Song Analysis: in The Air Tonight

Introduction

In the Air Tonight is still one of Phil Collins most recognized singles. The background of its composition remains shady with the artist even admitting he did not have a specific event in mind when he wrote and sang it. With time, fans, along with the artist’s own suggestions, developed theories about the song’s lyrical and video meaning. Phil has said he was fresh off a divorce and his resentment towards her gave him the ideal outlook for composing the song, the events surrounding its creation.

The following paper constructs an informative essay of the events and cultural relevance of the song. Debuted in 1981, In the Air Tonight was Phil Collins’s first solo hit that carried an irregular form and distinct production that suitably conveys the personal events that took place in his most recent love life.

Discussion and Analysis

Phil is not only an English singer, songwriter, and musician; he is also a recognized record producer and actor.

Get quality help now

RhizMan

Verified writer

Proficient in: Song

4.9 (247)

“ Rhizman is absolutely amazing at what he does . I highly recommend him if you need an assignment done ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Before venturing in his solo career which was a huge success, he began as a lead singer and drummer in the rock band known as the Genesis (Collins and Genius Contributors). In his solo career, Phil attained three singles in the number one position in the UK and seven in the US between 1983 and 1990 and recorded more US top 40 singles compared to other artists in the 1980s. His very first single “In the Air Tonight” was a hit in 1981, and it gave him international recognition. He had been a member of Genesis for eight years by 1978, and when Peter Gabriel left the band, Phil hesitantly assumed the role of the lead singer (Owsinski).

The first version of “In the Air Tonight” featured additional drums that played beneath the song up to the signature drum crash. The then Atlantic Records chief Ahmet Ertegun recommended the inclusion of the extra drums (Smooth Radio).

The aria is made up of an electric guitar, an electronic drum set, and a prophet to enhance extra richness to the song. The adagio beat is the interpretation of the monody. As the digital drum set heightens on every third beat, it replicates a drum pattern consisting of 12 drum hits in every loop, for instance, 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-22-1-2 | 11-2-1-2-1-2-1-22-1-2 (Collins). At the heart of the first loop, the digital guitar resounds a three-way pausing that lags for fifteen seconds, which is swiftly ensued in the background by the sound of a nymph sounding guitar tune together with the prophet. The main tune of the song is presented by the prophet. The spookiness of the song comes about as a result of the tenor voice of Phil reverbed a bit, which is preceded by a sequence of warm instruments added to the drum pattern (Collins and Genius Contributors). After that, the same guitar resounds for half the time it did previously while Phil goes ahead into the first verse of the song. Following the first verse, he goes back to the chorus this round with extra vocals that drag after each of his words and finishes with the guitar resound ones again that occurs as expected at the same time. In the second verse of the song, the first words of Phil begin with his voice modified a tad with the reverb machine (Collins). In a melodious style, the prophet and a mass of warm instruments constantly soar with each whole note for a maximum of four measures; however, after the fourth keystroke, they go back to the stimulating key. In addition, as the last verse concludes, the song advances to a mezzo forte (mp) from a piano (p).

The peak of the song is introduced by a strong eleven strikes on a live drum set which stops the sound of the digital drum set, however, presents the sound of a brass instrument that occurs every two or three measures (Collins). The song “In the Air Tonight” is famous for its distinctive production and somewhat ghastly theme, which is alleged to have been swayed his former band-mate Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno. Performed by a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 over a drum kit pattern (the Roland CR-78 Disco-2 pattern), vocoded lyrics, and sorted out digital guitar, the song is made up of a sequence of warning chords. The song accelerates up to an eruption burst of drums frees the tension. During one of his songwriting sessions, Phil created the lyrics of the song stating that he was initially clowning with the writing task and instead just, “turned the mic on and started singing [after getting] chords that I liked” (Smooth Radio). Through an accidental use of studio technology, Phil discovered the advantages of utilizing the drum beat in the song. A “reverse talk-back” circuit was incorporated in his Solid State Logic 4000 mixing board. The button pushed by the mixing engineer to be able to communicate with the musicians is known as a normal “talkback. ” While the circuit operated by the engineer via a button to listen to artists in the studio is known as “reverse talkback” (Owsinski).

Additionally, this circuit possesses a compressor on it that aids in lessening the variations between soft and loud sounds, thus making up for sound level variances. While the reverse talkback was active, Phil began to play the drums as they were recording Peter Gabriel’s third album song “Intruder. ” The sound produced by this action fascinated Engineer Hugh Padgham thus they renovated the board to facilitate easy recording of the reverse talkback (Collins and Genius Contributors). Stuart Orme directed the music video of “In the Air Tonight” which was extremely simple but effective, and it was played in 1981 on MTV immediately the channel was unveiled. The music video was a common feature on MTV, which was a brand new cable network devoted to music videos. The video displays an intense shot of Phil singing into the camera, and shifts to images of him in an empty room seated with strange figures emerging and vanishing outside the window.

In addition, he is also seen along a corridor with many doors, which, in 2013, was included on the pilot for the television series The Americans (Smooth Radio). Phil expounds on the lyric, “If you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand” by stating that the drowning is not literal but symbolic. The literal interpretation of this lyric is what turned the song into a prevalent urban legend. The original version went that Phil was watching a man drowned after apparently raping his wife.

A different version was that Phil was singing to a man who had experienced the drowning of another man while another was Phil recalling seeing another man drowning but at a distant too far to help (Smooth Radio). None of these events truly happened but collectively garnered enough listener attention internationally to shape its final rendition with the drums. Conventional understanding has it that Phil was angry about his divorce to Andrea Bertorelli the previous year and used this emotion to pen the event. This insight holds because he had a hiatus from his band Genesis briefly owing to devastation from the divorce. Even the album with the song “Face Value” had hits with lyrical messages aimed at his ex-wife in attempts to rekindle their relationship (Owsinski). A lingering tension ensued between the two following the divorce that they ended up on the song’s title. These negative emotions were “in the air” the night of writing and recording the song, which was an indicator of harm directed towards their whole families due to the divorce. Phil attributes lyrical improvisation to a songwriting sitting he had at the studio prior to recording the song. The writing was spontaneous and no specific events in mind influenced its composition even if the divorce was the most affective and recent event to have occurred to him at that time. The artist even adlibbed the intro vocals over the song’s fadeout as if to echo the constantly new things happening in every verse. For this reason, he does not assign any specific meaning to the song or its lyrics. The onset of the song’s angered and dark theme had more influences from his love life than murderous or evil happenings. Since the artist links only internal influences to the song, external events relevant to the song remain open.

Conclusion

In the Air Tonight was Phil’s first solo hit released in 1981 with an abnormal form and distinctive production that appropriately communicates the personal events transpiring in the singer’s recent love life. I come to this conclusion after learning that the song was composed at one of the artist’s roughest times of his life. The many urban legends that sprung up especially aboard were moved by how its lyrics, tone, and tempo evoked sorrow and trepidation among listeners. The song lacks any conventional song form in any way though maintains an easily understandable because it is relatively improvised. The intro-chorus-verse form takes on interestingly lengthy bars with differing between the setup and the entry of the keyboard. The form of a dark monologue directed towards an unidentified person exemplifies the personal affectionate events that shaped the song’s lyrics.