High School Musical vs The Breakfast Club
So it hit me the other day… What the big deal is about High School Musical. It’s this: It’s probably the first big Millennial Generation identifiable movie. When I say Millennial, I’m referring to the now junior high and high school generation.
It’s funny, because for me and other Gen-Xers, I think back to The Breakfast Club. It’s that kind of film where our parents didn’t get it, but everyone from that generation identified with the movie. It became part of our generation’s brand/ethos/psyche.
Then think about where we’ve come from since. The Breakfast Club portrayed values like drug abuse, sexual promiscuity, absent parents, detention and apathy toward life. High School Musical is centered around more positive themes: modesty in sex and language, team-oriented sports and school work, sports stars are coachable and loyal to the team.
It’s a different generation. But I’m happy about that.
But that’s just my thoughts.
October 19th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Good observation. Although… I think you’re comparing a “teen” movie to a “tween” movie, so that could account for the shift in values. Especially considering that the latter was made by Disney.
On a sidenote, I was messing around in the iTunes radio channels today, and hit one of those “new age enlightenment” channels, just to see if they were playing that cliché folksy crap. Turns out that they were playing a song from High School Musical. It was more than a little creepy. Although I guess Disney’s values just ooze humanism. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised.
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:15 am
Great insight…
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:39 am
Ah, Good point!