Every generation has is defining cultural artifacts: music and movies, characters and catchphrases, fads and fashions that set them apart from the generation that came before them. And though we are probably more alike than we are different, Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z aren’t the same, and our favorite movies about growing up reflect that.

From Wild in the Streets to Footloose, teen/young adult movies tend to be about rebellion, both angsty and comedic, but often focus on growing up, going to school, working, partying, and of course, dating and sex.

Many of the movies revolve around their character’s love of music, and have soundtracks that better express the theme of the movie. It’s hard to imagine films like Beach Blanket Bingo, Rock and Roll High School, The Breakfast Club, Say Anything, Singles, Reality Bites, Empire Records, or Garden State without iconic songs like “Mrs. Robinson,” “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” or “Stay.”

Beginning with the 1960s and running through the 1990s, here are the five of the best movies about growing up, per decade.

1960s – Where The Boys Are

1. The Graduate – with oft-quoted lines like “Plastics” and “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me, ” this 1967 film is about recent graduate Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) trying to make it – in business and in the bedroom. The final shot, showing Benjamin and Elaine (Katharine Ross) escaping after he interrupted her wedding to someone else, perfectly captures the experience of getting what you thought you wanted but not knowing what to do next.
2. Wild in the Streets – In 1968, the voting age was 21, but men younger than that were being drafted and sent to war in Viet Nam, so this movie about Max Frost (Christopher Jones), a rock singer/revolutionary who used his influence to get Congress to drop the voting age to 14 (and all the mayhem that resulted), was very timely. “Fourteen or Fight!”
3. West Side Story – This 1961 musical, an updated Romeo and Juliet story set amidst gang violence in New York’s Upper West Side, starred Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn and Rita Moreno, and was directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. It was a popular musical first, and has since been remade by Steven Spielberg.
4. Where the Boys Are – This 1960 movie was about four college girls, played by Dolores Hart, Paula Prentiss, Yvette Mimieux and the crooner of the movie’s theme song, Connie Francis, who spent spring break in Fort Lauderdale, looking for love and finding only sex, for the most part. For its time, the movie’s exploration of female sexuality was ground-breaking.
5. Beach Blanket Bingo – Beach movies were still all the rage in 1965, and this one, starring Frankie Avalon and former Mouseketeer Annette Funicello has the title everyone remembers (well, that and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.) The plot is fluff and nonsense – a gang of kids party on the beach, go skydiving and fall in love – but there’s plenty of fun and frolicking and musical numbers. And mermaids.

The 1970s – Rock and Roll High School

1. Grease – Nostalgia for the 1950s was endemic in the 1970s, and a prime example is this 1978 musical about star-crossed lovers Danny (John Travolta) and Sandy (Olivia Newton-John), who couldn’t find a way to make their summer romance work once school started, as Danny was a greaser and Sandy a goody-two-shoes. But somewhere between “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “You’re the One that I Want” these two crazy kids a way to work it out, and they hopped aboard a flying car and lived happily ever after. For real.
2. Rock and Roll High School – Punk rock was just starting to make waves in America in the late 1970s, and this movie, which not only featured the music of the Ramones but starred Joey, Dee Dee, Johnny and Marky as themselves, capitalized on that. The story is slight – after delinquent Riff Randell (P.J. Soles) gets her ticket to see her favorite band confiscated, she invites them to help her take over the school from the principal and other squares who want to put an end to rock music. School’s out forever!
3. American Graffiti – another homage to the seemingly more innocent past, this movie, which came out in 1973 but was set in 1962. George Lucas directed the film, which starred Richard Dreyfus, Ron Howard and Harrison Ford as students living it up on the last night of summer vacation; crusing the streets having drag races, run-ins with cops and gangs, and looking for the perfect girl.
4. Animal House – Though it was also set in 1962, John Landis’ take on the lives of college kids was much more irreverent than Lucas’ in this sexed-up grossout comedy that starred Tim Matheson, John Belushi and Peter Riegert. Two freshmen try to pledge a fraternity and end up in the worst of the bunch, Delta Tau Chi, which has been put on “double secret probation.” Much mayhem ensues, from food fights to shocking crimes against horses to the sabotage of the homecoming parade by the Deltas, but it’s all in good fun.
5. Carrie – Everyone remembers the end of this supernatural horror, directed by Brian De Palma and taken from a Stephen King book, but Carrie’s story isn’t just about a prom night massacre. Carrie (Sissy Spacek) is bullied by her peers and terrorized by her mom, so it’s no wonder she uses her newfound telekinetic powers to get revenge. The movie also offers the lesson that it’s a good idea to teach your kids how to handle menstruation.

The 1980s – Say Anything

1. The Breakfast Club – It’s hard to pick which John Hughes film best represents his catalog of teen ensemble comedies, but between Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, one has definitely aged better than the other. Starring Hughes muse Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson and Anthony Michael Hall, this story of five students with nothing in common coming together to serve Saturday morning (!) detention was a huge hit. The movie taught us that even if you identified as a jock, a nerd, a weirdo, a princess or a burnout, you didn’t have to stay in that lane forever.
2. Say Anything – John Cusack was the 1980s It Guy, and he was at his most crushworthy in Say Anything. This 1989 movie starred Cusack as Lloyd Dobler, who was over the moon for brainy beauty Diane Court, played by Ione Skye. and though he wins her affection, her interfering father does whatever he can to break them up. If you’ve ever wondered why a character in the show or movie you’re watching woos their beloved using a boombox (with or without the Peter Gabriel song “In Your Eyes”), that iconic scene came from this movie.
3. Heathers – Featuring the original mean girls, this 1989 Winona Ryder classic pairs her character Veronica with Christian Slater as J.D., as the two fight against all the dumb jocks and popular bitches named Heather at Westerberg High School, starting with one inadvertent killing and escalating to a full on murder spree. The comedy embodied a new, darker take on American teen culture, using sarcasm to expose the often unseen brutality of teen bullies.
4. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – John Hughes is back on the list with this 1986 tale of Matthew Broderick as Ferris, the coolest guy in school ditching for a day of fun with his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) and his girlfriend Sloan (Mia Sara.) The threesome explore downtown Chicago, attending a Cubs game, visiting the Art Institute, and hopping a float for the Von Steuben Day Parade, among other exploits, all while dodging their nosy principal, who is hell bent on catching Ferris in flagrante. While ostensibly this is about Ferris, the real MVP of this tale is poor Cameron, who is forced to stand up to his neglectful father.
5. Fast Times at Ridgemont High – This raunchy 1982 ensemble comedy from director Amy Heckerling from a Cameron Crowe screenplay showcases the lives of a half dozen or so students who party, get laid, get pregnant and just trying to get by. Starring Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Jennifer Jason Leigh and a star turn from Sean Penn as the stoner Spicoli, this movie added a little pathos to the sex drugs and rock and roll associated with most teen comedies of the decade.

The 1990s – Reality Bites

1. Clueless – Amy Heckerling is again directing, but takes her source material from the classics this time. Based on the Jane Austen novel Emma, 1995’s Clueless stars Alicia Silverstone as Cher, a popular girl who isn’t a bitch, but also isn’t the most self-aware as she meddles in the lives of everyone around her while not being able to deal with her own problems. Also starring Brittany Murphy, Donald Faison, Stacey Dash and a dreamy Paul Rudd as Josh, Cher’s ex-stepbrother (and love interest!), the movie is a swerve, changing direction from the darker teen comedies of the 80s by focusing on a lead character that is relentlessly positive, if a little daft.
2. Boyz in the Hood – no film better expressed the struggles of growing up in South Central Los Angeles than John Singleton’s directorial debut. It starred Cuba Gooding Jr., Morris Chestnut and Ice Cube as friends Tre, Ricky and Doughboy, as well as Laurence Fishburne as Tre’s father, Jason. The story of growing up amid the gang violence was a critical success that was nominated for two Academy Awards and jump-started the careers of Gooding, Chestnut and Nia Long.
3. Singles – Cameron Crowe wrote and directed this story of a bunch of Gen Xers living, loving and playing music in Seattle during the height of the grunge movement (the film came out in 1992.) Starring Bridget Fonda, Matt Dillon, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick and members of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, the movie inspired something better than the film itself: a terrific soundtrack featuring those bands as well as killer tunes from the Screaming Trees, Paul Westerberg, and Mudhoney. You have to spring for the deluxe edition of the soundtrack to get those Citizen Dick tracks, though.
4. Reality Bites – Winona Ryder was a Gen X icon, and even though Reality Bites isn’t her best work, she does shine as Lelaina, a recent college graduate struggling to walk the line between art and commerce, and kind of bombing at both. While the movie spends an inordinate amount of time on the romance of Lelaina and unlikable slacker Troy (Ethan Hawke), the movie addresses other important Gen X concerns, like sex in the age of HIV, and stories about gay and lesbian characters, who were significantly underrepresented in cinema at the time.
5. Mallrats – Kevin Smith was another prolific 90s director, so if Mallrats isn’t your favorite, substitute Clerks on this list. Either of the View Askewniverse pictures offers another snapshot of 90s slacker culture, which was at least a semi-accurate portrayal of the disaffected members of Generation X. Mallrats starred Jason Lee, Jeremy London, Shannen Doherty, Claire Forlani along with Smith regulars Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams and Jason Mewes, who along with Smith himself, played the characters of Jay and Silent Bob in numerous films, and though the movie’s plot isn’t terribly complex, Smith’s characters are always watchable, especially since we often get to follow them from movie to movie and see them growing up, or at least growing older.

Tomorrow, we’ll list the best coming of age movies from the 2000s and beyond.