Rock band R.E.M. emerged from the post-punk D.I.Y. scene in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 and has been making their own unique brand of music ever since. R.E.M. has released 13 studio records, including 5 with I.R.S. in the ‘80s and 8 with current label Warner Bros. Records. Among R.E.M.’s achievements are a host of humanitarian awards, 3 Grammys, several number one albums, 6 Rolling Stone Covers, numerous MTV Video Music Awards, and over 70 million records sold, making the band one of the most critically and commercially successful groups of all time. R.E.M. has given consistently to charitable causes, supporting such wide-ranging endeavors as the Boys & Girls Club, school music programs, and local grassroots community organizations to partnering with Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Vote For Change, and Doctors Without Borders.
The four members of R.E.M. met at the University of Georgia in Athens in 1979. Fellow Maconites Bill Berry and Mike Mills were a tight and ready-made rhythm section who had played together in bands before coming to UGA, while army-brat and Decatur native Michael Stipe attended the University’s School of Visual Arts. California transplant Peter Buck, who attended Atlanta’s Emory University, was working in a local record shop where he and Stipe first met and subsequently formed a close friendship over their eclectic record collections. After being introduced by mutual friends, the four formed a band and played their first show on April 5th, 1980, in an abandoned Episcopal Church they also called home. Although still nameless as a band that night, Berry, Buck, Mills and Stipe soon settled on R.E.M. after an evening of flipping through the dictionary. The band rapidly emerged as a local favorite on the Athens scene, which was soon to be made famous by acts like the B-52’s, Pylon, and Love Tractor. Summer of 1981 witnessed the release of Radio Free Europe, the band’s first single on the independent Hib-Tone label. Only 1,000 copies were pressed but lack of distribution couldn’t stop the single from becoming a sensation and a sure-fire college-radio hit. Radio Free Europe garnered widespread critical acclaim and topped many year-end charts, including the Village Voice’s annual Independent Singles poll.
In 1982, R.E.M. signed to I.R.S. and soon thereafter released Chronic Town, a five-song extended player produced at Winston-Salem’s Drive-In Studios by Mitch Easter. The record showcased R.E.M’s trademark mix of driving basslines, arpeggiated guitars, unique beats, and recondite lyrics. After incessant touring in 1982 in support of Chronic Town the band recorded their first full-length record, Murmur, in January of 1983. If there was any doubt left about R.E.M.’s promise and potential, it was dispelled by year’s end as Rolling Stone critics voted Murmur Album of the Year and R.E.M. Artist of the Year in their annual year-end poll. It seems hard to believe now, but from 1983-1988, beginning with Murmur, R.E.M. released a record every year, including Reckoning in 1984, Fables of the Reconstruction in 1985, Lifes Rich Pageant in 1986, Document in 1987, and Green in 1988. R.E.M. took college radio and campuses by storm, toured relentlessly, and built up legions of fans across the US. The highlights and milestones were many including continued growth in record sales from album to album and entry into the top 10 on the Billboard Charts with The One I Love, a track from Document, which peaked at number 9. In 1988, the band signed a five-record deal with Warner Bros., known primarily for being an artist-friendly label but also, as singer Michael Stipe admitted when asked why the band had chosen Warner, the home of Bugs Bunny. In signing with Warner, R.E.M. effectively closed the door on its college radio past and set out, with a new level of distribution, to broaden its fan base. In keeping with their ever-expanding worldwide audience, R.E.M. launched their most-ambitious tour yet, traveling to such far-flung countries as Australia, Japan, and New Zealand, and playing large sold-out arenas everywhere for the entirety of 1989.
R.E.M.’s seventh record, Out of Time, was released in 1991 and became the group’s first chart-topping album in the US and UK, garnering three Grammys in the process. Out of Time’s lead single was Losing My Religion, a mandolin-driven track, which reached number four on the singles’ chart. Following on the heels of this momentum and forsaking touring for the first time in their career, R.E.M. hurried back to the studio and recorded Automatic For the People, long held by critics and fans alike to be the band’s masterpiece, in 1992. Just like Out of Time, the band chose not to tour behind Automatic For the People, which included hits Drive, Everybody Hurts and Man on the Moon. And just like Murmur ten years earlier, Automatic For the People earned R.E.M. Rolling Stone’s Best Album of the Year and Best Band award. The album, which sold over 15 million copies, continues to rank in the top ten of critics’ all-time greatest album lists.
Rounding out R.E.M’s body of work for Warner Bros. are Monster (1994), New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996), Up (1998), Reveal (2001), and Around the Sun (2004). The last three records were recorded without the services of Berry, who after suffering an aneurysm on the Monster tour in 1995, chose to retire from the band in 1997. Since Berry’s departure, R.E.M. has continued as a three-piece, and, in addition to releasing Up, Reveal, and Around the Sun, scored a soundtrack for Milos Forman’s bio-pic on Andy Kaufman, Man on the Moon, which featured Grammy-nominated single, The Great Beyond. The band released a greatest hits record celebrating 15 years on Warner Bros. called In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003.
Since resuming touring in 1995, the band has continued to tour extensively. In 2001, R.E.M. played their largest concert ever for over 150,000 fans at Rock in Rio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The band’s most recent tours have taken them around the world and have included such legendary venues as Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square in London, Denver’s Red Rocks, Dublin’s Slane Castle, Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Dom Cathedral in Cologne, the Montreux Jazz Festival, Loch Lomond and Stirling Castle in Scotland, and Vienna’s Staatsoper.
Throughout their twenty-six year career, R.E.M. has supported many organizations dedicated to environmental protection, a just and equitable society, and progressive political causes. Among many others, the group has performed benefit concerts for Moveon.org, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Live 8, Free South Africa, Oxfam, Make Trade Fair, Athens Community Connection, Vote For Change and the Bridge School.
In September 2006, R.E.M. released a two-disc retrospective called “R.E.M. and I Feel Fine”which chronicles some of the best moments from their years with IRS. A companion DVD, "When The Light Is Mine," was also released featuring the band's videos from the IRS years. That same month, the group was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
In March 2007, the band, including original drummer Bill Berry, received the ultimate honor of induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. R.E.M. was inducted by longtime friend Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and shared the stage with fellow inductees Patti Smith, Van Halen, The Ronettes, and Grandmaster Flash. The band also recorded a version of John Lennon's 9 Dream with Berry which was released in March as the lead single from Instant Karma: The Campaign To Save Darfur, a benefit record comprised of covers of Lennon songs compiled in an attempt to raise funds for Amnesty International's campaign to end the ongoing violence in Darfur.
In October 2007. R.E.M. Live, a dual CD/DVD featuring songs from the band's performance at the Point Theatre show in Dublin on February 2005, was released. R.E.M.'s 14th studio record, titled Accelerate, is set for a Spring release. Accelerate will be in stores on March 31st outside of North America, where it will be released on April 1st.
