I’m a huge Genesis and Peter Gabriel fan, and being born in the early 90s, he’s been legendary basically my entire life.

But aside from So and a few other hits like Solsbury Hill and maybe Games Without Frontiers or Shock The Monkey, I feel like most of his music isn’t super popular or accessible. I mean Melt is my favorite record and it opens with Intruder, which isn’t your average persons fare.

And most people only know Genesis’s later commercial stuff, unless you’re a musician or prog rock fan.

So I’m curious what his reputation was like prior to releasing So and becoming the megastar that he became?

I’m just listening to Melt and can picture a scenario where by the time he’s making his 4th and 5th albums his manager is like “Peter we need a hit” lol. Like if he had gone the route of not releasing a pop record when he did that we may not know him for the musician he is, but that he’d be a more obscure musician.

As a self confessed phone addict, even if Looking For the Happy can come off as heavy handed, I really do like the message behind it and his intent.

So much of our happiness is drained from watching mindless and often sensationalist reels, comparing ourselves to others on social media and doom scrolling that literally putting away those phones can improve our mental health.

Looking Of the Happy is definitely very "boomer preaching" in nature, but at the same time, he's not wrong. Not falling victim to the psychology of the iphone is a reason to be happy.

Also I think there is an ironic and comedic slant to this song that I think some might miss--that off-the-wall bouncy synth riff almost sounds too happy and parodic, like it's mocking the concept of toxic positivity in a time where things frankly aren't the best. Getting off the phone won't automatically make those problems go away but you can refocus and save your mental health for more important things than some Facebook debate with Internet trolls.

So I do appreciate this song. It has quite a few layers and I like that Peter Gabriel is looking out for the mental health of his fans by writing a song like this. It's no masterpiece but it does share some common sense in a funny way.