Why does slam poetry all sound the same?

[Wjames]

I thought the poem was pretty good; I've never been into Slam Poetry, but pretty much all of it I've seen has used the same "out-of-breath, about to explode" style as here. I'd like to see some where the poets try and use silence and calm to further punctuate the intensity of other parts.

That's a good observation. Yes, I do believe that the crowds, as well as the participants are general of that age (or those who have yet to grow out of it) where self obsession still seems a legitimate goal. Still trying to blame their parents for how miserable their lives are, even though they have better lives than 99.99% of all people throughout history. Yes, if you notice when she is getting the applause it would suggest the whiner generations is aptly represented. It is the romance of the old beatnik coffee houses, except now there are winners not just snapping fingers! Yeah! But people can still feel a part of the "in crowd" and by calling it "poetry" they can pretend to be "cultured", and be snobby and look down on everybody else. It's a win, win.   

When you get right down to it, there is not that much variance in human behavior. Every generation has it form of rebellion.

"It mattered not the cause, equality - civil rights.
we cared nothing for the principal, we were fighting just to fight."


Dale

Every generation's been the "me" generation. The only difference is that now instead of just real action and dreams, people have access to things like facebook, instagram and twitter, etc, where they can polish, perfect, and broadcast every detail of their imagined selves to everyone they know. This has made it more acceptable and thus more common to be a completely self-absorbed (everyone is at least partially) deuschebag.