Is a line like “We are the kids that no one wants” more nihilistic than James Dean’s 1950s rebellion and disillusion in “Rebel Without a Cause,” or The Who asking their elders “why don’t you all f-fade away (talkin’ about my generation)” or Joan Jett belting “Hello, Daddy, Hello, Mom I’m your ch-ch-ch cherry bomb”. ..or is it the same sense of alienation and doom, updated, this time by punk rockers Rise Against, a Chicago based foursome whose “Nowhere Generation” is currently one of the most played song on Alternative radio?
“Nowhere Generation” is Rise Against’s 9th album and the title song is just as rebellious and raw, and loud and searing as our Boomer generation’s cri de coeur. Maybe youth always thinks they are getting a bum deal?
We are the nowhere generation
We are the kids that no one wants
We are a credible threat to the rules you set
A cause to be alarmed
We are not the names that we’ve been given
We speak a language you don’t know
We are the nowhere generation