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R.E.M. - Formation: 1980-1982 |
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Written by krotzyk
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Monday, 20 August 2007 |
R.E.M. is an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia in 1980 by Bill Berry (drums), Peter Buck (guitar), Mike Mills (bass guitar), and Michael Stipe (vocals). R.E.M. was one of the first popular alternative  rock bands, and gained early attention due to Buck's "jangly" guitar style and Stipe's cryptic vocals. R.E.M. released its first single, "Radio Free Europe" in 1981 on independent record label Hib-Tone. The single was followed by the Chronic Town EP in 1982; the band's first release on I.R.S. Records. In 1983, the band released its critically-acclaimed debut album Murmur, and built its reputation over the next few years through subsequent critically-acclaimed releases, constant touring, and the support of college radio. Following years of underground success, R.E.M. entered the mainstream in 1987 with the hit song "The One I Love." They signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1988, and began to adopt broad political and environmental concerns while playing large arenas worldwide.
By the early 1990s, R.E.M. were viewed as pioneers of alternative rock and released their most successful albums, the multi-million-selling Out of Time (1991) and Automatic for the People (1992), which veered from the band's established sound. R.E.M. released Monster, which was a return to a more rock-oriented sound, in 1994 and began its first tour in six years. However the tour was marred by a number of difficulties. In 1997, R.E.M. re-signed with Warner Bros. for a then-record $80 million. The following year, Bill Berry amicably left the band, with Buck, Mills, and Stipe continuing as a three-piece. Through some changes in musical style, the band continued its career into the next decade with mixed critical and commercial success. In 2007, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In January 1980 Michael Stipe met Peter Buck in an Athens record store the latter worked in. The pair discovered they shared similar tastes in music, particularly punk rock and protopunk artists like Patti  Smith, Television, and The Velvet Underground; Stipe said, "It turns out that I was buying all the records that he was saving for himself." Stipe and Buck soon met fellow University of Georgia students Mike Mills and Bill Berry at a party, a pair who had played music together since high school. The quartet agreed to write several songs; Stipe later commented that "there was never any grand plan behind any of it." The unnamed band spent several months rehearsing and played their first show on April 5, 1980 at a friend's birthday party held in a converted Episcopal church. After considering names like Twisted Kites, Cans of Piss, and Negro Wives, the band settled on R.E.M., which Stipe pulled at random from a dictionary.
Eventually, the band members dropped out of school to focus on the band. R.E.M.'s success was more or less instant in Athens and in the surrounding area; the band drew progressively bigger crowds for shows, which caused some resentment among the Athens music scene. Over the next year and a half, R.E.M. toured throughout the Southern United States. During the summer of 1981, R.E.M. recorded their first single, "Radio Free Europe" (sample (help·info)) at Mitch Easter's Drive-In Studios in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "Radio Free Europe" was released on the local independent record label Hib-Tone with an initial pressing of one thousand copies, which quickly sold out. Despite its limited pressing, the single garnered critical acclaim; it was listed as one of the ten best singles of the year by The New York Times and the Village Voice named it Single of the Year in its 1983 Pazz & Jop critics poll.
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