Scoot: Green Day and the continued relevance of the mosh pit

The Scoot On The Air “Free For All Friday” Show opened by welcoming back Ian, who had gone to a Green Day concert in Dallas.

As Ian talked about how meaningful the concert was to him, we ended up in a discussion about concerts featuring bands from the grunge era by analyzing the famed mosh pit.

I’ve always loved analyzing music and how it relates to society and pop culture trends.  A hostile witness to the Boomer generation, I defy the Boomer image by showing understanding, curiosity and support for the behavior and trends of younger generations, like the mosh pit.  Most Boomers were critical of the activities of the mosh pit during concerts as nothing but deviant behavior, but I have always recognized the importance of the mosh pit to that young generation.

Mosh pits were formed by the concert-goers on the floor and included stage diving, crowd surfing, and slam dancing, which amounted to young people literally slamming their bodies against the bodies of nearby and unknown concert-goers. Slam into someone dancing in a country bar and a fight might break out, but slam into a fan at a grunge-era concert and there is no fight. For a generation that felt isolated in many ways, the contact of slamming against the body of another fan was a form of connecting with someone and while that may seem strange, it served as a form of communication among young fans, who are now in the late-30s to 40s.

It’s understandable for Boomers to think the mosh pit is violent and senseless, but to that angst-ridden generation it had meaning. Stage diving was an expression that someone would catch you. Crowd surfing was a form of bonding and a subliminal show of support of someone you didn’t even know. And it is normal that the grunge generation created things that their parents’ generation didn’t understand in the same way that Booms established styles and trends their parents’ generation thought were the dawn of a reckless society.

It’s not surprising that those grunge fans who bonded with certain groups when they were coming of age are resurrecting the mosh pit.  It’s their way of being that young person with a desire to form an identity that would be unique to their generation.

Hear the conversation about Ian's experience in Dallas in the audio player above.