https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkpzl_IX2r0
Heavy metal, as scream filled and loud as it may be,
is very rarely without meaning. Land of Confusion, originally by Genesis, is no
exception. Its every word is saturated with imagery, repetition, and hyperbole.
The end result is a fantastic sounding piece of satire. The dramatic style, the
changing literary tone, and the brutally honest content of the song Land of
Confusion, modern version by Disturbed, achieves the call to action set out by
the lyrics themselves.
The song, Land of Confusion, calls for a young
person’s revolution against oppressive governments, to distinguish themselves
from the errors of past generations, and create a better place for all. This is
made clear very early on, in the phrases, “I must’ve dreamed a thousand dreams
Been haunted by a million screams But I can hear the marching feet They’re
moving into the street.” Now where this takes place is unspecified. However, it
is a safe assumption that this is done in order to emphasize the fact that
justice should be universal. But the message goes even further. It implies that
it is time for everyone to control their own fate and rebuild on the rubble of the
old. These two ideas are seen at the end of the song in the last two stanzas.
The first comes from the final stanza, “This is the world we live in And these
are the names we’re given Stand up and let’s start showing Just where our live
are going to.” The message of rebellion and rebuilding is grounded in the
second to last stanza, in the phrases “Now this is the world we live in And
these are the hands we’re given Use them and let’s start trying To make it a
place worth fighting for” and “…these are the hands we’re given Use them and
lets start trying To make it a place worth living in.” The audience is intended
to be the oppressed and silent mass. Those who have experienced wrongs at the
hands of another, with no repercussions for those in power.
Most of the themes of the
song revolve around justice, overpopulation, and unjust control of humanity by
oppressive government. Overpopulation
and the related human suffering is highlighted in the quote, “There’s too many
men Too many people Making too many problems And not much love to go around
Can’t you see it is a land of confusion.” It deals with humanity’s population issues as
well as the tendency humans have for causing trouble. The control of unjust
autocratic government is revealed to be infirm by the stanza, “Ooh Superman
where are you now When everything has gone wrong somehow The men of steel, the
men of power Are losing control by the hour.” The theme of justice receives
repetition and focus, “My generation will put it right We’re not just making
promises That we know, we’ll never keep.”
In this, we see two things at work. One being the new active promise
made to take care of each other and our world, and the second being the fact
that the entire generation was given an obligation to do better.
The tone and mood are
relatively simple. At the beginning of the song, the tone characterizes pain
and conflict, speaking of the nightmares the man has seen, and the mention of
marching feet, evoking an army moving through town. The mood at this point is
rather outraged, the outrage is rooted in the lines, “They say the danger’s
gone away But I can see the fire is still alight There burning into the night.”
This seems to be an allusion to the lies dictatorships employ when censoring
the media, such as what is done in North Korea. This phrase “There’s too many people
Making too many problems And there’s not much love to go around” are repeated
throughout to emphasize this tone. We see our first shift in tone in the fourth
stanza. This is the first hint of the revolt to come. This stanza goes “This is
the world we live in And these are the hands we are given Use them and lets
start trying To make it a place worth living in.” The next greatest shift in
the tone and mood comes in a later stanza, when they say “My generation will
put it right We’re not just making promises That we know, we’ll never keep.”
This is the first real powerful revolutionary statement made in the song. It
expresses a need to become new and more than that which the past has wrought.
It seeks a return to the paradise, the epitome of happiness described above, in
which the protagonist is in the sun, and under the stars, with the person most
dear laughing in his/her ear, and in their arms. Though this is proceeded by
the stanza about the reality of the old humanity. The final to stanzas call upon a sense of duty
to create and protect that perfect world, it even goes so far as to mention
specifically which generation will do it, making a promise we are almost sworn
to keep.
The style is inflammatory.
It seeks to rile the masses by presenting them the true injustice and the
disgusting greed all around them, in the bluntest way possible. And it furthers
this goal by including calls to action, and even some blame laid on people’s
inaction, throughout. The way everything is laid out makes it seem as though it
is also a revolution in the souls of people, one where the need for the common
good clashes with one’s inherent self-interest. And it presents itself as the
perfect struggle for freedom, almost like propaganda. It presents itself much
as a real revolution would, in the best light possible, and in the hearts of
all. Much, for example, as Lenin’s Bolshevik revolution and as the American Revolution
did. But neither was perfect. And it is clear, despite the fact that it claims
to be, it is not a perfect revolution. This is made clear when instead of
seeing himself as the hero saving the day, the protagonist asks “Ooh Superman
where are you now When everything has gone wrong somehow.” The structure makes several great
contributions as well. Mainly, the fact that the bleakest most honest stanzas
are proceeded by calls to action as well as the most uplifting, hopeful things
said. This is strategically done as the contrast makes it obvious that the solution
is to fight, but making it seem more like the conclusion of the listener.
The literary devices used
do an excellent job furthering these goals. The hyperboles used, such as “losing
control by the hour” and, “Too many men, Too many people” are employed to
emphasize the themes they are associated with. The repeated use of imagery,
like “Ooh when the sun was shining Yes and the stars were bright through the
night” and “Ooh Superman where are you now” created a far more personal feel,
as the listeners were able to relate on a personal level to these things. The
repetition of the main themes made them all the more clear to anyone. The best
symbol came in the repetition of the sun and the stars, being the bright light
in the darkness, much as the revolution appeared to be the light amongst the
gloom of humanity’s failures.
In conclusion, Land of
Confusion is a meaningful song. It was composed by Genesis and modernized by
the highly skilled heavy metal band Disturbed. It emphasizes the need to be
better than one’s self and one’s predecessors. The artists encourage us to crusade
for equality and create a more perfect world. That is why I believe that Land
of Confusion belongs in the archive of greatest lyrics of human history.
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