You often hear people questioning what type of music typified the Noughties decade, but i see it as an obvious answer as there was no type of music that typified the Noughties. What typified the Noughties was the fact that everything that was leading teenagers into adulthood was not met with the help teens seek, but the complete opposite of stopping them grow.
Knife crime, young offenders, teenage pregnancy. Just a few of the things that were labelled on teenagers during the Noughties. And many questions are asked why this is? And as there is no excuse for any of this juvenile behaviour the adults of today aren't exactly consulting it in the right manner. Yes, they lock them away. Yes, they think they give the best help for them. But what about the teenagers who are safe and good with a promising career ahead of them. How are they going to pay £5,000 insurance on their first car or pay interest at university when they have to get a student loan in the first place?
The government today seem to crack down on all the teenagers going into adulthood like a secondary school teacher does on a class with one bad student in it. "If you do one bad thing then the rest of the class will suffer" Is a phrase i heard on more than one occasion during school and it is now being copied by the government in the fact that a few crashes by young drivers result in the good drivers, who don't go out racing, who may just drive for the fun of driving sensibly have to suffer with them.
"When are you going to get your life sorted and on track son" A phrase no doubt nearly every son has heard from their dad at some stage. We always hear about how our older generation were the 'good' generation in getting jobs at the tender age of 11 and gaining independence from a young age. How are the kids of today supposed to gain independence when there is no way of a teen getting a job under the age of 16 without health and safety laws preventing them. How are we supposed to gain Independence when if we do manage to scrape a job in today's recession that all the money they earn still won't be enough to pay for insurance AND University? The answer is basically they can't. We hear about people living with their parents until they are in there 30's this is because of the ridiculous debt people are in from finishing university. And now the same party that PROMISED to cut down university tuition fee's are now THREATENING to increase them massively in the coming years piling on more debt for the students when they leave and no doubt an extra 20 odd years at home with their parents.
It seems as though the teenagers and young adults are in an impossible war to win. 'Back in the days...' you would hear about a strike here and a strike there to get what they want. Adults always telling us you don't always get what you want or even deserve, "just get what your given." Not something every adult listens to as we hear moaning all the time in newspapers about this business going on strike for a pay rise or that one over there. But one thing to note is that the teenagers do not go on strike, they take all the grief on the chin, have a chuckle, maybe a drink and "Get what there given and live with it."
What I'm trying to say in this article is that since the turn of the decade it seems like there has been a turn in respect to teenagers, we may have only been around since 1955 but we still deserve the same respect as our elders. No we did not fight in a war, no we did not express free love and peace... But no we didn't live in what seemed an easy route to adulthood. University tuition fee's didn't exist, insurance on a car would be 50 smackers at a push never mind the petrol prices.
The youth of today have it tough because the adults of today make it tough for us. The pressure we are under for A levels because apparently every ones getting 'Easy A's' is a load of ****. The fact car insurance for young drivers is souring because not everyone is a safe driver is again a load of ****. But what probably is the most heart-wrenching thing that that adults are doing is stopping teenagers furthering there education by making university all about the money. We get criticised for getting into University to easily and then the next week there's an article about how many people missed out on places at university... as a result of government cutting down on places. WHY? So that teens with the only plan going to university ruined now can be on the streets?
The whole system works around in a circular narrative in the fact we start off as the bad guys and then the story unravels itself through the reasons why we are the bad guys but because of the stubborn nature of "We're your elders, we know best and respect us" makes us still the seem the bad guys. If teenagers and adults are ever going to coincide then there has to be a line drawn where adults accept us into their world and help us along the way, instead of creating a brick wall that the adults seem to sit on top of with us scrambling at the bottom with debt holding us down.
So the era's before the Noughties were all created by the teenagers in the essence through music. This however is a new decade which the adults seem to think they can rule from the start and are now undermining the teenagers. So the Noughties are not remembered for a type of music, them decades have come and past...
...The Noughties are remembered by the teenagers for feeling let down by the older generation in stopping us grow but one phrase that we all do learn that the adults may want to listen to a bit more is "Get what your given and live with it."
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