Word: genericism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...seems every country-music juke box has just one song on it these days: Shania Twain's Any Man of Mine. This chirpy feminist anthem, so popular that it has inspired a parody version by a male singer, is generic pop at its most infectious. It has a little festival of familiar tropes: fiddles and steel guitars, drawling humor and tight harmonies, a pounding melody echoing Neil Young's Love Is a Rose and some "yeahs" filched from Ray Charles. There's even a snatch of rap, square-dance style, as it might be rendered by a cheerleader at Buford...
...Tagamet last year; Merck's exclusive rights to Pepcid end in 2000; and Glaxo's claim to Zantac expires in 2002. By law, any company that switches to an over-the-counter preparation of its product enjoys a three-year monopoly before other firms are allowed to manufacture a generic version. All three companies are planning to use the time to establish name recognition and brand loyalty among consumers...
...second choice reporters have is to pull out one of the numerous generic explanations of why stocks went up or down, as in "blue chips fell as investors took profits," or "investors were looking for issues that have lagged and therefore are cheap," or "investors are concerned their stocks are poised to fall after rising...
...rung above welfare on the nation's "ladder of opportunity." These are people who tiptoe between paychecks and have no savings, who ride the bus to the discount stores, who sell their plasma until their veins scar, who don't bother to clip coupons for Cheerios because the generic version is still cheaper, and who can be wiped out by even a minor medical problem...
...there any immaculate sorority houses with teddy bear wallpaper and plush pink carpets. And there are very few generic college dorms, with long communal hallways, box-like cinder block bedrooms and bathrooms shared by the entire floor...