Top 10 Gen X Things That Don't Exist Anymore

Gen Xers grew up with all kinds of music, from new wave to old-school hip-hop. But if there was one sound that’s especially specific to that era, it’s hair metal. Also known as glam metal, this was heavy metal with an emphasis on pop appeal and aesthetics, particularly in terms of fashions and grooming. Bands like Mötley Crüe, Poison, and Twisted Sister were anything but subtle. But their best songs were ones with hooks - and riffs for days. As the 80s turned to the 90s, tastes shifted from the Sunset Strip to Seattle, with the rise of grunge. But even if hair metal never came back in full force, the affection for it among Gen Xers remains.

There's nothing quite like the Gen X experience of coming home from a long day of school, turning on ABC, and kicking back with a TV movie about trauma or other heavy topic. These “After School Specials” began in the early 70s and lasted until 1997. And if you’re a Gen Xer, you likely remember them in all of their melodramatic glory. However, while they might have seemed over the top, they did cover important issues like substance use disorder and racism. And they also put future stars like Viggo Mortensen and Marisa Tomei on our radars.

Before smartphones, and even before cell phones became commonplace, the best way to reach someone while out and about was with a pager. These were devices, also known as “beepers,” that sent and received alerts. Communications could be received via other pagers as well as landline phones. If you’re a Gen Xer, you likely have memories of receiving a page and then finding a payphone (also widely available) to call the person trying to reach you. As cell phones grew in popularity, pagers’ time in the spotlight inevitably faded. However, they’re still widely used in essential professional fields, such as health care and emergency services.

Want to give a Gen Xer an instant nostalgia flashback?? Just say these five words. Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific was a fragrance shampoo from the Andrew Jergens Company. And when we say “fragrance,” we mean it. Described as a blend of chamomile, bubblegum and sage, it was an appealing scent that caught the nose of anyone in your radius. And they didn’t forget the importance of visual appeal, either. The colorful bottles made them stand out on store shelves. Though U.S. production of Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific has ended, the formula has since been licensed to a corporation in the Philippines, where it continues to be made and sold.

If you’re a millennial or Gen Z, you probably know about making mixes in the sense of burning songs to a CD or creating a streaming playlist. While those are each perfectly valid ways to compile your favorite songs, we urge you to pay your respects to your Gen X ancestors, who would make mixtapes by recording songs on the radio to actual physical cassette tapes. And there was nothing worse than your favorite song coming on and not hitting the “record” button in time. You may also remember songs being interrupted by the DJ cutting in. While this was technically copyright infringement, can you blame us for wanting to hear a mix of our favorite songs whenever possible?

Years before the dawn of Nintendo, the brand most synonymous with video games was Atari. And if you’re a Gen Xer, you likely logged countless hours playing games of “Pong” and “Pac-Man” on your Atari 2600 or at the local arcade. Unfortunately, Atari’s initial success was swiftly thwarted by shoddier competition flooding the marketplace, resulting in the video game crash of 1983. The infamously bad “E.T.” video game produced by the company was another massive blow to their reputation and future. Home gaming consoles did recover thanks to Nintendo a couple of years later. And while Atari does live on as a brand name, by the end of the 80s, it was effectively “game over” for them as any kind of industry leader.

Listening to music on the go is nothing new these days. But for Gen Xers, it was something very special. The Sony Walkman, a portable cassette player, revolutionized how a generation consumed music. Sure, having to rewind a tape with a pencil might be inconvenient compared to pulling up any song on your phone at a moment’s notice. But it helped build character. The rise of the CD as the dominant musical format in the 90s was a major hit to the Walkman’s relevance. However, Sony kept producing the cassette player until 2010. And game-changing devices like the iPod arguably wouldn’t be possible without the Walkman paving the way.

In the days before “Netflix and chill” we had “Blockbuster and hope that the movie you wanted was still available.” While they weren’t the only video rental store around, they were the biggest. And if you’re a Gen Xer, you might remember the layout of your local Blockbuster as well as you do your childhood home - if not better. And in those pre-DVD days, you needed to make sure to “Be Kind, Rewind!”. Though they enjoyed blockbuster fortunes past the new millennium, the rise of Netflix soon marked them as a brand behind the times. And in 2010, they filed for bankruptcy, with mass store closures beginning in 2014. One store, in Bend, Oregon, known colloquially as “The Last Blockbuster” remains.

If you were a teenager in the 80s or early 90s, one particular TV channel was much more than that. For countless Gen Xers, MTV in its prime was a statement. Whether introducing them to their new favorite artists via unforgettable music videos or holding mirrors up to society through cutting-edge shows like “Beavis and Butt-Head” and “The Real World,” MTV made every other station look all the stuffier. But as the youngest members of Generation X started reaching adulthood, MTV lost much of its sense of danger - not to mention its connection to its original name, “Music Television.” However, there’s no denying what an incredible impact it had on a generation and their perception of the world around them.

At the time, it may have seemed like Gen X was getting inundated with mass communication and losing touch on a more personal level. But pagers and dial-up internet seem rather quaint compared to the age of smartphones and social media. And so, experiences like concerts didn’t have thousands of people pulling out their phones to capture videos of their favorite artists to post on TikTok. Most of all, Gen X could “log off” in a way that’s still possible today, but much more difficult to accomplish, given how normalized constant communication has become. No matter when you were born, you can still embrace your inner Gen Xer by leaving your iPhone at home and exploring the world around you through fresh eyes.






What’s your favorite memory of growing up Gen X? Let us know in the comments


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