# R.E.M. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 2, 2015, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074 "2015-05-02T05:19:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/21 "2015-05-02T13:40:10Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > Not a huge fan but how exactly did they die out? They had a few massive albums/hits well into the 90’s and beyond. The drummer, Bill Berry, had an aneurysm(?) that required surgery, and soon after he decided he was ready to get off the road. The rest continued with hired-gun drummers, but their post-Berry albums never hit, and the band themselves said that their fundamental chemistry wasn’t the same. They chose to break up. Their EP, Chronic Town and then Murmur and Reckoning are wonderful, timeless albums. When Stipe chose to write intelligible lyrics in bid for commercial appeal, they lost me. Not because of the attempt at commercial appeal - hey, more power to them - but simply because the stuff got whiny. I disagree with **Penfeather** about the band’s basic talent, but agree that Everybody Hurts is an automatic radio-changer. Losing my Religion and especially This One Goes Out to the One I love - just ugh. But Moral Kiosk, Harborcoat, Pilgrimage, Wolves Lower and all of those songs? Great, great stuff! ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/22 "2015-05-02T19:50:57Z")
I suspect the posters who are dismissing them mostly know them only from their later work. Their best work, in my opinion, was before they hit the mainstream. Timeless: [Wolves, Lower](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVzvn3iB1qs) ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/23 "2015-05-02T19:59:23Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > _Fables of the Reconstruction_. 😉 > R.E.M. was always one of my favorite bands. I still remember where I was the first time I heard “Radio Free Europe” when I was 14 in 1983. i grew up in a tiny town in rural Alabama and music was a big part of my identity, especially in high school. My story is similar, except I am from small-town Georgia. Like you, I have a “flashbulb memory” of the first time I heard R.E.M., except in my case it was in a college dorm in North Carolina, and somebody broke out the Chronic Town EP. It was a revelation. Completely different from anything else that was out there at the time. Hell I was so impressed by this band and by what I subsequently heard about what was happening musically in Athens at the time that I chose UGA for grad school just to be near the scene. I wonder if the blasé attitude of some posters is just because R.E.M. has had so many imitators over the years that their work doesn’t seem as unique and fresh as it did to those of us who heard it for the first time way back then. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/24 "2015-05-02T20:19:29Z")
I can think of at least [one latter-day band](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR9DjdMrpHg) that’s rediscovered them. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/25 "2015-05-02T21:31:10Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I can think of at least [one latter-day band](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR9DjdMrpHg) that’s rediscovered them. I can think of [another](https://youtu.be/_qx3fGVf_yU?list=PLvYcr2tNZuRofJwqINIVC6PsRngeDxERa). ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/26 "2015-05-02T22:01:45Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > I wonder if the blasé attitude of some posters is just because R.E.M. has had so many imitators over the years that their work doesn’t seem as unique and fresh as it did to those of us who heard it for the first time way back then. No, I first heard them in the early 80s, and my thoughts then were about the same, pleasant enough, but pretty unmemorable. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/27 "2015-05-03T02:43:17Z")
The second to last season of Parks and Rec had a scene where Aziz Ansari and Ben (can’t remember the actor’s name) co-deejayed a high school prom. Aziz’s Usher and R. Kelly weren’t going over too well, but Ben’s REM and Pixies were a hit. The kids called it “classic rock”. So maybe they’re already heading that way. I sure have fond memories of growing up listening to REM. Michael Stipe went to high school with my mom, so even though he’s mostly from Georgia, we kinda think of him as a hometown hero of sorts here in Illinois. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/28 "2015-05-04T23:34:07Z")
From Jason Isbell, [new evidence that R.E.M. is not forgotten](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/hear-jason-isbells-nineties-influenced-new-single-24-frames-20150504): > [@](#): > > “24 Frames” — the album’s first single — doubles as a tribute of sorts to Athens, Georgia, where Isbell’s previous band, the Drive-By Truckers, are based. Rather than look to that group for influence, though, “24 Frames” resurrects the indie-minded jangle of Athens’ most famous sons, R.E.M., from the guitar arpeggios that chime throughout the verse to the slide solo that sweeps in after every chorus. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/29 "2015-05-04T23:41:28Z")
That’s a good song that sounds _nothing_ like R.E.M. - jeez, that’s Springsteen if it’s anybody. Tunnel of Love era. R.E.M. have been hugely influential; just not there. ETA: Fuckin’ Rolling Stone. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/30 "2015-05-04T23:51:59Z")
They turn up fairly frequently on my Kinks Pandora station (brainy, melodious, unsuccessful rockers) and my kids don’t make me turn it off… ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/31 "2015-05-04T23:53:26Z")
Oh, and they had some fun videos back when videos were a thing. “Man in the Moon,” “Stand,” “Shiny Happy People.” Worth watching on YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/32 "2015-05-05T01:01:33Z")
The OP poses a good question. Their big hits that got mainstream airplay were…kinda bland? …But everything up through \*Document \*was pretty interesting. It’s easy to say, and overused, that “I liked them before they were popular. Once they got popular they sucked,” but I think that really fits here. Maybe some historian music critic will find _Reckoning_ one day and be blown away. > [@Penfeather](#): > > R.E.M weren’t actually that much good, but in the wasteland that was popular music in the 80s, if you didn’t want synth-pop or hair-metal, it was them or The Violent Femmes. I know you’re intentionally simplifying, but I just can’t let that stand. The 80’s was an embarrassment of riches for alternative music. It was the peak of college radio, and plenty of stuff was not synth-based. And \*none \*of colege music was hair metal. > [@](#): > > And “Everybody Hurts” should be punched in the throat. Well, okay. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/33 "2015-05-05T01:03:23Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > That’s a good song that sounds _nothing_ like R.E.M. - jeez, that’s Springsteen if it’s anybody. Tunnel of Love era. > > R.E.M. have been hugely influential; just not there. > > ETA: Fuckin’ Rolling Stone. No, you’re wrong. The REM jangly arpeggios are there, they’re just not in the forefront of the production. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/34 "2015-05-05T01:11:52Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > That’s a good song that sounds _nothing_ like R.E.M. - jeez, that’s Springsteen if it’s anybody. Tunnel of Love era. > … > ETA: Fuckin’ Rolling Stone. The good thing about that being a _Rolling Stone_ article - if we fact-check it, the song in question might not even _exist_. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/35 "2015-05-05T01:35:06Z")
The Letterman thread reminded me of [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icGOLDJv08c) great clip. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/36 "2015-05-05T02:10:16Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > From Jason Isbell, [new evidence that R.E.M. is not forgotten](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/hear-jason-isbells-nineties-influenced-new-single-24-frames-20150504): > > Quote: > “24 Frames” — the album’s first single — doubles as a tribute of sorts to Athens, Georgia, where Isbell’s previous band, the Drive-By Truckers, are based. Rather than look to that group for influence, though, “24 Frames” resurrects the indie-minded jangle of Athens’ most famous sons, R.E.M., from the guitar arpeggios that chime throughout the verse to the slide solo that sweeps in after every chorus. Hijack… If you aren’t familiar with Isbell, I recommend checking him out. Several of the songs he wrote while with the Truckers are among the band’s best work. He’s also been getting recognition for his solo work and with his band The 400 Unit, as well as with his wife Amanda Shires. Yes, I’m a bit biased since I’m from Alabama. 🙂 …end hijack. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/37 "2015-05-05T03:14:59Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > Hijack… > If you aren’t familiar with Isbell, I recommend checking him out. Several of the songs he wrote while with the Truckers are among the band’s best work. He’s also been getting recognition for his solo work and with his band The 400 Unit, as well as with his wife Amanda Shires. Yes, I’m a bit biased since I’m from Alabama. 🙂 …end hijack. Oh I agree, absolutely. And I saw those guys many times back when they were playing the Star Bar in Atlanta. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/38 "2015-05-05T03:45:55Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > R.E.M. was always one of my favorite bands. I still remember where I was the first time I heard “Radio Free Europe” when I was 14 in 1983. i grew up in a tiny town in rural Alabama and music was a big part of my identity, especially in high school. I went to a small school (70 people in my high school class) and I was the only person who was into any sort of “alternative” music at the time. I just had to respond since I was that age in '83 and had 70 people in my class too. But I’m a Yankee. 🙂 I don’t remember exactly where I was but I do remember \*\*Radio Free Europe \*\*and liking the sound. > [@Spoke](#): > > I wonder if the blasé attitude of some posters is just because R.E.M. has had so many imitators over the years that their work doesn’t seem as unique and fresh as it did to those of us who heard it for the first time way back then. Agreed. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/39 "2015-05-06T04:24:18Z")
It hasn’t even been four years since they broke up, so it seems premature to be wondering when they’ll be rediscovered. Give 'em some time! ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074/40 "2015-05-06T05:00:44Z")
> [@zombywoof](#): > > The Letterman thread reminded me of [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icGOLDJv08c) great clip. Yes, that’s definitely a great early performance. That was a few months after I discovered them in the summer of 1983. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m/719074.md?page=3)