Video Analysis

Land of Confusion

Of all the music video’s I have ever seen this must be one of the most political ones. Land of Confusion, one of Genesis’s more popular songs, is mainly remembered for its music video, which was highly controversial. Everyone, including the band in this video, are puppets, which were made by the puppeteer of the show ‘Spitting Image’. In this video, the pauperized version of Ronald Reagan is shown to be incapable of being president.
To start the video, Reagan is in bed with Nancy and a chimpanzee. He eventually falls asleep, which sets off the premise for the video. The dream starts off with soldiers marching through a swamp with the heads of Cold-War era leaders. Next, during the chorus, there are mock puppets of the band playing live, with two Phil Collins puppets, one singing and one on drums. Also, Mike Rutherford is shown playing a four necked guitar, which is to mock him being both the guitarist and bassist.

During the next part of the song, world leaders are giving speeches to a large crowd. One of the speakers is Mussolini. Next we are shown Reagan putting on a superman suit, struggling immensely. Back in the president’s bedroom, the sleeping Reagan is shown drowning in sweat.

Next Reagan is shown, in the superman costume, riding a dinosaur. He watches the television, where he sees visions of Bob Hope and Mr. Spock. At the end of this part, an ape throws a bone into the air. It lands in Collins hand, where it turns into a phone, where he says ‘he won’t be coming home tonight; my generation will put it right’. After this we see a crowd of puppet celebrities like Michael Jackson singing along to the chorus.

At the end of the video, Reagan wakes up, and arises from the sweat. He drinks some water, and then decides to get more. He tries to press his nurse button, but instead presses the ‘Nuke’ button. Reagan makes a witty remark about the blast in the background, and Nancy hits him with a snorkel.

Overall I find this video to be very influential. Although there had been political songs before, this is one of the first ones to show it through video. It talks about the incompetence and greed during the Cold War era. This was during a time where music video’s were new, and therefore caught a lot of criticism. During the time of the Cold War, people were very uncertain and decided to take the blame out on their leaders. I personally think that Reagan was treated unjustly in this video. However, the song is very catchy, and the lyrics can be applied to not only the Cold War era, but today as well. I think the meaning is very truthful about how people of power are greedy. Another thing that makes me enjoy this video is how it exercises our right of opinion and speech, something we should all do. This video proves to me how Genesis is truly an influential band, and that they started a trend of political music videos.