The influential band from Athens, Georgia was active from the 1980s until 2011. Here is the beginning of its profile at AllMusic:
R.E.M. marked the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock. When their first single, “Radio Free Europe,” was released in 1981, it sparked a back-to-the-garage movement in the American underground. While there were a number of hardcore and punk bands in the U.S. during the early ’80s, R.E.M. brought guitar pop back into the underground lexicon. Combining ringing guitar hooks with mumbled, cryptic lyrics and a D.I.Y. aesthetic borrowed from post-punk, the band simultaneously sounded traditional and modern. Though there were no overt innovations in their music, R.E.M. had an identity and sense of purpose that transformed the American underground. Throughout the ’80s, they worked relentlessly, releasing records every year and touring constantly, playing both theaters and backwoods dives. Along the way, they inspired countless bands, from the legions of jangle pop groups in the mid-’80s to scores of alternative pop groups in the ’90s, who admired their slow climb to stardom. (Continue Reading…)
R.E.M. H.Q. is a site dedicated to the band and related acts and R.E.M. Timeline chronicles the band’s live performances.
It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine), below, perhaps was the band’s biggest hit. Losing My Religion, also a big song for R.E.M., is above. The LA Times had a good story on the band’s biggest hits when it broke up two years ago.
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