used. Collins said: "You play a chord and a half of it's going at half the speed and part at twice the speed, sounds beautiful." Collins plays on a Simmons electronic drum kit. Songs Genesis displays the group moving towards shorter, more straightforward, and radio friendly songs. Rutherford said that the band had gone as far as they could with their progressive and art rock direction that they had adopted since the early 1970s and wanted to write and record in a more relaxed approach as previously, the band were more driven to present what they had to offer. Banks considered the music, and overall sound of Genesis, something that the band had longed for many years prior, specifically its more aggressive edge. He described side one as the "main act", while side two has the "character pieces". "Mama" "Mama" originated during a group jam session where Rutherford was experimenting with a Linn LM-1 electronic drum machine fed through a gated reverb and a Mesa Boogie amplifier, and "turned up incredibly loud" to the point of amplifiers jumping off the studio floor. Collins was influenced to go for a vocal that resembled John Lennon's style on his cover of "Be-Bop-a-Lula" on the song's verses. His laugh was influenced by the 1982 song "The Message" by hip hop band Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, which features a similar sound. Padgham had brought the single to the band and upon hearing it, Collins did the laugh during the subsequent improvisation session for "Mama", which the band liked and wished to use in the song. The group had doubts as to whether Collins could recreate the laugh on stage, but he had no problems. When it came to picking a song as the album's lead single, Rutherford expected Genesis manager Tony Smith and record label staff to pick another track than "Mama", but said "full marks to them, they agreed we should go with something that was a bit different". Rutherford later rated "Mama" as one of the best songs on the album, and was pleased with its commercial performance after the band found singles chart success with a song that represented what Genesis "were all about" at the time. During one session, the band had a koto in the studio, which was recorded through the E-mu Emulator and used as a sample for the song's percussion effect, partly because Banks had