R.E.M. formed in Athens, Georgia in 1980 — Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Bill Berry — and their jangly college rock laid the groundwork for American alternative music. Murmur (1983) started it all, and Automatic for the People (1992) is one of the defining rock albums of the '90s. Explore R.E.M. vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
R.E.M. formed in Athens, Georgia in 1980 around Michael Stipe (born January 4, 1960, Decatur, Georgia), Peter Buck (born December 6, 1956, Berkeley, California), Mike Mills (born December 17, 1958, Orange, California), and Bill Berry (born July 31, 1958, Duluth, Minnesota). The band's name was selected by Buck and Stipe randomly from a dictionary, with R.E.M. (rapid eye movement) chosen for its mystery and association with dreams and the unconscious. They signed with I.R.S. Records in 1982 and released their debut Murmur (1983), which received critical attention and was widely cited as Rolling Stone's #1 album of 1983. They are widely cited as one of the foundational acts of the 1980s American college rock movement alongside contemporaries like the Replacements, Sonic Youth, Hüsker Dü, and the Pixies. Their 1991 album Out of Time - featuring the international single Losing My Religion - became their international commercial breakthrough. Their 1992 follow-up Automatic for the People - featuring the singles Everybody Hurts, Man on the Moon, and Drive - is widely cited as one of the most important rock albums of the 1990s. Drummer Bill Berry suffered a brain aneurysm onstage in Switzerland in March 1995 and survived; he retired from the band in October 1997. The remaining members continued as a three-piece with reduced commercial success across the late 1990s and 2000s. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. They dissolved as a band in September 2011. Their foundational influence on alternative rock is widely cited as one of the most important contributions to the form.
R.E.M.'s sound is foundational to alternative rock and college rock as recognized genres - combining alternative rock, college rock, jangle pop, indie rock, folk rock, pop rock, and post-punk with Michael Stipe's distinctive vocal delivery (use of opaque, mumbled lyrical content in early period), Peter Buck's foundational jangly Rickenbacker guitar work, Mike Mills's backing vocal arrangements, and varied compositional approaches across their multi-decade career.
Original I.R.S. Records and Warner Bros. Records pressings of the R.E.M. catalog are foundational items in alternative rock collecting.
Listeners new to R.E.M. typically start with Automatic for the People (1992) or Murmur (1983).
