123

It's the end of REM as we know it (Read 917 times)

xor


    In response to "It's just music"

     

    I must disagree with this. To me, this is akin to saying "It's just running"

     

     

    Why, I do believe that's what he was going for!  Smile

     

    Trent


    Good Bad & The Monkey

    vexil77


      While many people defined the 1980s by MTV and garbage like the Culture Club, Thomson Twins, Men without Hats and Pet Shop Boys, bands like R.E.M., U2, The Cure, The Pixies, The Replacements, Elvis Costello and The Smiths were emblematic of the mid 80s college radio scene (outside of punk). All these bands but particularly R.E.M.'s IRS releases during that time were daring in the sense that it was album rock in a time of music video overload. I did see R.E.M. once live and they kinda sucked. Others I know that saw them in a smaller venue said they were great. But I can still listen to Murmur, Reckoning, Fables, and Life's Rich Pageant today. 

       

      Stipe has always been a weirdo and R.E.M. has created some real clunkers (Up, Around the Sun). But outside of following the Grateul Dead around, they and the above bands pretty much define 1980s music to me. Much of the music I like now is becoming less and less relevant. So I guess that's what this announcement kinda means to me. They haven't been really relevant in a decade. And I feel a little older today.

       

      And outside of what my daughters listen to (Lady Gaga, Carrier Underwood, Serena Lopez), I have little knowledge of what's popular. 

       Exactly. I'm going to out myself as an old broad (graduated from college in 1981). A lot of younger people don't realize that the late 70s/early 80s were a dark age for music. While there was some interesting stuff starting to happen- Pretenders, Blondie, Cars, Talking Heads, at that time,  you really  had to work at it,  to find anything other than the crap on the radio.  Air Supply, Little River Band, Rick Springfield, Atlanta Rhythm Section,  anyone? When  REM  broke big it was amazing that a band this good could be popular too. Of course there were those in Athens, Atlanta, Sewanee and Nashville who hated their success  since it ruined the insider-cult following.  I agree Michael Stipe can be a pretentious jerk  with weirdo tendencies but this band means or meant  a lot, to a lot of people. So yeah, it's the end of an era for some of us. 

      xor


        I was there.

         

        Still thought REM sucked. Smile

         

        Which is fine, everybody has their own opinion, but not liking REM was something that would get you tut-tut'ed and head patted for being a dumbass back then. 

         

          Indeed

           

          Yeah I should probably drink more coffee before I post such serious things first thing in the morning. I missed all the nuance. Ah well. And I have to be nice to Trent. I'm harboring thoughts of doing something realllly dumb next year.

          A list of my PRs in a misguided attempt to impress people that do not care.

          LedLincoln


          not bad for mile 25

            And outside of what my daughters listen to (Lady Gaga, Carrier Underwood, Serena Lopez), I have little knowledge of what's popular. 

             

            I don't know Carrier Underwood but I do know SR Lopez.

            jEfFgObLuE


            I've got a fever...

              Dude.

               

              It's just music.

               It's only rock and roll, but I like it.

              On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office.  But you will wish that you'd spent more time running.  Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.

                 It's only rock and roll, but I like it.

                 

                Stones never break up.  They just keep roling and turning into pebbles and then grains of sand and then dust and then blow away in the wind.  And one day somone asks what happened to the Stones.  And nobody will notice they are gone. 

                 

                 

                 

                 

                bhearn


                  Still thought REM sucked. Smile

                   

                  Which is fine, everybody has their own opinion, but not liking REM was something that would get you tut-tut'ed and head patted for being a dumbass back then. 

                   

                  Yep. And still will. I was gazed at incredulously just last week for having to switch my coworker's REM Pandora station. Couldn't take much of it.

                  Stacks


                    Yep. And still will. I was gazed at incredulously just last week for having to switch my coworker's REM Pandora station. Couldn't take much of it.

                     

                    Tut-tut.

                     

                    Summer of grade 9, Murmur was the first alternative rock record (yes it was vinyl) I ever bought, after seeing the video for Radio Free Europe on the weird late-night music video show on our local cable station in Vancouver (Soundproof, I think it was called).  I remember listening to the album once or twice, loathing it, then listening again (I had a limited record-buying budget), and again, and then coming to really like it.  I sort of lost track of REM after a couple more albums (though I can probably hum all the hits), but I still have copies Murmur and Reckoning, and could probably mumble along with any song off either record.

                     

                    Pre-Soundproof album purchases I can remember: YMCA, and Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon.  Subsequent, Soundproof-influenced purchases that I remember:  Hoodoo Gurus, The Church, Jazz Butcher.   

                     

                    OK, I was a bit of a weirdo.  And I am old.  I do still listen to Jazz Butcher once in a while (I like to pretend I am a bit like a Canadian Mark Smith...well no, but I wanted to get that lyric into this paragraph somewhere).

                     

                    And another thing -- REM deserve credit for resisting the impulse to tour FOREVER.  I remember that around the same time I was depriving myself of sleep watching Soundproof, the Who was finishing up its farewell tour of North America.  I thought they were old then.  They played the Super Bowl half-time show in what, 2010?  

                     

                    EL

                    bhearn


                      I will give REM kudos for refusing to sell out when Microsoft came knocking to launch Windows... '95? I don't remember. Anyway as I recall, Microsoft really wanted to use "It's the End of the World as We Know It" (an REM song I actually like), but REM wouldn't play ball. So they spent $10M for the Stones' "Start Me Up". I was a pretty aggressive Microsoft hater back then -- I threw away my Stones CDs.

                      xor


                        Yes, Windows 95.

                         

                        Also on the Windows 95 CD was a not-really-an-easter-egg.  The video for Buddy Holly by Weezer. 

                         


                        an amazing likeness

                          All I wanna know is What's the Frequency Kenneth?

                          Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.

                            Yo, turn to that station.

                            When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?

                            123