I Survived Genesis
Where’s my medal?
Whenever I try to tell younger people what America was like in the bygone days of my childhood I explain, in a way which I hope provides the clearest possible contrast, that the nation was so innocent and fragile that Madonna was a constant source of controversy. You would not even believe how much trouser-soaking and jewelry-grasping there was over this video.
And that was in 1989, the year Taylor Swift was born. It was a very different country back then. How different? There was a year that Genesis was inescapable.
Genesis skyrocketed into the pop stratosphere with the release of the smash album Invisible Touch. From 1986 to 1987, that multi-platinum record yielded five Billboard top 10 singles: the title track, “Throwing It All Away,” “Land of Confusion,” “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” and “In Too Deep.”
EVERY FUCKING TIME you turned on MTV “Land of Confusion” was playing.
Those of us with living memories of that period will shudder and move on, but you kids today should read this bit of historical perspective and remind yourself that even though everything is falling apart around you and your emotional existence is mediated through a tiny computer you hold in your hand at every second because without it you no longer know who you are, you are lucky that you did not live in an era where this was what you could not get away from.
It’s no wonder us old people look so sad and tired all the time. We’re trying to outrun the trauma.
