Looking for an answer to another thread, I happened across the REM video “Losing My Religion”.
You know how they say “someday you’ll look back on this and laugh”? Well, for this video that day is today. It’s so over-the-top it’s hilarious. But as I recall, they were serious. And we took them seriously too. What the hell were we thinking?
And you kids stop laughing. In eighteen years, your kids will be making fun of your music.
Nah, even at the time people thought it was funny. I remember Mike Myers and Dana Carvey mocking it on a Wayne’s World sketch.
REM probably took it seriously, though.
Was that guy digging his finger into that old man’s chest? That was disturbing.
I actually like it. It’s certainly no worse than any other rock video, and it’s a good song. The imagery is different, at least. On the off chance you like it too, you should check out The Fall, by the same director. A really good movie with lots of bizarre over the top imagery.
The video’s not any good, but I don’t recall anyone really loving it. Seems pretty standard for the time, really. The REM video I remember everyone taking about was “Everybody Hurts”, but I can’t seem to find it on YouTube to see if it holds up.
I think the video for Losing My Religion’s okay. A bit over the top, but it’s a music video so I expect that sort of self-indulgence.
Huh. All I remembered about this video was the White Guy With No Rhythm Dance - completely forgot all the weird religious iconography.
I lived in Athens when this song came out and for a while after you just had to laugh at all my friends who thought they were dancing Stipe-style at the 40-Watt or O’Malleys. I was like “Dude, the room is packed. Put your damned arms down.”
OTOH, the video for 'Everybody Hurts" is one of the all-time classics.
Holy crap, I suddenly feel ashamed and defensive all at once. I LOVE the videos for “Losing My Religion” and “Everybody Hurts”. Okay, fine, they’re hardly subtle art, but they’re music videos, for God’s sake, and I think they’re kinda beautiful.
Sorry, but I can’t accept the “it’s only a music video” defense. Sure, that’s fine if you’re talking a light goofy pop video - I don’t expect the Pussycat Dolls to have to justify “Don’t Cha”. But when you’re R.E.M. and you take yourself seriously then you make yourself a valid target for serious criticism.
The only thing I remember about that song was Michael Stipe explaining that “I lost my religion” was a Southern expression for mild shock, and not meant to be as controversial as it sounded. R.E.M. wasn’t really profound, just Stipe’s dreams put to hook-filled tunes … with mandolin. I liked them, and still do, but I never got into their videos much.
Who are the Pussycat Dolls? No, don’t answer that. I have a feeling I’m happier not knowing.
I thought it meant ‘losing my temper’. Close enough, I guess, either way.
I heard it meant “to be at the end of one’s tether”. All pretty close meanings, I suppose, and certainly nothing to do with religion per se.
IIRC that video was directed by Tarsem Singh who later made The Cell with J.Lo.
I doubt the band had much say in it.
What about Furry Happy Monsters?
I think you can attribute the earnestness of REM’s videos to Michael Stipe himself, who is a capital weirdo.
I think you’re overestimating how seriously the band actually took themselves. They had a lot of fun through the years making up senseless lyrics, then assigning some weird meaning to them after the fact. Listening to Stipe come up with stuff for “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” was a riot.
JohnT, I bet we had beers together.
Going by the lyrics it could also mean the narrator has lost a love, or a chance at his love, and has put him/her up on such a pedestal that he doesn’t know what to do without having this person to worship - e.g. he’s lost his religion. Inasmuch as they meant anything by the lyrics, it reads to me as if it may be a double entendre.
But Stipe is certainly being straightforward when he says it’s not actually about religion: what it definitely ISN’T about is actually losing religious faith. There’s just nothing in the lyrics that suggest that. But then, people don’t listen very closely to the lyrics before assigning political meaning - look how many people think “Born in the USA” is a proud patriotic song.
Michael Stipe has not aged well.
Stipe didn’t age well when he was in his early 30s.
I, for one, fucking loved that video when it came out. Of course, I was 12 at the time. 
I still think it’s beautiful, though, and it doesn’t strike me as any more self-serving or too-serious than most other videos of that time and genre.
I also loved Tarsem Singh’s The Fall, so I must share his sense of aesthetics.
I will see your REM - Losing My Religeon. And I raise you one Live - Lightning Crashes.