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.