Do you get the
Millennial Generation?
Until recently,
MTV didn't – and paid a
price. Millennial
values, typified in "The
Devil Wears Prada," may
surprise you.
By Morley Winograd and
Michael D. Hais
Arcadia, Calif. - MTV
premièred in August
1981, seven months after
Ronald Reagan was
inaugurated as America's
40th president. It
revolutionized TV and
the music industry as
much as Reagan changed
the country's politics.
And now, just as the
election of Barack Obama
to the presidency
signaled the end of that
political era and the
beginning of another,
MTV is belatedly
shifting gears as well.
The network, long known
for cynical and vapid
content, has suddenly
understood the
importance of being
earnest. Booze and
bikinis are out. Do-good
singers and hard-working
art students are in.
MTV acknowledged that
its programming had
become out of step with
the progressive,
service-oriented values
of today's youth, the
Millennial Generation.
"It was very clear we
were at one of those
transformational
moments, when this new
generation of
Millennials [born
between 1982 and 2003]
were demanding a new
MTV," a channel
executive explained.
After losing ground for
years, MTV finally got
it. But many other
corporations and
institutions – the
Republican Party comes
to mind – still don't.
As a result, they risk
alienating the
approximately 95 million
young Americans who will
be defining the nation's
politics and culture for
decades to come.
MTV's mistake was to
assume that the members
of particular
demographic groups, in
this instance young
people in their
mid-teens through their
mid-20s, behave the same
and hold the same
attitudes at all times.
If only MTV's executives
had gone to the movies
more often, they might
have recognized these
generational changes
much sooner.
For baby boomers (born
1946-1964), a generation
of idealists driven by
strong personal values,
no coming-of-age-movie
captured their
rebellious and
moralistic spirit better
than "The Graduate." The
protagonist, Benjamin
Braddock, is a depressed
loner who rejects his
parents' "plastic"
values. In his dalliance
with Mrs. Robinson,
Benjamin seeks emotional
attachment and deeper
meaning, whereas she is
in the "relationship"
only for physical
release.
The movie ends as
Benjamin rescues his
true love, Elaine (Mrs.
Robinson's daughter)
from an "arranged"
marriage by blocking the
door from the church
with a cross. Benjamin
and Elaine ride away on
a bus, embracing a new
idealistic lifestyle
while forever turning
their backs on the
shallow and meaningless
existence of their
parents.
But the tone of
coming-of-age movies
shifted dramatically
when Generation X (born
1965-1981) became
teenagers and
20-somethings in the
1980s. This generation
was best represented in
"Risky Business."
Tom Cruise portrays Joel
Goodsen, an alienated
young man who, like many
real-life Gen-Xers, is a
latchkey kid abandoned
by his vacationing
parents at their
suburban home.
Unlike Benjamin
Braddock, Joel does not
use his alienation from
the grown-up world as a
reason to pursue deeper
values. Instead, he uses
his time alone to
perform an iconic dance
in his underwear while
lip-synching to "Old
Time Rock and Roll." He
wrecks the family car,
hires a hooker, and, in
true Gen-X
entrepreneurial fashion,
provides a "for hire"
outlet to satisfy his
friends' sexual desires,
using the family home as
his place of business.
Contrast those stories
with the emblematic
Millennial movie "The
Devil Wears Prada."
Millennials are the
American generation
least bound by gender
role expectations, so it
isn't surprising that
the protagonist is a
young woman with an
androgynous name, Andy
(Sachs). Because
Millennials are also the
most tolerant American
generation, it's not
surprising that Andy's
best friends are an
African-American woman,
a gay man, and her
sensitive boyfriend who
aspires to be a chef. In
true Millennial fashion,
Andy constantly relies
on her friends and
parents, whom she
adores, for love,
advice, and support.
Andy is temporarily
attracted by the glitter
of the world of high
fashion. However, like
others of this
generation who are
driven by a desire to
solve society's
problems, she realizes
her true calling is far
different.
She breaks with her
boss, Miranda Priestly,
at the fashion magazine
where she works, so that
she can take a job
writing for a liberal
newspaper. But, as a
polite and conventional
Millennial, the break is
not harsh. In fact, her
old boss, the devil
herself, provides the
crucial reference for
Andy's new job.
Everyone in politics and
pop culture should learn
the lesson MTV belatedly
has. To really
understand the
preferences of young
people, take a look at
their generation and not
simply their age. That
will tell you everything
you need to know.
