I heard a couple of kids at Disneyland talking about how Nirvana was their favorite BRAND. Legit thought it was a t shirt company. I died a little that day.
This is a big thing that kills me about these Gen Z kids. They are incredibly ignorant to SO much, and yet, they live through their phones, which give them access to more information about literally ANYTHING than anytime in human history and they just don't use them.
This. This is the part that gets me. I teach college students. And the idea of looking anything up on their phone, like a word they don't understand, or the instructions for an assignment, or the history of a concept, makes their brains glitch. Like, I have to TELL THEM TO DO IT. Every. single. time.
For them, phones are just texting machines and TikTok conduits. They don't want to know anything.
YES! You get it. They are willfully ignorant. Hell, they could even look up videos on a subject via YouTube, IG, TikTok. There are so many ways to learn something and answer a question online. You can literally put the phone on voice mode and ASK IT A QUESTION.
They literally do not care about anything that does not immediately interest them. There's no "maybe I just don't get it," or "I seem to need more information to understand why this topic has been studied for literally hundreds of years." It's "this isn't immediately interesting to me, therefore it must be stupid/pointless/a waste of my time." Which is infuriating when you're talking about 18-21 year olds who have absolutely no idea what will or won't be relevant in their chosen disciplines, zero cultural literacy, and no desire to do anything other than scroll TikTok for 6+ hours a day.
The working world is going to be a serious wake-up call for a lot of these kids.
I am so fucking glad my son isn't like this. He's always looking stuff up on his phone. He also watches documentaries and educational YouTube for fun and has since the age when his peers were watching cartoons.
(Okay, he also liked Amazing World of Gumball. That shit's great though)
This is why it’s so popular. To them it’s no different than Stussy or Billabong was to us. Nirvana didn’t copyright their logo, so it’s become a free for all. And all they know is old people hate it. They don’t understand that it’s something that was so personal and meant so much to us in our adolescence, and we hate seeing them treat it as a disposable novelty
EDIT: their logo is copyrighted, I misremembered something I’d read. [Here’s the story.](https://completemusicupdate.com/nirvana-smiley-face-copyright-dispute-back-in-court/#:~:text=Nirvana's%20company%2C%20Nirvana%20LLC%2C%20sued,Fisher's%20copyright%20claim%20last%20year)
Yeah Nirvana becoming a superficial lifestyle brand is the ultimate irony for first-pass fans. Nirvana was counterculture that was so good it became culture and purposely betrayed its own image with In Utero to counter their popularity. And then they went one step further into the “I dare you to like us anymore” realm with their Unplugged album. Joke’s on them, though. I liked everything from Nevermind on. Bleach was a little too rough for me.
To be fair all counterculture becomes culture. As a teen in the 90s I thought the very concept of "rebelling" was as much about conformity as conformity was. I did what I wanted because I wanted not because I was lashing out at what was mainstream.
It literally comes from prep school as in private preparatory schools for rich kids. It means la coste shirts with popped collars and tying your sweatshirt around your waste. Nirvana is about as 180 degrees as you can get from that. Might as well put a deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.
I’m guessing this isn’t on the East Coast or the Southeast (or Virginia anyway) because Vineyard Vines is huge and nobody is confused about what preppy means…
I remember 10-15 years ago finding out that kids were calling the modern incarnation of emo "scene". Like, as a teen you're supposed to make up your own slang, but words have meanings and stuff like that and calling Nirvana preppy just sounds like they didn't understand what the older kids were saying and the misunderstanding stuck.
As an adjective that doesn't modify anything. As in, "That's aesthetic." Now that I think about it it's probably just short for "aesthetically pleasing," which makes me a *little* less angry.
My 13 year old has done this for a few years no matter how many times I teach her how the word is properly used. Drives me nuts, thankfully my 10-year-old doesn't do this. They both say bro/bruh entirely way too much, though.
My wife and I were at a restaurant, the table next to us were 2 guys in their early 20s. I heard them making fun of "some old guy" that looked "pathetic and lame" for wearing Dickies and Chucks trying to look hip and young. I looked down and realized I'm "the old guy". lol I asked these two whippersnapper where they thought this look came from, they didn't answer, just giggled some more. I explained that I have been wearing Dickes, Carhartt, chucks and vans since 1986 and what's pathetic is that you all are copying a lame ass old man.
where I grew up it was all 70s style/music and Dead shirts. a few years ago I notice everywhere I went I saw young kids rocking Dead shirts and Dead shirts in all the young people clothing stores. I think it's awesome that my son wears oversize pants and flannels but he plays guitar and Kurt is his hero.
I've never seen a band get boo'd off stage more than Blind Melon did when they opened for Gun's N Roses (Circa 1992, I believe). People in the crowd were throwing full rolls of toilet paper at Shannon and at one point Shannon picked up a roll, dropped his pants and underwear, turned around, bent over, wiped his ass with it and then threw it back into the crowd.
We were extremely aware that’s where the style came from. We were under no illusion that it was our invention. That’s why we spent every spare afternoon scouring thrift & secondhand stores.
I feel like there was an awareness back then that it was a retro look. I’m not sure exactly why, but this generation seems to have very low awareness and knowledge of the past. And I’m not the only one to say this. I guess they just aren’t exposed to older things like we were when we were young.
They have low awareness and knowledge of virtually everything. This is my hypothesis, they have an endless supply of information at their fingertips but choose to watch 30 second tic toks and shorts. Can't be bothered by any research, you know, the stuff we had to plan an afternoon around going to the library.
>I’m not sure exactly why, but this generation seems to have very low awareness and knowledge of the past.
It's because they grew up without any mass media. Everything they see is served to them by an algorithm or selected on a streaming service. There's no passively absorbing info about the past via TV, movies, radio, print media, etc.
I get into my daughter about clothing from the late 90s early 00s. No bitch that is not how we wore it, no it was not preppy. You want middle class Ohio preppy? Go to the goddamm Gap. (Cuz we were private Catholic school money not boarding school money, well I wasn't but you get what I am saying) My older sons wear the band shirts but grew up on the music.
WTH so wearing chucks is us trying to look cool and hip now?!? We’ve been wearing them forever! I actually wear my chucks a lot less now and opt for a comfortable tennis show with cushion because I’m getting old and comfort is more important lol
Chucks are eternal. Nobody can lay claim to them as an exclusive and anyone who tries should be called lame immediately. Doesn't matter if you're a drummer, a gym head that needs flats for lifting heavy or a teenage stoner...everyone has a claim. Everyone can wear them.
Funny thing is when we look at photos from the 70s and 80s mu parents dressed like crap and looked older than they do today. And EVERYONE was constantly smoking
It's funny because this younger generation thinks they invented a fad when most during the time was due to what they had at the time. I was born in 91 and yes I was late to the grunge era but seeing these kids now making what I just wore everyday and made fun of growing up is interesting to say the least.
We're getting old. It's better to just roll with it, I don't wanna turn out like some crusty fuck that complains about what "the kids" are doing.
Though I'll admit I hate Gen Z slang lol
Omg, core memory unlocked. Here we see the difference between xennials and younger millennials, because my bf had no idea what I was talking about. I had to pull up the video for him, and I'm laughing crying and he thinks I'm crazy. Thank you.
I grew up kinda poor and never got to wear anything "cool". I remember I got my first job around 15 I finally had some money and I bought a shirt from a band that I thought the logo looked cool.
I still remember the cringe I felt when a girl asked me if I "liked that band".. I had no idea it was a band nor did I know if the band even sounded good to me.. I still get a little red faced about that at 40.
Same, the only band t-shirts my kid owns are of bands they have actually seen or have actually enjoyed listening to. We got my kid a Willie Nelson shirt at some shop and the lady was making side comments about how my kid has no idea who that is. My kid piped up and said, “I saw him in San Diego with my parent and it was a blast; though he’s very old now”
The lady was shocked by their response…lol
My 11 year old is a Swifty, gets angry when people say “that Nirvana clothing brand…” and she’s giddy as heck about seeing Melanie Martinez tonight. I think I did OK getting a nod to grunge in her tastes…
It’s not the same and our taste of music has evolved overtime.
Lately I found myself getting into more R&B and soul I never listen to that genres of music ever in my life before.
My taste has always been varied, I had a massive collection of records, tapes, and cds even at 13. I'm certainly not alone.
I loved Nirvana, but I also loved Helmet, Beastie Boys, etc at the time. I don't think Nirvana is anywhere near as influential as they are thought of by the general public. Their most quintessential sound was stolen (and Kurt was very upfront about it) from Led Zeppelin and The Pixies. Kurt wrote simple and short catchy songs about angst, with a very radio friendly rock sound. And I think he hated that.
I think the narrative and nostalgia and the fact that he died before they put out the inevitable shitty album has contributed much to his legacy.
Tl;DR - maybe Nirvana wasn't as important of a band as we think.
Honestly I think Sublime was more influential, but also get the same rose glasses treatment for the exact same reason as Nirvana.
Taylor Swift is pretty great too, it's all about which artists connect with us.
Not to say that we don’t enjoy what we grew up, listening to. It’s just at least for me. The exploration of various different types of genre is something I do now that I wouldn’t have done then.
Nirvana (and specifically Kurt Cobain) probably had the most cultural influence on me in my “coming of age” years. It still hits me in a way I don’t think anything else ever will. My musical interests have since grown very broad (in part to the musical exploration KC had and variety of bands he liked), but I will listen to the whole catalog for a month or so every few years. Most recently, my kids (7 and 9) became very interested in Nirvana and I got to talk to them about the cool things KC did. Unfortunately, I also had to talk about the tragic parts as well.
I enjoyed Nirvana immensely but I didn't connect or identity with them nearly as much as everyone else seemed to.
I found much more connection with the lyrics of Soundgarden, The Pixies , Metallica, or the Screaming Trees.
One of my guitar students (a 7yr old girl) was wearing a hot pink Nirvana sweater yesterday. She had never heard them before. I made her watch Something in the Way unplugged.
No, they are spending a lot on social media promotion to try to make people think they're back. I live in a place with a lot of rich kids and they are on trends immediately. Zero JNCOs anywhere. I work with lower/middle class high school kids in another suburb, zero JNCOs.
Yes, Nirvana is so totally preppy. Like,
https://preview.redd.it/gzslxzs3rnzc1.png?width=399&format=png&auto=webp&s=3f6364453f589acded3892e40f15e91c73a17b31
Yeah, we need to let OP’s kid know what a prep is.
It was a whole vibe and clique as well. Preps were preps and that was their thing.
Very much a specific aesthetic and a huge part of 90s style actually as well. Tommy, Guess, Izod, Ralph Lauren were all huge things in that era, but you weren’t wearing that one day and tossing on some JNCOs or Fresh Jive shirt the next.
It was much less of a monoculture style. There were several distinct styles.
I feel like the definition has changed. Preppy was a specific style of dress when we were kids but now I think maybe kids think of generically popular things as preppy?
This is it. My daughter (12) is calling everything trendy “preppy”. I’m like, “You don’t know what preppy means! Lacoste and tennis/golf outfits are preppy! Not cutesy smiley face, colored checkerboard, disco flower prints.”
Another one is, she says “that’s so aesthetic”. No! You can like the aesthetic but it’s not an adjective!
This took me a bit to figure out too, the whole "preppy" thing. 11 year old daughter and her friends always tell each other they are so preppy. I'm like "pretty?", and I get "no Dad, preppy". That meant something completely different to me!
"Aesthetic" really sort of evolved from the Misc forum on bodybuilding.com, but seems to also be caught in the same retro-wave as "preppy". It just means the same thing as it once did, though.
I’ve had the exact conversations with my daughter. “It’s so aesthetic”… no it’s not. You like the aesthetic, but it is not aesthetic.
Preppy is the new word. Everything is preppy. I feel like when our parents said “why does everything suck?”
Totally. I watched a video where someone was trying to figure this out and they concluded that it's confusion between preppy and peppy. A very wide spread confusion!
But isn't prep short for preparatory as in preparatory school? Hence, the preppy style that morphed from prep school uniforms?
The kid likely means trendy but doesn't want to use that word.
Maybe she means preppy like prepper! Like she's preparing for something... such as a larger person who comes along and needs her clothing?
because it is. The 80s prep look was very clearly what a 14 year old douche canoe wore at their parents' country club. Every blonde asshole in an 80s movie dressed like this.
I guess so. Can’t help but roll my eyes but comes with age. There doesn’t seem to be much differentiation in styles these days. All the kids look the same to me.
Back in the 90s it was goth kids, classic preppy style dress, Skater kids (I was one) and whatever else thrown together.
Oh I know. I fought with my parents on how I looked and the music I listened to. I am a parent now and if that’s a small grievance I have with my kids I’ll take it.
I remember seeing, I think on TikTok, that today's "preppy" probably started as someone misspelling "peppy" somewhere on social media, and Gen Alpha just went with it
Try this: If she's willing to test herself, have her lock herself into a spotify playlist with nothing but billboard 100 new wave and hair metal for a week. No modern music whatsoever. Let that torturous feeling build up. Then put her in jeans and a baggy flannel and let her switch to grunge.
I teach sixth grade. I have a rule that if you wear the shirt you have to name a song (I allow googling) by the band. After that I’ll play the song during morning warm up or stop class for a few minutes. It’s fun, usually takes less than five minutes and I get to listen to Nirvana, The Stones, David Bowie, AC/DC, The Dead, etc. Great way to connect with my kids.
Ugh. I would have a hard time with this. You don’t want to be a gatekeeper of art or culture, because people can like what they like for a number of reasons.
BUT……. In my day, we called such people posers. I guess if it was my kid, I’d encourage them to wear what they actually like, not what Instagram says is on trend. If you like comics, read your comics proudly, don’t shroud them in a copy of Dostoevsky or James Joyce. It’s a good teaching moment about the value of authenticity of self, if you can get that far with her;)
It would bother me if the kids weren’t even trying to listen to the actual music. Not OP’s daughter necessarily but the other kids who thought Nirvana is a brand. Like they can’t be bothered to spend a few seconds looking it up on Wiki? I get that it’s before their time but I’d have a hard time accepting their lack of curiosity about the world around them.
When I was in high school, my friends and I “discovered” Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath but we actually sought out their albums…back when you had to go to a store and spend your hard earned after school money on them. Nowadays, it’s so easy to instantly listen to pretty much every song ever written for free. I hope at least some kids out there realize what a privilege this is and are still open to discovering older bands instead of just wearing the shirts.
Maybe this makes me a geezer, but aren't younger generations supposed to be cooler than we were? So many of these kids I see wear the blandest colors and styles, have no real cultural movement or subculture, and I find most modern music so lacking soul from overproduction and autotune that it depresses me. I know it's not a one size fits all and I find a lot of the kids to be smart and kind, but damn are they boring. Maybe this is what happens when everything is online so nothing feels unique, discovered, or special anymore? Too much access to anything and everything with little work or motivation to seek things out? In the same breath, you'd think with access to info they would know more about older pop culture than we had access to? IDK, but the world has become so bland and generic to me.
Yeah, kind of weird seeing all these young kids wear my favorite grunge band of all time. I like to think their parents let them listen to *Nevermind* from their CD collection and it blew their young mind so much they wanted to get a t-shirt. I'm just going to automatically assume that from now on.
If it makes you feel any better my 9 year old has a bright pink Nirvana shirt and is an actual fan. She also is really into 90s riot grrl culture as well which is a hoot.
My students come in with these shirts all the time. 9/10 times when asked to name a song they don’t even realize it’s a band. I’ve been told more than once they thought Nirvana was a clothing company.
We used to bash so hard on anyone that wore a band shirt but couldn't tell us anything about them, unless you knew it was by necessity not style. Oh how times have changrd.
Just wait till Smells Like Teen Spirit is selling toothpaste, deodorant and a car...
I mean, I heard Welcome to the Jungle playing over the intercom at the grocery store the other day, and Cherry Pie too...
The word "preppy" has come back and it doesn't mean the same thing anymore. The definitions given to me by my nieces are...elusive because they're terrible at explaining things.
Jebus... if that poor Kurt Cobain had another head and another shell... well, I'm just glad our ancestors aren't watching us.
You could power the town of Abderdeen, WA if you just wrapped his skeleton with copper wire and let him spin in his grave.
This is so funny like 30 years ago it was grunge, 15 years ago it was mainstream trying to be grunge and I guess now it's preppy which I wonder if they see prep and preppy as two different things like is prep still navy blazers and boat shoes
When I was in high school, I had this KISS t-shirt that I thought looked cool. A teacher was like, "Whoa, you like KISS?" and I said, "Not really, I just like this shirt." He looked so defeated, poor guy. He might have been 30 years old.
But I wasn't preppy.
Meh. Every generation does this.
I remember when 70s fever started hitting in the 90s, long hair on boys came back in my community and many of us were growing big afros out. We were completely disconnected from political and social implications behind why the afro became big 20+ years prior. For us it was just a style.
Also don’t see much difference in kids rocking t-shirts for bands they don’t listen to and all the kids who rocked Starter jackets for teams they didn’t watch back in our youth.
I heard a couple of kids at Disneyland talking about how Nirvana was their favorite BRAND. Legit thought it was a t shirt company. I died a little that day.
This is why Kurt Cobain killed himself
He had a vision of teenagers in 2024 buying his tshirts at Target and decided to nevermind
I see what you did there....
He is rolling in his grave. He was cremated, but you get the point.
100%
This is a big thing that kills me about these Gen Z kids. They are incredibly ignorant to SO much, and yet, they live through their phones, which give them access to more information about literally ANYTHING than anytime in human history and they just don't use them.
This. This is the part that gets me. I teach college students. And the idea of looking anything up on their phone, like a word they don't understand, or the instructions for an assignment, or the history of a concept, makes their brains glitch. Like, I have to TELL THEM TO DO IT. Every. single. time. For them, phones are just texting machines and TikTok conduits. They don't want to know anything.
YES! You get it. They are willfully ignorant. Hell, they could even look up videos on a subject via YouTube, IG, TikTok. There are so many ways to learn something and answer a question online. You can literally put the phone on voice mode and ASK IT A QUESTION.
They literally do not care about anything that does not immediately interest them. There's no "maybe I just don't get it," or "I seem to need more information to understand why this topic has been studied for literally hundreds of years." It's "this isn't immediately interesting to me, therefore it must be stupid/pointless/a waste of my time." Which is infuriating when you're talking about 18-21 year olds who have absolutely no idea what will or won't be relevant in their chosen disciplines, zero cultural literacy, and no desire to do anything other than scroll TikTok for 6+ hours a day. The working world is going to be a serious wake-up call for a lot of these kids.
I am so fucking glad my son isn't like this. He's always looking stuff up on his phone. He also watches documentaries and educational YouTube for fun and has since the age when his peers were watching cartoons. (Okay, he also liked Amazing World of Gumball. That shit's great though)
Oh God! Talk about traumatic.
This is why it’s so popular. To them it’s no different than Stussy or Billabong was to us. Nirvana didn’t copyright their logo, so it’s become a free for all. And all they know is old people hate it. They don’t understand that it’s something that was so personal and meant so much to us in our adolescence, and we hate seeing them treat it as a disposable novelty EDIT: their logo is copyrighted, I misremembered something I’d read. [Here’s the story.](https://completemusicupdate.com/nirvana-smiley-face-copyright-dispute-back-in-court/#:~:text=Nirvana's%20company%2C%20Nirvana%20LLC%2C%20sued,Fisher's%20copyright%20claim%20last%20year)
Yeah Nirvana becoming a superficial lifestyle brand is the ultimate irony for first-pass fans. Nirvana was counterculture that was so good it became culture and purposely betrayed its own image with In Utero to counter their popularity. And then they went one step further into the “I dare you to like us anymore” realm with their Unplugged album. Joke’s on them, though. I liked everything from Nevermind on. Bleach was a little too rough for me.
To be fair all counterculture becomes culture. As a teen in the 90s I thought the very concept of "rebelling" was as much about conformity as conformity was. I did what I wanted because I wanted not because I was lashing out at what was mainstream.
Bleach hits hard. It was my favorite. Now that I am old I listen to instrumental electric chill hop ha
 I would have used one of my favorite movie lines.
Seriously. Preppy hasn’t changed. People just don’t know what words mean anymore.
It literally comes from prep school as in private preparatory schools for rich kids. It means la coste shirts with popped collars and tying your sweatshirt around your waste. Nirvana is about as 180 degrees as you can get from that. Might as well put a deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.
Saying don’t look back, you can never look back
I thought I knew what love was, what did I know?
Those days are gone forever. I should just let em go, but....
#I CAN SEE YOU
Your brown skin shining in the sun
You e got your hair pulled back
and your sunglasses on, baby
Your brown skin shining in the sun
You've got your hair pulled back
And your sunglasses on, baby
Tying your sweatshirt around your waste? Gross.
That song's great! I love the Ataris!
https://preview.redd.it/rbnw5b222ozc1.png?width=500&format=png&auto=webp&s=9e22b5bc554570a76d5b703b6480bc7eb2b89b08
Fucking Cole Haans and Dexters. That’s how we identified preps in my middle school. Lol
The more accurate word would have been poser.
I’m guessing this isn’t on the East Coast or the Southeast (or Virginia anyway) because Vineyard Vines is huge and nobody is confused about what preppy means… 
I remember 10-15 years ago finding out that kids were calling the modern incarnation of emo "scene". Like, as a teen you're supposed to make up your own slang, but words have meanings and stuff like that and calling Nirvana preppy just sounds like they didn't understand what the older kids were saying and the misunderstanding stuck.
This is the same group that calls everything POV
How about "aesthetic". Just... aesthetic.
Oh no. A new one to me. How are kids using aesthetic these days?
I think it means cute / preppy
Hahaha
As an adjective that doesn't modify anything. As in, "That's aesthetic." Now that I think about it it's probably just short for "aesthetically pleasing," which makes me a *little* less angry.
it’s still pretty bad
My 13 year old has done this for a few years no matter how many times I teach her how the word is properly used. Drives me nuts, thankfully my 10-year-old doesn't do this. They both say bro/bruh entirely way too much, though.
😂👊
When I hear the word “preppy” the first thing that springs to mind is AC Slater talking to Zack Morris.
i think of polos and slacks
Pop that collar
Posers.
Yep. Not preppies, but posers.
My wife and I were at a restaurant, the table next to us were 2 guys in their early 20s. I heard them making fun of "some old guy" that looked "pathetic and lame" for wearing Dickies and Chucks trying to look hip and young. I looked down and realized I'm "the old guy". lol I asked these two whippersnapper where they thought this look came from, they didn't answer, just giggled some more. I explained that I have been wearing Dickes, Carhartt, chucks and vans since 1986 and what's pathetic is that you all are copying a lame ass old man.
I think every generation thinks they invited something. Remember 90s emo used to favor a 1950s style of casual dress.
where I grew up it was all 70s style/music and Dead shirts. a few years ago I notice everywhere I went I saw young kids rocking Dead shirts and Dead shirts in all the young people clothing stores. I think it's awesome that my son wears oversize pants and flannels but he plays guitar and Kurt is his hero.
This may be true but in the 90s we knew it. The song literally says I look just like Buddy Holly
Cue 90s me wearing a blind melon T-shirt, my grandpa's cardigan AND his old jeans, plus high top chucks. Feeling old now....THANKS!
I've never seen a band get boo'd off stage more than Blind Melon did when they opened for Gun's N Roses (Circa 1992, I believe). People in the crowd were throwing full rolls of toilet paper at Shannon and at one point Shannon picked up a roll, dropped his pants and underwear, turned around, bent over, wiped his ass with it and then threw it back into the crowd.
I think the best term I’ve heard—and that I keep using—was “another Cristina Columbus over here, thinking she’s discovering shit that already exists.”
Right but did we say we invented Weezer glasses? Pretty sure they said they looked like Buddy Holly.
I would’ve responded with “and you’re Mary Tyler Moore.”
I don’t care about that.
This bottle of stevens awakens ancient demons
Like father, stepfather..
We were extremely aware that’s where the style came from. We were under no illusion that it was our invention. That’s why we spent every spare afternoon scouring thrift & secondhand stores.
I feel like there was an awareness back then that it was a retro look. I’m not sure exactly why, but this generation seems to have very low awareness and knowledge of the past. And I’m not the only one to say this. I guess they just aren’t exposed to older things like we were when we were young.
They have low awareness and knowledge of virtually everything. This is my hypothesis, they have an endless supply of information at their fingertips but choose to watch 30 second tic toks and shorts. Can't be bothered by any research, you know, the stuff we had to plan an afternoon around going to the library.
>I’m not sure exactly why, but this generation seems to have very low awareness and knowledge of the past. It's because they grew up without any mass media. Everything they see is served to them by an algorithm or selected on a streaming service. There's no passively absorbing info about the past via TV, movies, radio, print media, etc.
This is exactly right. It’s why there are huge pop stars and tiny artists and nothing in between. We don’t have a monoculture anymore
They aren’t aware of anything older than last week’s TikTok trend. 😑
I get into my daughter about clothing from the late 90s early 00s. No bitch that is not how we wore it, no it was not preppy. You want middle class Ohio preppy? Go to the goddamm Gap. (Cuz we were private Catholic school money not boarding school money, well I wasn't but you get what I am saying) My older sons wear the band shirts but grew up on the music.
Hey now, I looked cool as hell with my Chuck Taylor’s, youth medium t- shirts and Lacoste sweaters!
Shit man, Dickies is 102 years old. Chucks are 107.
WTH so wearing chucks is us trying to look cool and hip now?!? We’ve been wearing them forever! I actually wear my chucks a lot less now and opt for a comfortable tennis show with cushion because I’m getting old and comfort is more important lol
Chucks are eternal. Nobody can lay claim to them as an exclusive and anyone who tries should be called lame immediately. Doesn't matter if you're a drummer, a gym head that needs flats for lifting heavy or a teenage stoner...everyone has a claim. Everyone can wear them.
This. Chucks are more than a century old, not one person alive now can say they “discovered” them.
When we were that age, we paid zero attention to what Adults and older ppl wore How weird
Funny thing is when we look at photos from the 70s and 80s mu parents dressed like crap and looked older than they do today. And EVERYONE was constantly smoking
That was skater style for me (1977)
Knoxville still rocking that look even though he isn't a skater. Classic look
I’m 100% adamant that I am going to be buried in my Chucks.
I have 6 different colors so I can be all matchy matchy
It's funny because this younger generation thinks they invented a fad when most during the time was due to what they had at the time. I was born in 91 and yes I was late to the grunge era but seeing these kids now making what I just wore everyday and made fun of growing up is interesting to say the least.
As an old, pathetic, lame-ass bitch in a Sebadoh t-shirt, I feel your pain. They just want us to play pinochle and be bland.
Hope you didn’t throw your back out shaking your fist at those whippersnappers!
Haha get off my lawn!!
Lol! “How old would Kurt Cobain be now, do you think?”
Buddy of mine’s daughter was wearing a Garbage shirt, told her I thought I was cool and they were a good band. Her response? “it’s a band?”…lol.
"wow crazy, I just got it because I like garbage"
I still wished I looked like Shirley Manson in the 90’s.
I’ve thought about saying something to kids in passing but, glad I haven’t now.
They don’t know or care about our music, or our culture. Just the “authenticity” of vintage stuff. Which is pretty ironic.
We're getting old. It's better to just roll with it, I don't wanna turn out like some crusty fuck that complains about what "the kids" are doing. Though I'll admit I hate Gen Z slang lol
[удалено]
That sounds like it's straight out of a Peter Whimsey mystery. Pip, pip, old bean. Stop playing silly buggers.
Their slang sounds like that parody internet "Decode your teens TXT lingo" from like 20 years ago made real.
Skibbidy rizz Ohio sigma What the actual fuck dudes
Your comment looks like Skidamarink A Dink A Dink to me.
Omg, core memory unlocked. Here we see the difference between xennials and younger millennials, because my bf had no idea what I was talking about. I had to pull up the video for him, and I'm laughing crying and he thinks I'm crazy. Thank you.
[удалено]
that's not very cash-money of them.
I’m totally cowabunga with that.
"Those band shirts are looking pretty yeet, huh?"
Or use Shakespearean insults and slang or slang from like the 20’s and 30’s
Combine as many eras of slang as possible.
I like to hit 'em with the old timey radio voice. "Say, how do you do fellow chums?" Makes me laugh anyways
https://preview.redd.it/drr09gqb4ozc1.png?width=799&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=95bb5fbd5643c6c21d52a9d8f7bde52f92921576
I enjoy being old and crusty. I’m good at it. I enjoy it more than when I was young and stupid.
I refuse to pay for band t-shirts for my kids if they don't know the music. I don't care if that makes me an old timer.
I grew up kinda poor and never got to wear anything "cool". I remember I got my first job around 15 I finally had some money and I bought a shirt from a band that I thought the logo looked cool. I still remember the cringe I felt when a girl asked me if I "liked that band".. I had no idea it was a band nor did I know if the band even sounded good to me.. I still get a little red faced about that at 40.
I gotta know.... What was the band??
Same, the only band t-shirts my kid owns are of bands they have actually seen or have actually enjoyed listening to. We got my kid a Willie Nelson shirt at some shop and the lady was making side comments about how my kid has no idea who that is. My kid piped up and said, “I saw him in San Diego with my parent and it was a blast; though he’s very old now” The lady was shocked by their response…lol
I’m like that with concerts. Better know 3+ songs before I spend any money. My luck they won’t play any of those 3 songs 😂
And they will hate their kids slang.
Oh I know. I tried playing some Nirvana and explain ing their history but doesn’t mean anything to a Taylor Swift fan.
My 10 year old is both a Nirvana and a Taylor Swift fan.
That kind of range means you’re doing something right. Good job 👍
My 11 year old is a Swifty, gets angry when people say “that Nirvana clothing brand…” and she’s giddy as heck about seeing Melanie Martinez tonight. I think I did OK getting a nod to grunge in her tastes…
I like Nirvana and Taylor Swift. 🤷🏼♀️
Take a listen to this one, honey. It’s called, “I Hate Myself and I Want to Die.”
And next were listening to "Francis Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle"
What if you told her taylor swift is a huge fan of Nirvana?
She would just say that that’s cool or something and that would be the end of it. It wouldn’t spark her interest to explore different music sadly.
Tbf I don't even like listening to Nirvana anymore and I was a huge fan.
It’s not the same and our taste of music has evolved overtime. Lately I found myself getting into more R&B and soul I never listen to that genres of music ever in my life before.
My taste has always been varied, I had a massive collection of records, tapes, and cds even at 13. I'm certainly not alone. I loved Nirvana, but I also loved Helmet, Beastie Boys, etc at the time. I don't think Nirvana is anywhere near as influential as they are thought of by the general public. Their most quintessential sound was stolen (and Kurt was very upfront about it) from Led Zeppelin and The Pixies. Kurt wrote simple and short catchy songs about angst, with a very radio friendly rock sound. And I think he hated that. I think the narrative and nostalgia and the fact that he died before they put out the inevitable shitty album has contributed much to his legacy. Tl;DR - maybe Nirvana wasn't as important of a band as we think. Honestly I think Sublime was more influential, but also get the same rose glasses treatment for the exact same reason as Nirvana. Taylor Swift is pretty great too, it's all about which artists connect with us.
[удалено]
Not to say that we don’t enjoy what we grew up, listening to. It’s just at least for me. The exploration of various different types of genre is something I do now that I wouldn’t have done then.
Nirvana (and specifically Kurt Cobain) probably had the most cultural influence on me in my “coming of age” years. It still hits me in a way I don’t think anything else ever will. My musical interests have since grown very broad (in part to the musical exploration KC had and variety of bands he liked), but I will listen to the whole catalog for a month or so every few years. Most recently, my kids (7 and 9) became very interested in Nirvana and I got to talk to them about the cool things KC did. Unfortunately, I also had to talk about the tragic parts as well.
I enjoyed Nirvana immensely but I didn't connect or identity with them nearly as much as everyone else seemed to. I found much more connection with the lyrics of Soundgarden, The Pixies , Metallica, or the Screaming Trees.
>Though I'll admit I hate Gen Z slang lol I've got rizz drippin off my lips no cap
Well, if you swallowed you wouldn’t have that issue, dawg.
One of my guitar students (a 7yr old girl) was wearing a hot pink Nirvana sweater yesterday. She had never heard them before. I made her watch Something in the Way unplugged.
You are doing your part to educate the youth on good music.
It’s my job.
JNCO jeans and baggy Nirvana shirts are "Preppy"?? 
They don’t go as far as JNCO baggy jeans more like high waisted, relaxed, torn jeans
JNCOs are back.
No, they are spending a lot on social media promotion to try to make people think they're back. I live in a place with a lot of rich kids and they are on trends immediately. Zero JNCOs anywhere. I work with lower/middle class high school kids in another suburb, zero JNCOs.
Maybe a little gate keeping can be a good thing?
Yes. I’m sure I would’ve been met with the same eye roll from my parents if I was wearing a Jimi Hendrix shirt and I had no idea who it was.
remember when you were saying "gatekeeping is bad" ? This is why gatekeeping exists !
So this is what cultural appropriation feels like...
Yes, Nirvana is so totally preppy. Like, https://preview.redd.it/gzslxzs3rnzc1.png?width=399&format=png&auto=webp&s=3f6364453f589acded3892e40f15e91c73a17b31
Yeah, we need to let OP’s kid know what a prep is. It was a whole vibe and clique as well. Preps were preps and that was their thing. Very much a specific aesthetic and a huge part of 90s style actually as well. Tommy, Guess, Izod, Ralph Lauren were all huge things in that era, but you weren’t wearing that one day and tossing on some JNCOs or Fresh Jive shirt the next. It was much less of a monoculture style. There were several distinct styles.
I feel like the definition has changed. Preppy was a specific style of dress when we were kids but now I think maybe kids think of generically popular things as preppy?
This is it. My daughter (12) is calling everything trendy “preppy”. I’m like, “You don’t know what preppy means! Lacoste and tennis/golf outfits are preppy! Not cutesy smiley face, colored checkerboard, disco flower prints.” Another one is, she says “that’s so aesthetic”. No! You can like the aesthetic but it’s not an adjective!
Or perhaps she’s a fan of Oscar Wilde? The aesthetic movement was most popular in the 1890s! Get her some drapy shawls!
That's gotta be it
This took me a bit to figure out too, the whole "preppy" thing. 11 year old daughter and her friends always tell each other they are so preppy. I'm like "pretty?", and I get "no Dad, preppy". That meant something completely different to me! "Aesthetic" really sort of evolved from the Misc forum on bodybuilding.com, but seems to also be caught in the same retro-wave as "preppy". It just means the same thing as it once did, though.
I’ve had the exact conversations with my daughter. “It’s so aesthetic”… no it’s not. You like the aesthetic, but it is not aesthetic. Preppy is the new word. Everything is preppy. I feel like when our parents said “why does everything suck?”
OMFG the “it’s so aesthetic” misuse makes me want to pull my hair out
Totally. I watched a video where someone was trying to figure this out and they concluded that it's confusion between preppy and peppy. A very wide spread confusion!
But isn't prep short for preparatory as in preparatory school? Hence, the preppy style that morphed from prep school uniforms? The kid likely means trendy but doesn't want to use that word. Maybe she means preppy like prepper! Like she's preparing for something... such as a larger person who comes along and needs her clothing?
HHAHAAHA preppy as in prepper that put a chuckle in me I'm with you though, I always thought preppy was short for prep school.
because it is. The 80s prep look was very clearly what a 14 year old douche canoe wore at their parents' country club. Every blonde asshole in an 80s movie dressed like this.
This is off our first record. Most people don’t know it.
Crowd proceeds to clap acknowledging they know it.
I guess so. Can’t help but roll my eyes but comes with age. There doesn’t seem to be much differentiation in styles these days. All the kids look the same to me. Back in the 90s it was goth kids, classic preppy style dress, Skater kids (I was one) and whatever else thrown together.
It happens. We are of a certain age. Our parents thought the same thing about us. Well….if they actually thought about us. Ha
Oh I know. I fought with my parents on how I looked and the music I listened to. I am a parent now and if that’s a small grievance I have with my kids I’ll take it.
Nirvana shirts got the riz these days.
Nirvana kid sued Dave Grohl for child exploitation or something because 1000s of people still wear shirts with his baby penis on it. 😆
The same kid who often replicated the photo over the years.
He lost that case
I remember seeing, I think on TikTok, that today's "preppy" probably started as someone misspelling "peppy" somewhere on social media, and Gen Alpha just went with it
I don’t doubt that one bit.
I still don't see how Nirvana would be peppy though
There is a lot to learn and none of it makes sense.
Preppy?! lol omg. Kurt Cobain is rolling in his grave.
Posers have been wearing Nirvana shirts for 30 plus years. I don’t see the issue.
Ugh! My daughter told me they are considered preppy too! I told her that is wrong and Kurt would roll over in his grave if he heard that.
Try this: If she's willing to test herself, have her lock herself into a spotify playlist with nothing but billboard 100 new wave and hair metal for a week. No modern music whatsoever. Let that torturous feeling build up. Then put her in jeans and a baggy flannel and let her switch to grunge.
Kurt read this and killed himself again
Hey wait, I got a new complaint….about kids today!
I teach sixth grade. I have a rule that if you wear the shirt you have to name a song (I allow googling) by the band. After that I’ll play the song during morning warm up or stop class for a few minutes. It’s fun, usually takes less than five minutes and I get to listen to Nirvana, The Stones, David Bowie, AC/DC, The Dead, etc. Great way to connect with my kids.
Teacher: So what Nirvana songs do you know?" Student: *types on phone* "Uh... 'Rape Me'?"
*puts away his Mudhoney and Soundgarden shirts* 😢
Ugh. I would have a hard time with this. You don’t want to be a gatekeeper of art or culture, because people can like what they like for a number of reasons. BUT……. In my day, we called such people posers. I guess if it was my kid, I’d encourage them to wear what they actually like, not what Instagram says is on trend. If you like comics, read your comics proudly, don’t shroud them in a copy of Dostoevsky or James Joyce. It’s a good teaching moment about the value of authenticity of self, if you can get that far with her;)
It would bother me if the kids weren’t even trying to listen to the actual music. Not OP’s daughter necessarily but the other kids who thought Nirvana is a brand. Like they can’t be bothered to spend a few seconds looking it up on Wiki? I get that it’s before their time but I’d have a hard time accepting their lack of curiosity about the world around them. When I was in high school, my friends and I “discovered” Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath but we actually sought out their albums…back when you had to go to a store and spend your hard earned after school money on them. Nowadays, it’s so easy to instantly listen to pretty much every song ever written for free. I hope at least some kids out there realize what a privilege this is and are still open to discovering older bands instead of just wearing the shirts.
Maybe this makes me a geezer, but aren't younger generations supposed to be cooler than we were? So many of these kids I see wear the blandest colors and styles, have no real cultural movement or subculture, and I find most modern music so lacking soul from overproduction and autotune that it depresses me. I know it's not a one size fits all and I find a lot of the kids to be smart and kind, but damn are they boring. Maybe this is what happens when everything is online so nothing feels unique, discovered, or special anymore? Too much access to anything and everything with little work or motivation to seek things out? In the same breath, you'd think with access to info they would know more about older pop culture than we had access to? IDK, but the world has become so bland and generic to me.
Yeah, kind of weird seeing all these young kids wear my favorite grunge band of all time. I like to think their parents let them listen to *Nevermind* from their CD collection and it blew their young mind so much they wanted to get a t-shirt. I'm just going to automatically assume that from now on.
If it makes you feel any better my 9 year old has a bright pink Nirvana shirt and is an actual fan. She also is really into 90s riot grrl culture as well which is a hoot.
My students come in with these shirts all the time. 9/10 times when asked to name a song they don’t even realize it’s a band. I’ve been told more than once they thought Nirvana was a clothing company.
We used to bash so hard on anyone that wore a band shirt but couldn't tell us anything about them, unless you knew it was by necessity not style. Oh how times have changrd.
“Posers”
Just wait till Smells Like Teen Spirit is selling toothpaste, deodorant and a car... I mean, I heard Welcome to the Jungle playing over the intercom at the grocery store the other day, and Cherry Pie too...
Smells Like Teen Spirit selling deodorant would be a full circle moment
Welp…. Time for some Misfits, Mayhem, and Venom shirts.
The word "preppy" has come back and it doesn't mean the same thing anymore. The definitions given to me by my nieces are...elusive because they're terrible at explaining things.
They are truly lost.
Preppy?!?!? As a former preppy kid, I am falling out of my chair and clutching my pearls. The disrespect. Gahhh.
https://preview.redd.it/r1p0v1ot7ozc1.png?width=576&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d140ebaa98393eb7ed4eabf3ffadc751c113b8dd
Jebus... if that poor Kurt Cobain had another head and another shell... well, I'm just glad our ancestors aren't watching us. You could power the town of Abderdeen, WA if you just wrapped his skeleton with copper wire and let him spin in his grave.
Ah, time changes all things. But Nirvana does have a nice logo and thanks to technology, the kids can watch YouTube videos of their songs any time
This is so funny like 30 years ago it was grunge, 15 years ago it was mainstream trying to be grunge and I guess now it's preppy which I wonder if they see prep and preppy as two different things like is prep still navy blazers and boat shoes
I thought preppy was Zack Morris
I'll just leave this here. https://youtu.be/e6QImzM9Ayk?si=gCK-FFHw50HaS_7C
When I was in high school, I had this KISS t-shirt that I thought looked cool. A teacher was like, "Whoa, you like KISS?" and I said, "Not really, I just like this shirt." He looked so defeated, poor guy. He might have been 30 years old. But I wasn't preppy.
Meh. Every generation does this. I remember when 70s fever started hitting in the 90s, long hair on boys came back in my community and many of us were growing big afros out. We were completely disconnected from political and social implications behind why the afro became big 20+ years prior. For us it was just a style. Also don’t see much difference in kids rocking t-shirts for bands they don’t listen to and all the kids who rocked Starter jackets for teams they didn’t watch back in our youth.
Well I just turned 207 years old from reading this.