[Vision2020] Take this, Kai, you Beatles hater....

[Carl Westberg]

>From the NY Times:....
August 12, 2009


Generation Gap Narrows, and Beatles Are a Bridge


By SAM ROBERTS

 


 
    Maybe it is the sweet mixture of apprehension and promise in “When I’m 64,” Paul McCartney’s ode to aging, which he wrote when he was still a teenager. Or the gentle optimism of “Here Comes the Sun.”

Whether or not the inspiration was lyrical (don’t forget “All You
Need Is Love,” “All Together Now” and “Your Mother Should Know”), a new
study argues that the Beatles may have helped bridge today’s generation gap in America. 

They didn’t close it altogether, of course. Younger and older people still disagree. 

But the raging antagonisms that defined the intergenerational divide in the 1960s have eased, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center being released on Wednesday to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Woodstock (the music festival, which more than half of 16- to 29-year-olds could not identify).

“There’s now broad agreement across the generations about one realm
of American culture that had been an intense battlefield in the 1960s:
the music,” the survey concludes. Every age group from 16 through 64
listens to rock ’n’ roll more than any other format (people 65 and over
prefer country music). The Beatles rank in the top four among every
group.

Strikingly, Pew found that the number of Americans who find major
differences in the viewpoints of younger and older adults is slightly
higher than it was 40 years ago. But Paul Taylor, the Pew center’s
director, said: “The generations in 2009 have found a way to disagree
without being disagreeable. They’re not fighting with each other.” 

While 19 percent of older adults recall that as teenagers they had
major disagreements with their parents, only 10 percent say they have
similar arguments with their own teenage or young adult children. 

The survey found that 26 percent said there were strong conflicts
between older and younger Americans — a far smaller share than the 39
percent who say those conflicts exist between blacks and whites, 47
percent between rich and poor and 55 percent between immigrants and the
native-born.

Americans of all ages say that older adults have better moral values
and a better work ethic, but that younger adults are more tolerant of
other races. (Blacks were far more likely to see generational
differences in moral values, political views and respect for others.) 

“Might it be that one reason parents and teenage children aren’t
quarreling nearly as often now as parents and teenagers did a
generation ago is that, when push comes to shove, they can always chill
out together over a Beatles tune?” the survey asks. “As we researchers
like to say, Needs further study.”

Mr. Taylor added a footnote: “It warmed my heart when I walked in on
my youngest when she was a teenager — she’s now 28 — and in her room
was a poster of the Beatles.”











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