If it’s true, as so many Boomers fear, that people grow up to be their parents, then youth culture today has accelerated the process. Despite the messages of a fear-mongering mainstream media, the “Girls Gone Wild” stereotype has been diminished by youth gone mild, with teen violence, drug use, and premarital sex all on the decline. Politically and socially, kids have become almost conventional. They want to get married, have families-big ones-and, yes, they love their folks. Two thirds of teens told the data collectors for the yearly book Who’s Who Among American High School Students that they’re usually happy at home and want to raise their kids the same way they were brought up.

Not sure about this? A recent Mood of American Youth survey revealed that over 80 percent of teens report no family problems. That’s more than twice the percentage of satisfied teens 25 years earlier. Two thirds of daughters questioned in another poll gave their moms a grade of “A.” In fact, the idea of an eternal youthful rebellion, or a generation gap for that matter, is a Baby Boomer conceit no longer in evidence.

In 2004, David Wolfe, creative director of the Doneger Group, which forecasts fashion trends and whose clients include Wal-Mart and Nordstrom, said, “The latest American fashions-pert skirts and prim coats, Peter Pan collars and proper tweeds, some harking back to Mamie Eisenhower’s day-are refreshing and even subversive. They represent fashion’s way of thumbing its nose at the status quo and simply moving on. Blouses with bows have never looked so avant-garde…. In fashion these days, to be uptight is to be edgy.” Mr. Wolfe predicted that the (edgy) trend would have staying power, that it would sell in stores, and that it is in tune with a shift in the cultural climate.

He continued, “In entertainment and advertising, there is a growing consensus that the consumer’s appetite for blatant sexuality is abating, that to average Americans the antics of certain celebrities-Janet Jackson baring a jeweled nipple during the halftime show at the Super Bowl, Paris Hilton starring in her own sex tape last fall-now seem as stale as day-old Champagne.”

Also in 2004, Anna Bahney quoted William Strauss, co-author of the book, Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation, about kids born since 1982: “In the history of polling, we’ve never seen tweens and teens get along with their parents this well.”

Disney has enjoyed an impressive rejuvenation by filling its cable channel with kiddie-drive shows in the 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM window, when big media programmers fight to attract seven- to thirteen-year-olds with derivative family-friendly programming. Series like The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, That’s So Raven, The Wizards of Waverly Place, and Hannah Montana, while stealing shamelessly from The Honeymooners and I Love Lucy, draw parents and their teen and preteen children to the squeaky-clean cable offering.

The logical and definitive extension of this cross-generational media theft is the reinvention of the squeaky-clean musical. It dawned on Disney that leavening its TV shows with original, easily digested songs could build their brand identity. Thus was born High School Musical, an Up with People-esque musical that not only kept Disney’s TV show audience, but also expanded its age range down to four- and five-year-olds. Perhaps the most surprising piece of cultural trivia from 2006, from Nielsen SoundScan’s rankings, was that High School Musical’s stunningly formulaic soundtrack was the number one selling CD of that year.

Taking it a step further, High School Musical’s actors weren’t just wholesome kids on TV; for the most part they were squeaky-clean in real life too. Disney execs didn’t say so publicly, but it became clear that they preferred casting model citizens with acceptable talent to attitude cases with top-tier acting ability. Talent became less important than sheer manageability. However, Disney may have created media monsters they can no longer control. When nude photos of Musical star and tweener role model Vanessa Hudgens became public, quickly followed by a series of public-relations challenges posed by racy photos of Disney’s reigning goddess, Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana), there was talk that Disney would proceed on High School Musical sequels without Hudgens, and that perhaps Cyrus had outgrown the company’s image. In the end Hudgens’ star power with the tweener demographic was such that she managed to hang on to her job, and although Cyrus continues to push the envelope in an apparent attempt to expand her brand to a more adult demographic, she also remains in the Disney stable. With creative risk mitigated, the High School Musical formula has already been replicated, not only at Disney with at least two sequels and its hugely successful Camp Rock TV movie (destined to become a franchise of its own), but at the other big content houses.

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