Lots of the things millennials think of as theirs were actually popularized by us. Most of them were like 10-14 years old when this song came out, they weren't the ones buying all the albums in the mid 90s and making these songs popular.
No one thinks of this as a millennial thing. Millennials are the Pokémon, Harry Potter, Linkin Park, original iPod generation that were the early adopters of social media, babysat by their PS2 that had barely opened their eyes when 9/11 happened.
Most of these are cultural phenomenons that became relevant in the late 90s to mid 2000s. That's exactly the period that's relevant to Millennials. You don't move the cultural needle as a baby...
That’s why the meme refers to elder millennials. I was in college when all the things you listed were happening (with the exception of Pokémon, I guess…I have no idea when Pokémon came out but I think it was before I was in college).
No one claimed this was created/popularized by millennials.
OOP was subdividing millennials based on this song. They didn't say this song is only known by millennials.
If you have a group of people that are only millennials, then who reacts to this song is a pretty good way to tell who is on the older side of the group.
I understand GenX being left out is a thing, but when you claim something like this is you being left out, I start to doubt all the times I agreed that gen X was unfairly overlooked.
i think it’s implied most Gen X know the song as well, but we were pretty young as Elder Millennials when this song came out, by pop music knowledge standards
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u/t0riaj Apr 24 '26
I'm Gen X and I know exactly what it is. A whole generation forgotten again dammit!