When younger segments of the population take umbrage with the Baby Boomer generation, as is fashionable nowadays (often with a dismissive “OK, Boomer”), they’re neglecting that their opinions’ traction in the national dialogue is owed to the Boomers, who have always been the “bulge in the python,” demographically speaking. It wasn’t until the disproportionately large Boomer generation became adolescents, with unprecedented spending power, that marketing managers in every facet of popular culture began heeding the tastes and whims of teenagers. As Cher sang in the 1967 hit “The Beat Goes On,” “Teeny-bopper is our newborn king!”