For some reason I had an itch to listen to Genesis today as I was writing a lecture for my religion and pop culture class. I hit shuffle and the first song that kicked in was “Land of Confusion” with it’s awesome Phil Collins-echo-snare intro. I still prefer the Peter Gabriel Genesis stuff to the uber pop the band produced once Phil Collins took over but this is easily one of my favorites (“Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” is still the tops). The song provided some inspiration and perspective to my lecture on how pop music often times reflects what’s happening in the zeitgeist and allows us to see our current situation from a different, and often needed, perspective.
The song is a perspective on the greed and uncertainty that surround the Cold War while still holding out hope for a better future. I remember the music video growing with all the distorted caricatures of famous people but never really got the point… in my defense I was 6. Listening back to the song now there are a lot of parallels to our times of uncertainty and “too many people making too may problems.” I guess that’s something that will never go away as long as there are people. It’s nice to know that in other times of confusion people are inspired to reach out with hope and deal with the mess surrounding them. Now it’s back to work…
Another Broken Record 