This is according to AskYahoo:
News anchor Dan Rather was mugged in 1986 by a madman as he walked down the street in Manhattan. His assailant repeated "Kenneth, what's the frequency"
Michael Stipe wrote this song in 1994 - the identity of the assailant was revealed in 1997 as William Tager.
Tager had killed an NBC stagehand earlier and was serving time for that crime. He said that the newsmedia beamed signals into his head and believed he could block them if he found the correct frequency.
Hence: "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" Rather even joined R.E.M. on The Late Show when they were the musical guest.
@jcreswell The big mystery is, who TF is Kenneth? <g>
@jcreswell The big mystery is, who TF is Kenneth? <g>
I get the impression that the POV is that of a baby boomer, baffled by the wacky "Generation X." The members of R.E.M. were born in the years from 1956-60 (Stipe, b. 1960, is the youngest) which puts them on the generational border. People born around this time may identify more with either generation (as with those born in the late 1970s, who could be considered Gen X or Millennials), depending on stuff like who they hang out with, what music/TV/movies/etc. they like, etc. (Kurt Cobain, born in 1967, was the stereotypical GenXer.)
"Irony is the shackles of youth" seems a weird thing for a GenX character to say (it's not clever or amusing enough to count as ironic itself, though it might be rendered in the presence of the noticeably absent context, without which it is rather content-free), since it does seem to be an anti-irony statement (if free of any actual specific meaning): ironic humour, after all, has always been a staple of this age group. (Think Jon Stewart — the SarcasMeister. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are also GenX.)
@jcreswell The big mystery is, who TF is Kenneth? <g>
@jcreswell The big mystery is, who TF is Kenneth? <g>
I get the impression that the POV is that of a baby boomer, baffled by the wacky "Generation X." The members of R.E.M. were born in the years from 1956-60 (Stipe, b. 1960, is the youngest) which puts them on the generational border. People born around this time may identify more with either generation (as with those born in the late 1970s, who could be considered Gen X or Millennials), depending on stuff like who they hang out with, what music/TV/movies/etc. they like, etc. (Kurt Cobain, born in 1967, was the stereotypical GenXer.)
"Irony is the shackles of youth" seems a weird thing for a GenX character to say (it's not clever or amusing enough to count as ironic itself, though it might be rendered in the presence of the noticeably absent context, without which it is rather content-free), since it does seem to be an anti-irony statement (if free of any actual specific meaning): ironic humour, after all, has always been a staple of this age group. (Think Jon Stewart — the SarcasMeister. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are also GenX.)
This is according to AskYahoo: News anchor Dan Rather was mugged in 1986 by a madman as he walked down the street in Manhattan. His assailant repeated "Kenneth, what's the frequency" Michael Stipe wrote this song in 1994 - the identity of the assailant was revealed in 1997 as William Tager.
Tager had killed an NBC stagehand earlier and was serving time for that crime. He said that the newsmedia beamed signals into his head and believed he could block them if he found the correct frequency. Hence: "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" Rather even joined R.E.M. on The Late Show when they were the musical guest.
@jcreswell The big mystery is, who TF is Kenneth? <g>
@jcreswell The big mystery is, who TF is Kenneth? <g>
I get the impression that the POV is that of a baby boomer, baffled by the wacky "Generation X." The members of R.E.M. were born in the years from 1956-60 (Stipe, b. 1960, is the youngest) which puts them on the generational border. People born around this time may identify more with either generation (as with those born in the late 1970s, who could be considered Gen X or Millennials), depending on stuff like who they hang out with, what music/TV/movies/etc. they like, etc. (Kurt Cobain, born in 1967, was the stereotypical GenXer.)
"Irony is the shackles of youth" seems a weird thing for a GenX character to say (it's not clever or amusing enough to count as ironic itself, though it might be rendered in the presence of the noticeably absent context, without which it is rather content-free), since it does seem to be an anti-irony statement (if free of any actual specific meaning): ironic humour, after all, has always been a staple of this age group. (Think Jon Stewart — the SarcasMeister. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are also GenX.)
@jcreswell The big mystery is, who TF is Kenneth? <g>
@jcreswell The big mystery is, who TF is Kenneth? <g>
I get the impression that the POV is that of a baby boomer, baffled by the wacky "Generation X." The members of R.E.M. were born in the years from 1956-60 (Stipe, b. 1960, is the youngest) which puts them on the generational border. People born around this time may identify more with either generation (as with those born in the late 1970s, who could be considered Gen X or Millennials), depending on stuff like who they hang out with, what music/TV/movies/etc. they like, etc. (Kurt Cobain, born in 1967, was the stereotypical GenXer.)
"Irony is the shackles of youth" seems a weird thing for a GenX character to say (it's not clever or amusing enough to count as ironic itself, though it might be rendered in the presence of the noticeably absent context, without which it is rather content-free), since it does seem to be an anti-irony statement (if free of any actual specific meaning): ironic humour, after all, has always been a staple of this age group. (Think Jon Stewart — the SarcasMeister. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are also GenX.)