A NEW KIND OF LOVEFEST AT HAND

Forty years ago, young people moved to music their parents despised,
upended the conventions of their elders and, as the saying went, did
not trust anyone over 30.

These days? All is groovy.

So finds a new poll out this week, examining the generation gap four
decades after Woodstock and the rebel yell of 1960s youth.

The Pew Research Center noticed what could be an eternal truth: Young
people and older people exhibit marked differences in attitudes.
Whether it's the work ethic, religious beliefs, racial tolerance, the
way they treat other people or the use of technology, the young and
the old are not on the same page.

What's striking, researchers say, is that the differences don't seem
to matter anymore.

Young people, far from rejecting the values of their parents, seem to
fault themselves for not living up to those standards. People under 30
tend to think older people have better moral values than they do, said
the poll released Wednesday.

"This modern generation gap is a much more subdued affair than the one
that raged in the 1960s," said survey authors Paul Taylor and Richard
Morin, "for relatively few Americans of any age see it as a source of
conflict -- either in society at large or in their own families."

They've come together, right now, over music, too. Rock rules across
generations and the Beatles are high on the list of every age group's
favorite bands.

Inside the home, the researchers say, "something approximating peace
seems to have broken out between parents and teenagers."

Only 10 percent of parents of older children said they often have
major disagreements with their kids. Nearly twice that many reported
sharp conflicts with their own parents back when they were growing up.
Parents also say they are spending more time with their children than
their parents spent with them.

In the years since Aug. 15-18, 1969, the weekend the muddy chaos of
Woodstock marked rock music as the great divide between generations,
that fissure seems to have closed.

In 1966, one survey found rock was distinctly on the margins -- liked
only by 4 percent, disliked by 44 percent, clearly the most unpopular
form of music. Now it's No. 1 overall, and the favorite of every age
group except those 65 and over, who prefer country, according to the
poll.

In the new poll's multigenerational battle of the bands, the Beatles
come out on top, favored over the Eagles from the 1970s; the late
Johnny Cash, a dominant country star for nearly half a century; the
recently deceased Michael Jackson; Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones.

The Beatles are just one of the bands from the 1960s and '70s loved by
people who were born well after those acts broke up.

Hip-hop is a dividing line now: the second favorite music type for the
young, but not registering on the charts for people 50 and older.

The poll follows one done a month ago that puzzled researchers because
so many people in it -- nearly 80 percent -- said they believed a
generation gap exists in America. That's even more than identified a
generation gap in 1969 -- 74 percent.

Pew decided to take a closer look and found that the gap, if broad, is
not deep.

Only one quarter of respondents see strong conflicts these days
between the generations. That's down from 42 percent who saw such
tensions in 1992. Fully two-thirds now say such conflicts are either
weak or don't exist anymore.

Among other findings:

55 percent identified strong or very strong conflicts between
immigrants and U.S.-born citizens; 47 percent between the poor and the
rich and 39 percent between black and white.

73 percent say younger and older people are very different in their
use of technology, 69 percent see such differences in musical tastes,
58 percent in the work ethic, and 54 percent in moral values.

Pew interviewed 1,815 people by phone July 20 to Aug. 2 for a poll
that has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage
points. Its findings about musical acts were put to a second round of
interviews.

In 1964, Berkeley free speech activist Jack Weinberg commented, "We
have a saying in the movement that we don't trust anybody over 30."
Others picked up on the thought. It inspired a slogan on buttons.

That attitude seems gone. If anything, people under 30 may be
disinclined to trust themselves.

Two-thirds of respondents under 30 said older people have a superior
work ethic, better values than the younger generation and more respect
for other people. Older people agreed they are superior in those ways.

The young got the nod from young and old on matters of tolerance. They
are considered more open on race and on groups different from them.

Forty years after, opinions about Woodstock remain diverse. "Hippie
drug fest," said one respondent. "A celebration of freedom and new
ideas," said another. "Everyone went to a field and got naked," said a
third.

But the rancor behind that disagreement is long gone.

Peace out.