Legendary band R.E.M. has announced on their website that they have decided to call it quits after three decades.
This story isn't as strictly TV related as we usually are here at the TV Geek Army, but it's a personal one to me and, really, upon reflection I do see the ways in which R.E.M. has influenced the small screen as well as through their audio recordings.
"Out of Time" was one of the first CDs I ever purchased back in 1991, an album that helped to launch the band from underground and college radio heroes to international superstars. The hypnotically catchy and soaring jangles of "Losing My Religion" was all over the radio and MTV as well at a time when it was Music Television and hugely influential on music and pop culture.
The original (and outstanding) video is not available for embedding, but luckily I have the Unplugged performance here for you, which is simply marvelous in its own way:
James Poniewozik at Tuned In is helpful in pointing out that R.E.M. also touched television in the form of "Stand" fronting Chris Elliot's oddly watchable Get A Life and the use (overuse?) of the deeply melancholy "Everybody Hurts" on shows such as My So-Called Life. I seem to recall many songs from the massively popular Automatic For the People being used across television and films in the early '90s actually.
I was lucky enough to see R.E.M. live at the Hollywood Bowl several years ago, and it reminded me how great they've remained over several decades. It's difficult to pinpoint an album of theirs that is unsuccessful even as they shifted sounds and styles. Over the past year, I often listen to "Live at the Olympia" while working and writing about television, and I highly recommend it.
Here's the great song/video, "It Happened Today," from what will stand as the band's final studio album, Collapse Into Now:
Man, Eric. R.E.M. was directly responsible for my interest in writing as well as making music. They've been making music for my entire life. It's sad to see them go.
Wow, that's very cool Mike. It is sad, but at least we have such a huge catalog of great music to return to forever.