(originally posted at http://theaaronelyareview.tumblr.com on September 22nd, 2011)
After 31 years and 15 studio albums, R.E.M. has decided to call it a day…and what a great day it was. The announcement came on Wednesday, September 21st 2011 and was a shock to most of their fans. But to many of us who have followed this band through the years, the shock wasn’t so bitter. Before I get into that, a little history.
I can’t recall for sure, but I think it was around 1991 when I first really started to become aware of R.E.M. That year was especially important because it was when really started to explore music and began to develop my true “taste”. Most of what I found were bands, artists and genres that I still enjoy today. R.E.M. was one of those bands. I don’t remember who exactly introduced me to them (probably a local Detroit radio station) but I remember liking it because it was different…like most of the other music I was discovering.
Up until then, the music I attached myself to was mostly influenced by my sisters (who were teenagers in the 80’s). The Police, U2, The Smiths and The Cure most notably. I also had a small obsession with The Monkees thanks to their resurgence in 1987 on Nickelodeon for their 20th anniversary. That was actually my first concert! So, even with all the music around me, hardly any of it was mine. Mine in that I found it myself with little or no outside influence. It was the influence that I was missing, though.
As I moved in to my teen years, I developed friendships with some awesome people who had all different kinds of tastes in music. I had friends who liked metal, underground/college, punk, ska, classical, hip-hop, top 40, techno, industrial, even Christian. I auditioned all of it but eventually found myself gravitating towards college radio music (later identified as “alternative”). Bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden found their way on to my mix tapes. R.E.M. was also included in that.
R.E.M. came out of the college music scene in Athens, Georgia right around the time I celebrated my 2nd birthday (78-79). They played small shows at places in Athens like the legendary 40 Watt Theatre (named so because of the single solitary 40 watt light bulb that once illuminated the hall) and eventually gained a medium sized underground following. They were reluctant leaders of this new Athens music scene. Other bands would follow, of course: B-52’s, Black Crowes, Widespread Panic (blech), and countless other bands that you’ve never of. In short, the University of Georgia put Athens on the map. R.E.M. made it a musical hotspot.
(The remains of an abandoned church in Athens, GA where R.E.M. used to live & practice…just a few feet away from where I lived from 1998-1999)
Like most people my age who followed R.E.M., the first R.E.M. album I ever owned was 1991’s “Out Of Time”. The lead single, “Losing My Religion” was (and still is, I think) their biggest and most successful single to date. 1988’s “Green”…the album just prior to “Out Of Time”. “Green” was their first major label album after leaving I.R.S. and had a VERY political tone to it. It also yielded a couple pretty widely heard singles such as “Pop Song 89” and “Stand”, but nothing compared to the success that “Losing My Religion” would bring.
Many hardcore fans would probably argue that “Out Of Time” was the point when R.E.M. had “sold out” or abandoned their college radio roots. That may or may not be true, but one thing is for sure: R.E.M. is one of a handful of bands and artists who can completely reinvent themselves with each new album. While many of their early albums are very similar in sound, it seems that “Green” is way different than “Document”…and “Out of Time” is way different than “Green”…and “Automatic For The People” (1992) is way different than “Out Of Time” and so on. R.E.M. didn’t have to reinvent themselves with every album nor did they have to stay the same. They took a “whatever happens happens” approach to their recording. Their expansive talents guided them in to all different kinds of directions. And it worked.
The one and only time I saw R.E.M. perform was the 2nd to last show of their “Monster” tour in spring of 1995 at the Omni in Atlanta. They had added this show because the LAST show had been sold out for weeks. I remember a lot about this show. I remember they had a HUGE disco ball that they would bring down from the ceiling for many of their songs. I remember Michael Stipe reading the words of the songs from sheets of paper propped on a music stand (he’s human, give him a break). I also remember Mike Mills wearing royal blue jump suit splattered with sequins. It was a great concert and I am SO glad I got to see them.
R.E.M. went through a pretty rough time in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Between band members almost DYING and drummer Bill Berry leaving the band, calling it a “rough couple of years” is quite the understatement. None of the experiences they went through were able to halt them. They weren’t done yet. Albums called “New Adventures in Hi-Fi”, “Up” (which was the first album they released as a threesome), “Reveal”, “Around The Sun”, “Accelerate”, and their last studio album “Collapse Into Now” (2011) were to follow….and in typical R.E.M. style, each one was much different than the albums prior.
I did kind of drift away from them after “Reveal”. Not because I stopped liking them. It’s hard to explain. I think maybe it’s because I feel like I had gotten everything I needed from them…if that makes sense. All the material between 1991 and 2008 was enough for me. That’s the R.E.M. I knew and liked. Just as many of their original fans cling to “Murmur” and “Reckoning”.
Whatever the reason is, the end of R.E.M. doesn’t make me sad. It makes me proud to be a fan. I like to think that Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, and Peter Buck are happy to have anyone listening to their music…regardless of the era in which it was created. Whether you celebrate their music as an entire body of work or just a couple of their mid-career albums (like me), their music has spoken to a generation in way that no other band probably has or will.
R.E.M. will be missed by many but will always be appreciated for their contributions to the world of music…and the world.
