15 July 2009

"lock and key" || lilofee || 2009

When Outkast released the single "Hey Ya" in the first part of this decade, my dad told me, "Your generation now has its theme song." I agreed with him until I heard this song on the radio this morning.

It's always seemed to me that generations before mine were so easy to define! Kids of the '60s / Vietnam era were hippies and flower children, there were new wave kids and preppies in the '80s, and you had Generation X in the '90s. Our generation just seemed too ambiguous to define.

The singer proclaims herself (himself? it's hard to tell) a member of "generation sexually ambiguous," then goes on to describe the nightly process of swapping clothes before hitting the party / club scene. There's even talk of sharing eyeliner, and a nod to the fact that it's more than okay -- in fact, normal -- for girls to kiss other girls.

This generation is sexually liberated, but it's not what defines us. Lilofee seems to have used, perhaps unintentionally, the idea of sexual ambiguity to describe a generation that is difficult to define. A generation defined by its ambiguity, if you will. I can only thank them, and ask where I can buy the CD.

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