A couple of days ago, a song that first appeared in 1981 and barely cracked the Billboard Top 20 back then made it up to No. 2 on the iTunes Song Sales Chart. Nearly 40 years later, Phil Collins is enjoying rejuvenated interest in “In the Air Tonight.”
By now you know how this happened: the Williams brothers, 20-something twins from Gary, Indiana, filmed themselves reacting to hearing the song for the first time and posted it up on their YouTube channel. Anyone over the age of 40 (50?) or so knew what was in store for the lads at 3:16 into the song: that explosive, reverberating drum break bursting open from the ambient, chilled groove.
The whole idea of Z’s listening and reacting to Baby Boomer anthems in real time is actually becoming a thing on YouTube (I occasionally check in on Jamel AKA Jamal’s channel because I love watching a Steely Dan fan in the making). Music is a cool way to reach across the generation gap and this latest fad reveals this up and coming generation to be a lot more open minded and discerning than some of us Boomers give them credit for.
But back to “Drum Phil” Collins. Being someone who was in high school when “In the Air Tonight” first appeared and has heard it intermittently since then, its sudden revival got me to step back and think about the significance of that song. Obviously, that gated reverb recording technique literally ushered in the ’80s drum sound, a primary — maybe THE primary — component of 80s music. It was used across nearly every type of popular music for the rest of the decade and beyond.
Perhaps most remarkable about the song is that it is beloved by almost everyone for just five seconds of it. Once you hear that atom bomb of a drum fill drop, listening to this song each time after that is all about getting back to it and the building anticipation gets so great that by the time hell is unleashed, you’re instinctively playing air drums. There’s really no other song that quite has this kind of affect on people; it’s a brilliant manipulation of our sense of foreboding.
Is this the best-ever drum fill? I say no … for starters, see Peart, Neil. But, it is the most unforgettable one. Music that puts a dent in your consciousness is music that carries out its mission and Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” is a mission well carried out.
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