food prices were insane even by today’s standards. The cheapest thing you could find was a tiny side of french fries for $8. I remember walking and looking at food on the ground thinking that it would probably be okay for me to pick it up and eat it. That 4 day period was the hungriest I have ever been in my life. Still had a great time. Must have been the drugs.

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Honestly, not a single thing you just mentioned sounds like a great time.

Ehh if you were a millennial at Woodstock 99 you were 18 or younger.

People need to realize boomers were born after wwii and millennials after 1981