I've tried to define 'my generation' before but the only conclusions I can come to are that 'my generation' takes pretty much all its stereotypical traits from past ones. Sure, sure some of our behaviour is viewed as more extreme and/or decadent than that of past youths but I doubt it actually is, drugs and alcohol are far from new and all teenagers encounter them in some measure, it's just about media's representation of such things. In a lot of ways I think the easiest way to summarise what we represent is through this:
Everyone who'd be reading this blog knows what that is, it's something creative, something athletic, something new, something daring, something amazing and something ground breaking. Parkour is fast becoming a higher priority than climbing in my list of regular pastimes and upon further investigation of its roots I'm beginning to think it's an excellent metaphor for the evolution of youth culture. I think it's probably on the verge of overtaking both BMX and Skateboarding as the most popular extreme sport out there, except it's not an extreme sport, not really, given that it was never intended to be competitive. It's not really a martial art either because it's not combat training, which begs the question, what is it? I'll tell you, it's jumping off stuff, basically. It's freedom and expression through movement with no code of conduct, instruction manual or right/wrong way of doing things. It's Jeet Kune Do. Now I'd be surprised if you knew what that was, but Jeet Kune Do is a concept that was developed by this man:
That man is, of course, Bruce Lee. He philosophised that you didn't need to adhere to a singular discipline or style to be a martial artist, you could use any style in any way you wanted. He treat martial art as an expression of self and thus Jeet Kune Do was born. I think this has a lot in common with Parkour and with the development of youth culture as a whole because Parkour is self expression through movement as well, martial arts have always been about self expression as well as being about sport and philosophy, the Asian fundamentalism being that philosophy, sport and art are all forms of self expression that are as potent as speech is. Given that eastern culture is becoming increasingly integral to youth culture as a whole, I'd say that self expression is the key fundamentalism universally now, rather than just in eastern tradition.
I mean, times are changing, the musical icons of past years are fading into obscurity or just becoming walking jokes. TV presenters ebb and flow in and out of popularity and film stars are here one minute and gone the next. Even in the fictional world, there's been no real hero for the new age, only Batman remains culturally relevant really, Spiderman lost his way when he hit that unfortunate emo phase, X-men just became less and less interesting the more movies they starred in and Superman? Superman is no here.
In that sense then Parkour is possibly the most iconic representation of the youth mindset that we could hope for, but it goes beyond Parkour. Look at the blends of music that we listen to, no stylistic stone is left unturned and the most recent genre to come out of the woodwork is none other than post-rock, which says a great deal. If you're unfamiliar with the term post-rock, let me hit you with a few names: Do Make Say Think, Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, 65daysofstatic, MONO, Tortoise, Sigur Ros, A Silver Mt. Zion, Sunn 0))), This Will Destroy You, Mogwai, the list goes on and on. If you haven't heard of any of them, here's a few samplers, take your pick, you'll get the gist of it.
Those samples should give you a pretty good idea of what post-rock is all about. It's, well it's everything. It has rock, classical, metal, jazz, breakbeat, minimalism, it doesn't really adhere to any specific set of principles. Now I realise it's not the most popular genre out there but it is the youngest and practitioners of it when asked about how they write their music tend to say that they're expressing themselves, in so many words. The term post-rock really isn't a very good moniker for it and many bands under its arch, MONO in particular, don't like it.
What this and everything else I've mentioned shows is that for all the previous rebellion against social conformity, until now it was just another fashion statement, self expression however goes beyond that. In 1971 Bruce Lee said in an interview with Peirre Berton that martial art was about becoming one with your own body, being able to think of doing something and instantaneously making it so, he called this 'being honest with oneself', Berton described this attitude as being 'very unwestern', he didn't say it in a mean way, he was saying such a philosophical attitude to any physical activity, even combat, was not something you'd see in the west. Now we have Parkour, or freerunning, which is about using your body to its full potential and without limits, anyone could jump over a bench or balance on a rail any time they wanted, but they don't. Parkour represents the freedom to ignore the limits of society and move how you want. There are numerous styles and everyone approaches it a little differently. If all physical activity is self expression then Parkour is the most primal, pure incarnation of it in the same way that post-rock is making the music you want to make using any instrument, any style and any means. In a sense, my generation and those that follow are evolving by going backwards, cutting to the core of what makes us who we are.
...My my, that was pretty deep. Maybe I should mellow out a bit, how do I normally end my posts? Oh yeah! I remember ;)
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