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Michael Stipe

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Michael Stipe is the singer and lyricist of the American rock band R.E.M. He was born in 1960 in Decatur, Georgia. Around 1980 he was studying in Athens, Georgia, where he met the guitarist Peter Buck in a record shop. With the drummer Bill Berry and the bassist Mike Mills they started R.E.M.; they took the name from a dictionary.

Music and breakthrough

The first single, Radio Free Europe, was a success on American college radio, and the debut album Murmur (1983) received glowing reviews. In those early years Stipe sang in a mumble, with cryptic lyrics that were hard to follow. In the mid-1980s his singing became clearer and the lyrics more direct. On Document (1987) and Green (1988) they also became more political. With Out of Time (1991), with the single Losing My Religion, and Automatic for the People (1992), R.E.M. broke through definitively to the general public, without letting go of their roots in alternative rock.

Influence

Stipe also shaped the image of the band: he chose the sleeves and directed many of the videos. He is also a photographer and film producer. In 1997 Berry left, after which R.E.M. continued as a trio; in 2011 the band split up on amicable terms. Stipe afterwards released solo singles such as Your Capricious Soul (2019) and Drive to the Ocean (2020).

Listening

Listening tip. In It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), listen to the verses, in which Stipe rattles off words and names at high speed, almost without drawing breath. Notice the contrast with the chorus, where the singing suddenly becomes calm and melodic.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Mentioned in other articles

Categories: Artists