The Party is Over for R.E.M.

By Peter Long

“The One I Love”, “Radio Free Europe”, “Orange Crush”, “Losing My Religion”, “Nightswimming”, “Man on the Moon”, “Shiny Happy People”, “Everybody Hurts”, “Drive 8”, “Radio Song”, “So. Central Rain”, “What’s the Frequency Kenneth?”, “It’s the End of the World As We Know It”, to be honest, I could go on for days. R.E.M. has put out so much solid material since their inception in 1980 that their fellow musicians (or at least contemporary musicians) should merely quit in embarrassment.

The group called it quits yesterday via their website after almost 30 years of recording, and needless to say they left quite an impression on the musical landscape. They were the fathers of the Athens, Georgia underground-scene in the 1980’s and, perhaps above all else, the fathers of alternative rock; their sound defined by jangly guitars, whiny vocals and melodic punk. Nirvana may have brought punk to the masses, but R.E.M. brought alternative rock to the masses.

Their classic debut, 1983’s Murmur, and their 1995 release Monster bookended what was possibly the most dominant run of albums in rock history, with albums Life’s a Rich Pageant, Document, Out of Time, Green and Automatic for the People sandwiched in-between. Between those years they were considered college-rock darlings and arena-rock mega stars, the first indie-rock group that critics adored to simply the biggest band on the planet for a span of 13 years.

They were the first band to defy the un-spoken corporate rule that a frontman had to look like a super-model, or the bass and guitar players had to do banal choreography during live shows, or the members had to dress a certain way in order to sell records. They did things on their own terms, and ultimately, quit on their own terms.

R.E.M. made it cool to listen to whoever you wanted to listen, it became cool to listen to guys who sang about real problems and emotions, which at the time was a hard concept to understand due to the fact that just a few years before Poison was at the top of the charts singing about having nothing but a good time. R.E.M. opened the doors of perception to the children of suburbia by singing about depression, art, religion and politics all condensed into a three minute pop-song on vinyl or cassette.

In a time when many of their colleagues were constantly hounded by the tabloids, the guys in R.E.M. seemed to keep a low profile. Even as they ascended to become the biggest band in the world there was still a sort of mysterious aura to them. As bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana were constantly being over explained and analyzed, R.E.M. was still being under explained because they seemed like regular guys. They sort of put this idea in your head that when lead singer Michael Stipe finished a show in which he performed in front of 20,000 people he went back to Athens, hung out at a bar and conversed with the fellow patrons.

If anything, R.E.M. should be remembered as a band who did things first. They were the vanguard of disenfranchised youth before any grunge album hit the charts. They did collaborations with artists such as the B-52’s and KRS-One in order to broaden the horizons of their listeners and simply because they could and wanted to. They gave the hope and opportunity to a generation of kids suppressed by their baby-boomer parents and Reaganism that they too can start band, be an activist, and be political. R.E.M. made great music during a time when people needed great music most; they will go down as a national treasure, and simply a great American rock n’ roll band.