R.E.M.

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

R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, in the state of Georgia. In January 1980 Michael Stipe met the guitarist Peter Buck in the record shop where Buck worked. They shared a love of Patti Smith, Television and The Velvet Underground. Through a friend they got to know the students Bill Berry and Mike Mills, who had been playing together since secondary school. That same spring the four gave their first performance, at a birthday party in an old church. Stipe picked the name at random from a dictionary.

Music and breakthrough

The first single, Radio Free Europe, appeared in 1981 on a small label. After that, almost one album a year followed on I.R.S. Records: Murmur (1983), Reckoning (1984), Fables of the Reconstruction (1985), Lifes Rich Pageant (1986) and Document (1987). For a long time the band was played mainly by American college radio stations. Document brought the breakthrough: The One I Love became a hit, as did It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine). After the move to Warner Bros., Out of Time (1991), with Losing My Religion, and Automatic for the People (1992) became the biggest successes.

Influence

The sound of R.E.M. was recognisable by the clear, broken chords of Buck's guitar, the enigmatic lyrics and Stipe's distinctive way of singing, the countermelodies in Mills's bass lines and Berry's tight drumming. Bands such as Nirvana, Pixies and Pavement named R.E.M. as a forerunner of alternative rock. Berry left in 1997, the others carried on until the band split amicably in 2011. In this way R.E.M. showed that a band from the alternative circuit in the 1980s could reach the big pop arenas without giving up its own sound.

Listening

• 
  It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) · R.E.M., 1987
  Apple Music ↗

Discography

Studio albums

• 1983Murmur
• 1984Reckoning
• 1985Fables of the Reconstruction
• 1986Lifes Rich Pageant
• 1987Document
• 1988Green
• 1991Out of Time
• 1992Automatic for the People
• 1994Monster
• 1996New Adventures in Hi‐Fi
• 1998Up
• 2001Reveal
• 2004Around the Sun
• 2008Accelerate
• 2011Collapse Into Now

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 4: When Rock Was Still Pop^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Alternative rock GenreR.E.M.
• Murmur AlbumR.E.M.

See also

• Green
• Monster