Born between 1980 and 2000, millennials are the first generation in history who, as adults, can use and are thoroughly familiar with the digital world — including in music.
Millennials aside, the debate about new generations is by no means a recent phenomenon: the first time people began talking about a generation of young people identified on the basis of specific characteristics was in the 1950s. At the time, the talk was of baby boomers — those born between 1945 and 1964 — the generation that, in the immediate post-war period, helped drive up demand for consumer goods.
After the baby boomers came Generation X, those born between 1964 and the late 1970s, and today the coining of ever-new generational categories, each differentiated from the last, shows no sign of stopping (the most recent to be theorised is that of the xennials). In recent years, most of the conversation has centred on the so-called Generation Y: also known as the millennial generation, generation next or net generation.
Millennials are those currently in the 15 to 35 age bracket, born between 1980 and 2000 (and reading those dates, you might be surprised to find that you belong to this generation too).
They were first theorised in the late 1980s by historians William Strauss and Neil Howe. Subsequently, words far from encouraging were spent on them: they were accused of being lazy, politically apathetic, spoilt, incapable of commitment and hopelessly addicted to their smartphones. For instance, an article published in Time in 2013 portrayed them as so narcissistic and self-absorbed that it coined a new label for them: the Me me me Generation.
Certainly the timespan that defines Generation Y is too broad to suppose that millennials have a wholly unified identity. But across the twenty years in question there were wide-ranging global political and economic upheavals that helped bring together young people from all over the world and from every social and economic background.
The defining characteristic remains something else, however: there is a reason it is also called the net generation. It is, in fact, the first generation in history that in its adult life uses and is thoroughly familiar with technology and the codes of digital communication.
What such a broad cross-section of the population has in common is, therefore, advanced use of digital tools that must always be connected to the internet. Millennials are always on, thanks to mobile devices connected from morning until night (and indeed they account for 55 per cent of online users in Italy between noon and 9pm).
The internet is used to do just about anything: send and receive emails, search online, browse editorial websites and spend time on social networks (for which there is a marked preference), but above all to watch videos, obtain information useful for education and work, play online, listen to music, send messages and use it as a meeting place with one's own circle of friends.
In short, every aspect of a millennial's life — study, work, leisure, shopping, relationships — passes through the internet.
This symbiotic relationship with the web is the characteristic most commonly criticised by previous generations: it is often thought that internet use is not sufficiently mindful and that it can lead to a detachment from reality. Many studies show risk behaviours among young people arising from improper use of social media in particular — Facebook above all.
So much is said against millennials that they themselves have a far more negative self-image than the generations that preceded them. A study by the Pew Research Center found that 59 per cent of Generation Y members describe themselves as self-centred and lazy, compared with around 30 per cent of Gen X and 20 per cent of baby boomers willing to apply these terms to their own generation.
A self-fulfilling prophecy, one might say. Yet there are far more positive characteristics that ought to be taken into account when talking about them.
For instance, according to research by Yahoo Advertising based on Nielsen data, millennials are the first truly global generation and therefore the most multiethnic, multilingual and transcultural in history. Added to this is a degree of social activism: in the United States, 73 per cent of them have done voluntary work in their local community.
Contrary to popular belief, they are very interested in what is happening in the outside world: they are simply less interested in the old delivery systems (print, radio, television). Eighty-one per cent of them go online daily specifically to seek out news through a new system that suits their behaviour, their needs and their personality.
Millennials are natural collaborators, in the workplace too: they are not competitive and have a strong social ethic. They possess a deep ecological sensitivity: according to research published in 2014, 26 per cent of European millennials say that the environment is one of the greatest problems facing the future, and climate change in particular.
Furthermore, they use the internet for their purchases too, but this does not mean that offline shopping experiences no longer exist. Rather, it means that millennials play a more active role in the purchasing process thanks to the wealth of information they can access.
Finally, millennials fully embrace the collaborative economy (or sharing economy) as a new philosophy of consumption: homes are no longer owned but rented and shared, travel is done together through car sharing services, public bicycles are used (bike sharing), work takes place in shared spaces (co-working), projects are funded through virtual collective fundraising (crowdfunding), and films are watched exclusively via streaming.
Owning is no longer necessarily a value, but making use of things is — a characteristic made possible on the one hand by an always-on, everywhere internet relationship, and made necessary on the other by an era marked by the worst economic crisis since the Depression of the 1930s.
It goes without saying at this point that the medium of choice for listening to music among millennials is the digital one: first came the iPod (or other mp3 players), but now the smartphone reigns supreme. Music is listened to via streaming on demand, thanks to services such as Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, Tidal, Prime Music & co.
Not only is music listened to online, but new discoveries are made there too. In this regard, YouTube overtakes radio for the first time, and among millennials it is neck and neck between the video platform and one's own circle of friends when it comes to "music recommendations".
The boundaries between musical genres (so celebrated in previous decades) have been dissolving for years, but this time not because of the heterogeneity of artists and musical offerings, or musical crossover — but because of the audience itself and the way it consumes music.
According to a survey by research firm Ypulse, music is still hugely important to young people (80 per cent of respondents admitted that music is an important part of their lives), but it too is becoming global: people are "interested in so many genres and artists" that only 11 per cent admit to listening to just one type of music.
In short, music is increasingly a matter of belonging and decreasingly a statement of self in opposition to one's parents. This is also borne out by the rise in recent years of numerous concert-events and music festivals (Coachella, SXSW, Bonnaroo, Tomorrowland, etc.) that become above all occasions for forging bonds, and in which the search for experience at various levels (not just musical) is stronger than the desire to get close to one's musical idols.