I Resemble That Remark
According to this New York Magazine article (link via Arts and Letters Daily) I’m a Grup. I wear tattered high tops and unconventional eyeglasses, I carry a messenger bag instead of a diaper bag. The bands they mention are either in my collection or in my queue at the library and on my radio station. My kid likes to listen to DJ Shadow.
The author defines Grups as
40-year-old men and women who look, talk, act, and dress like people who are 22 years old. It’s not about a fad but about a phenomenon that looks to be permanent.
The article is an extended analysis of the current state of Gen-Xers. Apparently, we’re destroying the generation gap because we like a wide range of music. What was embarrassing about the article was the mirror it held up–so many of the people mentioned in the article are so like each other, and so like me. So much for individuality. What was refreshing, though, was the idea that we’re trying to synthesize childlike (NB: not childish) passion with adult responsibilities.
Being a Grup isn’t, as it turns out, all about holding on to some misguided, well-marketed idea of youth–or, at least, isn’t just about that. It’s also about rejecting a hand-me-down model of adulthood that asks, or even necessitates, that you let go of everything you ever felt passionate about. It’s about reimagining adulthood as a period defined by promise, rather than compromise. And who can’t relate to that?
Of course, that’s not a real ending–even the Grups don’t know how this will end. They know they’re making up adulthood as they go.
April 7th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Interesting article. And seems quite appropriate in describing many folks I know in Mpls. It would also be interesting to know whether the phenomenon described in the article is also appearing in suburban areas.
thanks for the link
April 7th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Good Heavens…so that’s what we are. i thought the black and blonde hair fetish would wear off after i turned 35…not so…not so…
at least my favorite bands are still touring — and still a good 10 years older than me!
April 10th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
i just wish to the Goddess that i had enough money to live in Park Slope!
what they don’t mention is that the Grups in NYC are either from Money or have fabulous jobs in which they make a lot of it.
the rest of us live in crappy tenements in un-sexy outer brooklyn, even though we make over $70k a year…
April 14th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
i like it!
April 20th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
I don’t know if I can be considered a Grup since I’ve just recently turned 24.
But I’m sporting a brand new eyebrow and nose piercing (birthday presents actually) have large tattoos that took over four hour sittings, wear ONLY jeans and teeshirts, and own three pairs of shoes, flip-flops, Vans Razors, and moccasins, and sport a short blond spikey “bed head” look.
I don’t think it’ll be changing. So…If I don’t qualify now. I’ll be qualifying in oh…another 5 years. And I’m cool with that.