Twentysomething Christopher Rowe and his 60-year-old grandmother, Bea Weaver, may experience generation gaps in many areas of life, but they have one thing in common -- they like the same kind of music.

"It's about time this kind of music made a comeback" says Weaver, referring to the return of swing, the big-band sound that rocked America in the first half of the century and once again is in vogue. Rowe agrees. "I'm really tired of pop radio" he says. "There is nothing new. I guess I've -- gasp! -- grown tired of rebelling."

Led by the Squirrel Nut Zippers, a seven-piece ensemble out of Chapel Hill, N.C., nineties swing bands have a penchant for whimsical names: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Cherry Poppin' Daddies and the Royal Crown Revue all are popular with younger listeners. But none of them can challenge the Zippers, whose most recent album, Perennial Favorites, sold more than a half-million copies -- enough to go gold during its first week in stores last month. "They have a great sound and it's different from anything else on the radio" says Jamie Weisberg, a recent Cornell University graduate and Zippers fan.

Part of neo-swing's appeal comes from the bands' "irretro" attitude. Although their songs can be sexually suggestive -- what else would one expect from a band called Cherry Poppin' Daddies? -- the groups eschew serious swearing, explicit sexual language or overt drug references. Hard-core purists probably will object to the music, but shoppers won't find parental-discretion labels stuck on neo-swing CDs.

"At first it really surprised me that we were having college kids and their grandparents coming to the concerts together" says Tom Maxwell, the Zippers band member who wrote "Hell" the band's biggest hit to date. "But then I realized that it wasn't something I should be happy about." He doesn't want the band to get categorized as "neo-swing."

"The idea of a movement is so invasive and overarching that I find myself trying to deny it" says Maxwell. "We're trying to make music that is considered timeless, and we don't want to associate ourselves with a particular trend. The whole swing revival is a fad and it will pass like any other fad in history. That doesn't mean I think that the Squirrel Nut Zippers will pass."

Experts aren't sure why swing, in whatever guise, suddenly has become so popular. "I think that to some extent it's cyclical" says Steve Knooper, editor of Music Hound Lounge: The Essential Album Guide to Martini Music and Easy Listening. "The baby boomers hated that kind of music so, of course, their kids love it."

Twenty-five-year-old Jeff Ferris, who runs a World Wide Web site-design company in Fremont, Calif., loves the Zippers' music as much as he deplores contemporary pop. "I have no problem listening to music that my grandparents listened to" he says. "I do have a problem with the fact that we let music get so bad."

Hazen Schumacher, former host of a jazz show on National Public Radio, views swing's resurgence as a positive cultural trend. "It's really important music in our history and we were on the verge of losing it for a time" he says. "That swing feeling is what led to early rock 'n' roll. Even a lot of rap has a really fast beat some people say rocks but, in fact, it swings."