I am so very glad

that at a Green Day conert

shouting and smiling

next to your

13 yr old

Son

you watched a generation gap disappear

Thanks for the great article on contemporary music eroding the generation gap. I myself found the same gap disappearing at a recent Decemberists show in Minneapolis (as well as an Andrew Bird show) when a quick scan of the audience not only yielded people easily in their 50's as well as toddlers and preschoolers. As a father-to-be, I look forward to the day my kids raid my own cd's ("What are these shiny things, dad?") and we stand in line togehter at First Avenue's all-ages shows.

Dave Matthews Band ick?! You must be crazy!

What it is like to be 34 and have the cultural savvy of someone in middle school? Perhaps, this article is not about closing the generation gap, but more like a pernicious cultural atavism on the part of the oldsters. I mean (for example) all the praise I've seen regarding the Stones from liberal rags, (i.e. "Mick is soooo old and yet he still prances around and occasional yelps 'fuck' on stage! Oh the wonderful rebelliousness of it all!"). It is just so embarrassing for anyone with a mind. For those who don't know - there is interesting contemporary music out there that doesn't involve posturing and a fucking electric guitar. Leave that to the kiddies and the nostalgic baby boomers.

My gut reaction to this article as a former punk rock girl now a 42-year old mom of a 17-year old student/athelete/musician ...

Well, duuuuuh!

Can anyone, plaese, come up with something original to say about the generational gap between parents and kids today other than "Wow, I'm such a cool mom, I even like the same music as my son!"

How about something that explores the conflict within that idea? How about an article that examines how difficult it is to be the "cool mom" (i.e. like the same music, movies, similar culture and beleif systems) and still be able to maintain those parent-child relationship parameters without running into the dangerous territory of "friends".

I suspect Ms. Millman will have something more substantial to say when her son hits high school and she is suddenly confronted with sex, drugs, and freedom issues.

I'm not a parent but I see this so often now: parents their kids, not just dragging/ordering them around. For all the talk of how parents now put kids bizarrely first, at the expense of the relationship between the parents or other family, or giving the kids too much power, it seems as if the running theme with this new generation of kids is that they are being taught, being shown that they matter, what they think, feel, want matters and makes a difference, that the whole Sheep Model of citizenship, be it national or global, is no way to spend to a life. And as a single person who has friends with kids and is around this new way of being and often finds it to be annoying ("can't we just tell them that you are the parent and to just freakin do it???") I still say: fabulous . . . you parents are courageous and amazing . . .

I've noticed the same thing about the music our children are listening to, and it's not limited to neopunk bands like Green Day. In my son's school there is a growing appreciation for 1970's rock in general, from The Ramones to more mainstream bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Eagles, or Bruce Springsteen. You see it when Cadillac uses old Led Zeppelin tunes to sell cars and Monster starts running ads with the Electric Light Orchestra as the musical backdrop. Even bands once dismissed as bloated schlock like Styx and Journey have achieved a sort of coolness not attained even in their heyday in a time where Green Day stands nearly alone as a supergroup.

A beautiful story, Joyce. I, too, am a writer, and earlier this year I, too, took my nine-year-old son to see Green Day. It was his first rock concert and my thousand-somethingth, but it could have been my first -- the shared experience was so emotionally powerful that everything felt fresh again. We saw U2 together just two weeks ago, and once again I felt that incredible rush.

It's interesting that bands like Green Day and U2 bridge the cultural divide. Just one of the many reasons we need them more than ever.

Green Day is on Reprise Records, a member of the Recording Industry Association of America. The chairman and CEO of the RIAA is Mitch Bainwol. The RIAA website touts him as one of the 50 more influential politicos in Washington, a powerful lobbyist with ties to Bill Frist and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. While these men probably received no money from your concert tickets, they certainly did from any and all album sales. "American Idiot" no doubt made these rich men even richer. Any message contained in this album is rendered at best hollow and at worst completely hypocritical.

The administration is no doubt well versed in the ways of bread and circuses.

I'm glad that you and your son had a good time at the concert.

I think in the end your son will be much happier when he discovers some music that you don't like and takes it to heart.

It may not improve his musical taste, but, as I always tell my son (now 20), it definitely adds to his enjoyment of his music.

Andy Chertow

To the reader lsc21361, don't be naive. I'm sure if we did a six degrees of separation on how you make your living, we could find a nexxus between you and Republicans. To think that Republicans (and Democrats) don't, in some way, profit from all of us is ridiculous.

Green Day should be commended for their views, and a brilliant album. And Joyce's piece is great.

Massive: you missed the point. You are absolutely right in claiming that the economy is a tangled web in which our money ends up in the hands of people who hold views with which we disagree. That doesn't engage my comment in the slightest. If I were out there selling faux-rebellion or righteous indignation while lining the pockets of the very people I criticize, then perhaps you'd be on to something.

I was more pointing towards the section of her article that claimed the administration had something to fear, that this music is emblematic of some undercurrent of dissent among our youth. Music isn't a pathway to change when it can be (and certainly has been) co-opted by the very establishment it means to upheave. Don't the Led Zep car commericals or the Bob Dylan bra ads tell you that? The author looks down on admittedly lightweight bands like Smashmouth without realizing Green Day is of the same breed....even as she attends their toothless concert with her teenager.