Editing Generation X (section)

== Terminology and etymology ==
[[File:Douglas Coupland Photo of Author.jpg|alt=|thumb|left|upright=0.8|[[Douglas Coupland]] popularized the term ''Generation X'' in his 1991 novel ''[[Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture]]''.]]

The term ''Generation X'' has been used at various times to describe alienated youth. In the early 1950s, Hungarian photographer [[Robert Capa]] first used ''Generation X'' as the title for a photo-essay about young men and women growing up immediately after [[World War II]]. The term first appeared in print in a December 1952 issue of ''[[Holiday (magazine)|Holiday]]'' magazine announcing its upcoming publication of Capa's photo-essay.<ref name=Ulrich>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=v10ZUR_Ca3EC&pg=PA32 |page= 5 |title= GenXegesis: Essays on Alternative Youth (Sub)culture |isbn= 978-0-87972-862-5 |last1= Ulrich |first1= John Mcallister |last2= Harris |first2= Andrea L. |year= 2003 |publisher= Popular Press |access-date= 16 April 2016 |archive-date= 3 February 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230203080657/https://books.google.com/books?id=v10ZUR_Ca3EC&pg=PA32 |url-status= live }}</ref> From 1976 to 1981, English musician [[Billy Idol]] used the term as the name of [[Generation X (band)|his punk rock band]].<ref name="Adweek"/> Idol attributed his band's name to Jane Deverson's and Charles Hamblett's 1964 book ''[[Generation X (1964 book)|Generation X]]'', about British popular youth culture<ref name="Gen X">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26339959|title=The original Generation X|date=1 March 2014|work=BBC News|access-date=11 September 2017|language=en-GB|archive-date=11 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911162513/http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26339959|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Robb |first=John |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/934936262 |title=Punk Rock: An Oral History |date=2012 |publisher=PM |isbn=978-1-60486-005-4 |oclc=934936262 |page=240}}</ref>—a copy of which his mother had owned.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://punk77.co.uk/groups/generationx.htm|title=Generation X - A Punk Rock History with Pictures.|website=punk77.co.uk|access-date=11 July 2010|archive-date=1 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160201233522/http://punk77.co.uk/groups/generationx.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> These uses of the term appear to have no connection to Capa's photo-essay.<ref name=Ulrich/>

The term gained a modern application after the release of Canadian author [[Douglas Coupland]]'s 1991 novel ''[[Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture]]'', but the definition used there is "born in the late 1950s and 1960s", which is about ten years earlier than definitions that came later.<ref>{{cite book |last=Coupland |first=Douglas |author-link=Douglas Coupland |date=1991 |title=Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WRdH_LnSsQ0C&pg=PP4 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]] |page=inside front dust jacket flap |isbn=9780312054366}}</ref><ref name="Cunningham">{{cite book |last1=Cunningham |first1=Guy Patrick |editor1-last=Ciment |editor1-first=James |title=Postwar America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History, Volume 2 |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-46235-4 |page=596 |chapter=Generation X |quote=The expression was later popularized by the American author Douglas Coupland, who borrowed it for the title of his 1991 novel ''Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture''.}}</ref><ref name="Gen X"/><ref name=Raphelson>{{cite news|last1=Raphelson|first1=Samantha|title=From GIs To Gen Z (Or Is It iGen?): How Generations Get Nicknames|url=https://www.npr.org/2014/10/06/349316543/don-t-label-me-origins-of-generational-names-and-why-we-use-them|access-date=21 May 2016|publisher=NPR|date=6 October 2014|archive-date=1 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701053025/http://www.npr.org/2014/10/06/349316543/don-t-label-me-origins-of-generational-names-and-why-we-use-them|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1987, Coupland had written a piece in ''[[Vancouver Magazine]]'' titled "Generation X" which was "the seed of what went on to become the book".<ref name=Genesis>{{cite news |last1=Coupland |first1=Douglas |title=Genesis X |url=http://vanmag.com/uncategorized/genesis-x/ |access-date=24 March 2019 |work=Vancouver Magazine |date=2 September 2007 |archive-date=24 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324025250/http://vanmag.com/uncategorized/genesis-x/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Coupland |first1=Douglas |title=Generation X |url=http://vanmag.com/uncategorized/generation-x-september-1987/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324022020/http://vanmag.com/uncategorized/generation-x-september-1987/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 March 2019 |access-date=24 March 2019 |work=Vancouver Magazine |date=September 1987 }}  See original magazine pages {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20190324025405/http://vanmag.com/vmdrup/sitesfiles/DC_Sept87_pgs164lg.jpg 164]}}, {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20190324022348/http://vanmag.com/vmdrup/sitesfiles/DC_Sept87_pgs165lg.jpg 165]}}, {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20190324025427/http://vanmag.com/vmdrup/sitesfiles/DC_Sept87_pg167lg.jpg 167]}}, {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20190324022317/http://vanmag.com/vmdrup/sitesfiles/DC_Sept87_pgs168lgnew.jpg 168]}}, {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20190324022207/http://vanmag.com/vmdrup/sitesfiles/DC_Sept87_pgs169lg.jpg 169]}}.  The story is continued on p. 194, which was not scanned.</ref> Coupland referenced Billy Idol's band Generation X in the 1987 article and again in 1989 in ''Vista'' magazine.<ref name=Vista /> In the book proposal for his novel, Coupland wrote that ''Generation X'' is "taken from the name of Billy Idol's long-defunct punk band of the late 1970s",<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Doody |first1=Christopher |title=X-plained: The Production and Reception History of Douglas Coupland's Generation X |journal=Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada |date=2011 |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=5–34 |url=https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/bsc/article/view/21940 |access-date=20 July 2020 |archive-date=20 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200720032040/https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/bsc/article/view/21940 |url-status=live }}</ref> but in 1995 he denied the term's connection to the band, saying:

<blockquote>The book's title came not from Billy Idol's band, as many supposed, but from the final chapter of a funny sociological book on American class structure titled ''[[Class: A Guide Through the American Status System|Class]]'', by [[Paul Fussell]]. In his final chapter, Fussell named an "X" category of people who wanted to hop off the merry-go-round of status, money, and social climbing that so often frames modern existence.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Coupland |first1=Douglas |title=Generation X'd |url=http://coupland.tripod.com/details1.html |access-date=24 March 2019 |work=Details Magazine |date=June 1995 |archive-date=24 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324022022/http://coupland.tripod.com/details1.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Genesis /></blockquote>

Author [[Strauss–Howe generational theory|William Strauss]] noted that around the time Coupland's novel was published the symbol "X" was prominent in popular culture, as the film ''[[Malcolm X (1992 film)|Malcolm X]]'' was released in 1992, and that the name "Generation X" stuck. The "X" refers to an unknown variable or to a desire not to be defined.<ref name="MetLife2"/><ref>{{cite book|title=Neil Howe & William Strauss discuss the Silent Generation on Chuck Underwood's Generations|date=2001|pages=49:00|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_owfM7CiCA#t=202.342609854|access-date=21 May 2016|archive-date=21 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150421080017/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_owfM7CiCA#t=202.342609854|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Raphelson /> Strauss's coauthor [[Neil Howe]] noted the delay in naming this demographic cohort: "Over 30 years after their birthday, they didn't have a name. I think that's germane." Previously, the cohort had been called post-Boomers, Baby Busters (which refers to the drop in birth rates after the baby boom in the western world, particularly in the U.S.{{Where|date=March 2022}}),<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C2WmSCOBR2IC&q=%22Generation+X%22+%22baby+bust%22&pg=PA307|title=Encyclopedia of Identity|last1=II|first1=Ronald L. Jackson|last2=Jackson|first2=Ronald L.|last3=Hogg|first3=Michael A.|date=29 June 2010|publisher=SAGE|isbn=978-1-4129-5153-1|language=en|access-date=17 October 2020|archive-date=3 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203080701/https://books.google.com/books?id=C2WmSCOBR2IC&q=%22Generation+X%22+%22baby+bust%22&pg=PA307|url-status=live}}</ref> the New [[Lost Generation]], [[latchkey kid]]s, the [[MTV Generation]], and the 13th Generation (the 13th generation since [[American independence]]).<ref name="Adweek"/><ref name="MetLife2">{{cite news|title=Demographic Profile - America's Gen X|url=https://www.metlife.com/assets/cao/mmi/publications/Profiles/mmi-gen-x-demographic-profile.pdf|access-date=21 May 2016|publisher=MetLife|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817083829/https://www.metlife.com/assets/cao/mmi/publications/Profiles/mmi-gen-x-demographic-profile.pdf|archive-date=17 August 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Vista>{{cite web |last=Coupland |first=Doug |url=http://joeclark.org/dossiers/GenerationX.pdf |title=Generation X |publisher=Vista |year=1989 |access-date=4 July 2009 |archive-date=7 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091007071317/http://joeclark.org/dossiers/GenerationX.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Lipton|first1=Lauren|title=The Shaping of a Shapeless Generation : Does MTV Unify a Group Known Otherwise For its Sheer Diversity?|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-11-10-tv-1845-story.html|access-date=10 September 2016|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=10 November 1911|archive-date=5 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305010250/http://articles.latimes.com/1991-11-10/news/tv-1845_1_mtv-generation|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Jackson>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C2WmSCOBR2IC&pg=PA307 |title=Encyclopedia of Identity |last1=Jackson |first1=Ronald L. |last2=Hogg |first2=Michael A. |year=2010 |publisher=SAGE |isbn=978-1-4129-5153-1 |page=307 |language=en |access-date=17 October 2020 |archive-date=3 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203080701/https://books.google.com/books?id=C2WmSCOBR2IC&pg=PA307 |url-status=live }}</ref>