The term “Generation X” refers to the demographic cohort born roughly between 1966 and 1981. In the book, Klosterman explores how this generation was defined, perceived, and misunderstood during the 1990s. The generation got its name from Douglas Coupland’s 1991 novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, which popularized the term. Gen X was often characterized by the media as apathetic, cynical, and disillusioned, traits that Klosterman both examines and challenges throughout the text. The author emphasizes that while these characteristics were attributed to the entire generation, they were more accurately representative of a small, vocal subset that came to symbolize the whole. Klosterman also notes the irony in how the generation’s supposed disinterest in labels ultimately led to their acceptance of the “Generation X” moniker.

Grunge is a genre of rock music that emerged in the late 1980s and became dominant in the early 1990s. In The Nineties, Klosterman describes grunge as the “de facto soundtrack of the early nineties,” characterized by distorted guitar sounds, introspective or angst-filled lyrics, and a stripped-down aesthetic that rejected the glam and excess of 1980s rock (45). Klosterman argues that while grunge was often criticized for its sonic limitations and derivative nature, its most significant contribution to mainstream rock was introducing “a collective sense of self-aware skepticism” (45).