Media Stereotypes Of Generation X In The Song It’S The End Of The World As We Know It By R.E.M.
R. E. M. was an American rock band who formed in Athens, Georgia in 1980. The band had four members, drummer Bill Perry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist/back up vocalist Mike Mills and the lead singer, Michael Stipe. Through many years, R. E. M. made music with I. R. S who they were not pleased with. After this contract expired, in 1988, the band signed to Warner Bros. Records and began to embrace their political and environmental concerns through their music in large arenas all around the world. Particularly, their fifth album “Document” featured more of Stipe’s openly political lyrics. These were reactions to the conservative political environment of the 1980s in which Ronald Reagan was the president of the United States. This album contained the song, “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), which also contained a lot if political lyrics.
R. E. M. ’s song signifies Generation X’s feelings towards the government and the world as a whole as they are a cynical generation who distrusts authority and questions everything. This can be seen through the song’s political references, the bands conveyed “whatever” attitude, and the lead singer’s self-reliance. It’s the End of the World as We know It (And I Feel Fine) undoubtedly demonstrates the stereotype of Generation X being cynical. The song significantly criticizes the politics during their time. Through the era of R. E. M there was a lot of changes in the economy and politics. Right away, the song states “Lenny Bruce is not afraid”. Lenny Bruce was a persuasive comedian who would rant on about different social issues. He spoke a lot on American politics and violated public obscenity laws during his shows and was arrested a numerous amount of times as a result. This goes to show who the generation looked up to in terms of speaking up for what they believed in, which in this case is not trusting the authority. The song also consistently recognizes the acts of Reaganomics, for example “and a government for hire and a combat site”. This is referencing how Ronald Reagan had sold fire arms to Iran and diverted most of the money to a concealed operation in Nicaragua.
Another shot at the government the song makes is “Listen to your heart bleed”. This was yet another suggestion towards Ronald Reagan who revived the phrase “I was quite the bleeding-heart liberal once” to help describe his political path. Generation X had the stereotype that they were distrusting of authority and the consistent references to the president are parallel to this label. It is evident that they do not agree with the motives of the government and will always be skeptical of every action.
Furthermore, one of the major media stereotypes for Generation X is their “whatever” attitude. Throughout the song the listener can categorically sense this kind type of arrogance. The band goes on a long rant about politics and the world essentially becoming apocalyptic as we know it, meanwhile after each chorus the lyrics state “And I feel fine”. During this era, America had been deluged with political brinkmanship of the Cold War since Reagan took his place as president. At this point the Generation X people seemed to have been tired of the consistent scare of a declining society that they developed their “whatever” I am fine with it attitude. They had accepted that their society is deteriorating. Moreover, the main chorus of the song, “it’s the end of the world as we know it”, is not exactly saying the world is ending but the one they knew was. Everyone is recognizing the regression of their world from overpopulation, war, earthquakes, etc. , but they are choosing to ignore it further revealing their identified “whatever” media stereotype. Essentially, there is a sense of scale from the song, in which everything matters, and nothing matters at the same time since everything is fine. Apart from being skeptical of the government and being apathetic, the generation was labeled to be self-reliant. Generation X did not believe they needed someone else’s opinion to persuade their own. The lyrics of the song were written mostly from a stream of consciousness from the lead singer Michael Sting. Within the song there are references of multiple names whose initials are L. B. The singer specified, “There's a part in 'It's the End of The World as We Know It' that came from a dream where I was at Lester Bangs' birthday party and I was the only person there whose initials weren't L. B. ”
Some of the people happened to have some political background to their name. He also stated that he is extremely aware of everything around him, whether sleeping or awake, so he included this in the song along with things he had seen on TV when flipping through channels. This entire song seems to be based on what Michael Sting believes is happening in the world around him without someone like Ronald Reagan convincing him otherwise. Within the lyrics Sting alleged, “world serves its own needs, don’t misserve your own needs”. This further discloses that the generation would rather look out and provide for themselves. The generation grew up very independent as their parents were always at work, subsequently not needing other people’s help to make sense of what is going on in the world.
Through the analysis of “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), it is perceptible that the media stereotypes of Generation X being cynical, having a whatever manner and being self-reliant are almost entirely true. R. E. M. grew up in an era where they were forced to be independent and to only help out their selves without listening to others which you can see through the lyrics. This made them very suspicious to the government’s motives, in which the song speaks on multiple acts of Ronald Reagan. Although the song rants on about authority, it also reveals that they are fine with the world weakening illuminating the stereotype of “whatever”.
