When I was a teenager these guys were massive. Not just worshipped by the press, critics and music nerds, but a gargantuan commercial success too.

They seem to have had zero cultural staying power at all. Like a completely distant memory, barely referenced even by people riding on 90's nostalgia. What gives?

first cd I ever owned was automatic for the people, then my friend group found out stipe was bisexual and we all stopped listening to them (it was a different time)

>>126721284 (OP)
anon you posted a picture of R.E.M., not The Beatles

>>126721284 (OP)
Here's the actual answer: their 90s output is garbage
They were not a popular band, they were not meant to be a popular band, but they signed a deal with Warner and rode on that for a while, but time always sort things out, and with fake hype comes no legacy
On other hand their 80s albums will always be remembered and liked by people who really love music, which are few

>>126721284 (OP)
I've never been a big fan of them they have some songs I like but I've never been a big fan of them

>>126721544

>>126721284 (OP)
pretty sure everybody still knows and loves Losing My Religion

>>126721284 (OP)
Their fame peaked in that brief window in the late 80s and early 90s when jangly college rock was all the rage and they led that wave, but grunge washed all that away. Loud and snotty was back in, soft and literate was out. REM were still popular but Nirvana stole their clout as vanguards of a major movement.

>>126721891
thanks for serving as example of a 90s R.E.M. "fan", a literal soulless redditor that calls anything that annoys them bait

>>126721544
Basically this. excluding aftp of course which is one their best everthing else is forgettable

these guys were brought up during a music trivia night recently and the 'big music fan' sitting in my group went on and on about them how they were 'his absolute favourite' but when i mentioned i enjoyed New Adventures in HiFi he didn't even know what that was and didn't believe me they fired a main writer/player in the group and put out like 10 more years of lame retreads and outright garbage after.
if they reformed they would only have success on big festival slots. touring arenas on their own would be financially disastrous.

>>126722378
>aftp of course which is one their best
I can't fathom how can that anyone that likes R.E.M. say this, the album is pure slop, Everybody Hurts is the most comically dishonest and corny song I've ever heard, Try Not To Breath is good but that's it on that album, over produced orchestral pretentiosuness without anything meaningful to say

>>126722378
>>126722422
It's like a 6/10 maybe

My theory is that this happened because REM only had mainstream success due to being lumped together with pop.
So whatever crowd of normies took a liking for them, they were those that typically listen to 'the hits', mostly Losing My Religion and Everybody Hurts. The rest were just adjacent memories for them.
Normies didn't know much about 80s REM and their influence on a lot of bands that eventually grew into the alt-rock thing.

So when that pop popularity waned, as usual normies found some other new distraction and put them behind.

And as usual it's music nerds who obsess over their legacy and which albums are their best. And they're gonna focus more on their early days when they were not mainstream yet.

I think they're exactly where they should be. They had their chance in the 90s and they didn't rise to the occasion. They made whiny 'intellectual' pop-rock that now sounds mostly forgettable.

>>126721284 (OP)
Some bands I like to name check,
And one of them is REM
Classic songs with a long history
Southern boys just like you and me
Are - E - M

>>126721544
>>126722378
>monster
>garbage/forgettable
pick one

>>126722010
t. written by chatgpt

>>126722730
>>monster
>>garbage/forgettable
>pick one

I pick both, extroverted Stipe is cringe and so are the lyrics, he lost all his hair and became a clown

r.e.m's only good albums are those turn of the century electro leonard cohen clone albums. jingle jangle rock was always lame, boring midtempo alt rock also.

>>126722787
you and your opinion are completely worthless tho

>>126722801
and you like sucking cock like michael stipe. face it: fags can't into rock music. they are needed in electronic music and jazz.

>>126722730
>write out a response that's more involved than just quoteposting and memes
>"hurr it's chatgpt"

>>126722801
It's more interesting than snagging lazy (You)s by saying Automatic is slop tho

>>126722815
fags are made for rock music and make the only remarkable ones, cry about it chudcel, you're probably a metalhead too

>>126722835
name 10 good gay rockstars

>>126722833
>redditor projects his karma mentality onto others again

>>126721284 (OP)

While R.E.M. once defined the college rock zeitgeist and crossed over into mainstream superstardom with hits like "Losing My Religion," their nuanced, often cryptic lyrics and evolving sound may have lacked the immediate singalong anthems that cement lasting legacy in the broader pop culture consciousness. Perhaps their very success in balancing critical acclaim and commercial appeal ultimately positioned them slightly outside the easily digestible nostalgia cycles of the decades that followed.

It's probably because they stopped putting out new studio albums after 2011. 'Collapse Into Now' actually went to #5 on the album charts in that year, and had several charting singles. Their material still sold reasonably well, but they just stopped releasing stuff.

>>126721284 (OP)
REM sucks balls they're up there with U2 for shit i never want to hear

>>126721284 (OP)
>They seem to have had zero cultural staying power at all. Like a completely distant memory, barely referenced even by people riding on 90's nostalgia. What gives?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f2lhfUMGb8

>>126721284 (OP)
I have seen quite a few threads about REM here, they seem to be a well liked here but the thing with them is that there is not much about the band to talk about since there was never much drama besides drummer leaving

>>126723011
At least REM called it quits at the right time and didn't turn into a self parody

>>126721544
New Adventures in Hi-fi is one of their best albums and Up is underrated

>>126722010
Pretty much this.

>>126722422
>>126722600
How can you not like Drive, Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight, Man on the Moon, Nightswimming or Find the River

The only weaker tracks are Star Me Kitten and Ignoreland which doesn't really fit the album

>>126722010
Didn't Cobain put Green by them as one of his favorite albums?

>>126722890
Now this is actual chatgpt post

>>126721284 (OP)
Not edgy enough

>>126723143
>At least REM called it quits at the right time and didn't turn into a self parody
They kept going after the 80's, anon

Ill give a zoomer perspective. I grew up hearing these songs on the radio and at the grocery store, my dad likes this type of music a lot so I was exposed to all the other college rock bands they influenced. To be completely honest I like REM, but their are just too many bands that surpassed them in quality after the alt rock boom. It makes them seem tame.

>>126721284 (OP)
They're still well-liked, but there isn't some massive Beatles like fandom so much as the fans of this band tend to be fans the 90s alternative sound in general. A fan of this band will probably like a lot of the one hit wonder groups that came out the late 90s in particular, stuff like the Toadies, Garbage, Goldfinger, Third Eye Blind, all of who had noticeable influence from REM.

>>126721284 (OP)
They had made a definite permanent legacy on musical and even American culture
They just became too mainstream and dad-coded to be considered hip even with their college rock origins, but they became pretty locked in as a legacy act that'll still be listened to.
20 millions for a legacy act on Spotify puts them in the same realm as Springsteen, Elvis, Foo Fighters Stevie Wonder, and U2. Which is high tier for still listened to legacy acts, just not the highest tier of Beatles or AC/DC

>>126723156
sounds like a roger waters album, putrid garbage

>>126723218
When did they ever make anything as embarrassing as Vertigo or that album which was forced into people's phones?

>>126723262
Which bands surpassed them?

>>126723390
OK retard

>>126723431
you are a soulless npc for liking that album, actual subhuman

>>126723431
you are the retard lmao

>>126723431
Please I beg you, listen to more music.

>OK retard

>>126723627
kek

>>126721284 (OP)

teen+35->50+ year old posts here.

jesus fucking christ the election tourist trope is real

>>126723650
>reddit spacing

>>126723650
you lost tranny

>>126723650
not sure what you're trying to say, but might I suggest discord may be more your speed

>>126723548
>>126723614
>>126723620
>>126723627
Lmao butthurt samefag

Well this board is complete shit now, you can't even discuss REM without contratian fucktards shutting up the thread anymore

Well this board is complete shit now, you can't even discuss REM without contrarian fucktards shitting up the thread anymore

REM is one of those bands thats forgotten a bit, but if you played its the end of the world as i know it, everybody hurts, losing my religion, fuck, even shiny happy people i think people would be like "oh yeah" i remember them"

they are also kind of a werid band, from the south, middle america, and queer, you expect them to be from new york or something.

also sort of americas version of the smiths.

>>126722815
It's all projection. You're a dumb fuck closet faggot with shit taste. Go listen to hyperpop zoomer fag

>>126723548
>>126723614
>>126723614
>>126723620
Really obvious samefag. You are pathetic. Go get a job redneck

>>126723415
Pixies, and honestly Live

>>126723190
Automatic for the People was in his CD player when he died.

>>126723664

>anime

nuff said

>>126723684

>muh trannies

ah yes the big bad REM fan, go moan about everybody hurts on a newsgroup dumb boomer faggot

>>126721284 (OP)
good.
comfy kino band untarnished by zoom zooms

>>126721544
most R.E.M. fans enjoy Out of Time or Automatic for the People

>>126725435
not real fans

R.E.M.’s diminishing popularity is honestly fascinating. “Monster” was an inescapable album in 1995…30 years later and it can be found in every single used CD bin in America.

Reveal is secretly one of their best albums. it's like Automatic for the 2000's

Fables of the Reconstruction is secretly one of their worst albums, hidden quietly and undetected amongst their golden years. it's like an 80's Around the Sun

>>126725448
it's not fascinating, it's pretty simple actually as explained in >>126721544
same thing is happening to U2 and Oasis bc they didn't make good music

>>126725448

their sound didnt age well and they kinda were stuck in new wave effeminate sound with grunge and industrial and later nu metal leaving them behind

>>126725478
Kohoutek is better than any R.E.M. song after Green and Driver 8 wipes the floor with all of them

>>126725488

u2 was successful into the 2000s oasis kinda just fell off due to internal strains

>>126725500
they weren't, it was just the remaining boomers

>>126721284 (OP)
This guy was huge back in the 00s. Probably the biggest ukelele player ever.

>>126724356
its so fucked bc automatic for the people has this whole thematic about death but nothing to say about it
just a grim and depressing self indulgent album for the sake of it, that doesn't inspire people to live, I don't wanna blame rem for kurt cobain death but maybe if they made better music he would be alive

>>126725253
>>anime
Well yes.

>>126721284 (OP)
I was listening to them right now

I don't know how more people want remembered a band that hasn't been around in over 15 years
They never had a US #1 hit and not even atop 3 (though for top 10s). They had two albums top the Billboard chars, not even Automatic for the People did so.
They were never the top but are very well remembered regardless, what do people expect from REM to be "remembered" in their view?

>>126725496
Great songs. Fables has some great songs. overall a dull album for me.

>>126725543
>listening to music for the message instead of just enjoying the music

>>126725628
If the music is beautiful the message comes across without you even paying attention, it has nothing to do with lyrics, Automatic For The People has a soulless sound

>>126725659
way more soul than Fables desu

>>126725694
fables is not very good but you also can't say that about it, it's honest and they tried something different unlike automatic for the cattle

>>126725543
"Reading to bury your father and your mother"

No one had the balls to outright fucking go there and few people still do beyond just simple "I hate my life" self loathing nonsense

>>126725728
woah bro that's so edgy and le dark... cause we all die and stuff.... and the people we love too.... BRUTAL!!!!

>>126725594
Lots of great timeless bands didn't have number 1 hits who gives a shit. Are you zoomers serious with this bullshit. REM will always be a classic band of unpretentious dudes who wrote and performed really good pop music. Sho gives a fuck. Stop trying to fit everything into some nonexistent culture that is filled with brain dead morons anyway. Just listen and enjoy the music. The more forgotten the music is and how still good it is the more I like it. Fuck zoomers and normies and their shit taste

>>126725709
>automatic for the cattle
i'm starting to think you don't like it simply because it's popular.

>>126725744
Better than modern stupid bullshit going off about Trump for the 50000000th time and cutting off our picks. That's so God damn better and more deep..

>>126725747
holy projection and cope

>>126725761
Ooh I can't wait to hear another dumb pop slut or redneck country moron. Good job zoomer. Good culture you created

>>126725757
that's just the natural progression of what they started to do in lifes rich pageant, as the band went on stipe lost all his magic alongside his hair, no more dreamy abstract mumbling to beautiful jangle tunes that painted a picture in your head, he had to be an extrovert clown to give a show to the people that bought the expensive tickets just to go to show, and try to say something even though they have nothing to say, now we have retards like this one >>126725747 who think they were a pop band when in reality they were one of the coolest alt rock band of the 80s

>>126725757
that's just the natural progression of what they started to do in lifes rich pageant, as the band went on stipe lost all his magic alongside his hair, no more dreamy abstract mumbling to beautiful jangle tunes that painted a picture in your head, he had to be an extrovert clown to give a show to the people that bought the expensive tickets just for the sake of going to a show, and try to say something even though they had nothing to say, now we have retards like this one >>126725747 # who think they were a pop band when in reality they were one of the coolest alt rock bands of the 80s

>>126725756
no I just think it's lame

>>126725756
There’s a lot of millennial hipsters like this. They thought it was cool to not like popular stuff, purposely like the albums nobody has heard of. One of the worst things about my generation. Gen X had a shit ton of these too.

>>126725950
hey retarded nigger, I like a lot of popular stuff, I also think losing my religion is a great song worth of it's popularity and I was born in the year 2000, try another strawman next time :)

>>126725950
trust me i know, millennial myself and it's still carrying on strong today with zoomies but millennials and late gen x definitely started it.

"You" and "Tongue" from Monster are good songs!!

>>126726215
for me, it's Circus Envy

>>126725526
thanks for the chuckle anon, I got it even if no one else did

>>126725478
Fables is ridiculously underrated. Filtered pleb

I thought their 2000s albums were great

>>126721284 (OP)
Its because outside of the music they were kinda boring. To live on long after you stopped playing you need stories and stuff for people to talk about. Michael never dated some big time actress, he was bi but in the most boring way possible. No member ever had some public drug crash out, the only time a member left was for health reasons and when they called it quits in 2011 it wasn't some huge blow up, they just decided it was over. Their music was great but you can only say that so many times before you start talking about the bands that did crazy shit.

>>126725950
>>126726198
R.E.M. have almost 10 albums before Automatic, no artist wait that long and release that many music till finally being able to do what they always wanted to do, I'm not hating on the later stuff because it's popular, I'm just pointing out the fact if it wasn't the fabricated attention from Warner Bros people like you wouldn't look at it twice.

>>126728956
easily the least good one of the IRS years

>>126728984
i think so too. Around the Sun is actually underrated and relaxing, Accelerate rocks and Reveal>>126725466

>>126729227
>R.E.M. have almost 10 albums before Automatic
all the more reason to change it up, do something different

they actually have a good slice of spotify listens (19 million a month, almost equal to U2), where'd the narrative they are forgotten come from?

>>126729416
Different for the sake of it is not good different, but that would be if it was different in the first place, it sounds like any soft rock

Drive 10/10
Try Not to Breathe 7/10
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite 10/10
Everybody Hurts 6/10
New Orleans Instrumental 2/10
Sweetness Follows 8/10
Monty Got a Raw Deal 7/10
Ignoreland 5/10
Star Me Kitten 3/10
Man on the Moon 11/10
Nightswimming 8/10
Find the River 7/10

>>126726376
I'll have to listen to that one again
can't remember it

>>126721544
You're so fucking retarded

>>126724217
We have 15 Kurt Cobain threads at any given time and we have some zoomer faggot saying Live surpassed them. This site should have stayed shut down.

>>126733459
nice argument

>>126725543
I wish i could beat your retarded ass to death. Holy fuck.

>>126733515
keep seething monkey, how about prove any of a said wrong? you are a worthless maggot

as expected

>>126733537
It's no one's fault you can't wrap your head around Automatic, of all albums. You should have kept that retarded opinion of yours to yourself.

>>126733569
Ah yes I can't wrap my head around an album literal retards and karens enjoy, just go to any yt video of atftp and read the comments. And yes ofc I'm angry about it, it's the same band that made Harborcoat which is extremely beautiful without it trying so hard to be.

>>126733608
So you do hate it because it's popular then. Got it. Not an argument. Move past this phase in your life. You're a grown man, I'm assuming.

>>126733617
No I hate it because people say it's one of their best if not their best album and it's not even good and it's offensively inferior to what they did in the 80s, and then you look deeper into who says this and they don't even care about music in general, Creep from Radiohead is popular but it's a great song.

>>126733645
Why do you give a shit what other people think? Your whole argument about this is pointless. It's pretty well loved by people who aren't huge fans and people who are gigantic fans. It has some of their best songs, a wonderful mood about it and has aged well. If you like the early stuff then fine but you're not some authority on this subject.

>>126733671
>It's pretty well loved by people who aren't huge fans and people who are gigantic fans.
nope
that's also why R.E.M. is being forgotten

>>126733698
Not at all. They're one of the most successful bands of all time. Long run of classic albums and their influence is far and wide. They just have no drama or anything else for people that don't actually give a shit about music to sink their teeth into.

>>126733723
Actually yes, bands like The Smiths just grow more and more popular as people discover them, while R.E.M. numbers dies alongside their listeners, maybe it wouldn't be like this if they didn't taint their legacy with those shit albums, myself for instance kept myself from listening to them for a while because I thought they were one of the most mediocre bands of all time, and then I realized there was another R.E.M. boomers didn't talk about.

>>126733774
>The Smiths
>having one of the most charismatic and outspoken frontmen in music history
You're proving my point. I love The Smiths and Moz but he was constantly kicking the hornets nest. REM were never about this. They're quiet nerds and the most shocking thing about them was Stipe being gay despite it being so clear that Ray Charles could see it. They were friends, they made some amazing albums and rode out into the sunset. They're seen as a boring band to most because people don't care about music. They need a headline or something shocking going on.

>>126733825
but stipe stopped behaving like a quiet nerd around those albums, I liked them when he was a mysterious quiet nerd

compare this performance, everything about it
https://youtu.be/_KrNfy8OihQ?t=2m40s

to this
https://youtu.be/dW62Q0TTgS0?si=dxDil3C50_5rxRU2

it's tragic

>>126733914
I believe he was painfully shy when they started out. Even when they recorded. He's a bit more loose in the first performance but I wouldn't say he's some next level frontman oozing charisma. He had to get comfortable as a necessity for sure. They never would have gotten far otherwise. Both performances have their charms.Either way, that's my two cents about it. REM might not be exciting enough band to have a tiktok resurgence but they're a very special band and we'll never have another one like them.

>>126726376
>>126726215
All 3 of these songs are awesome and underrated.

>>126733978
He wasn't too shy he was perfect and wrote perfect lyrics with beautiful words and melodies, and then he became a bald fraud that now thinks he didn't know how to write lyrics
https://youtu.be/iOEl8YQoSro?si=2jJjnnlq38PFPMM1

>>126734051
I get you like early REM but Michael isn't a bald fraud. His lyrics were always amazing and just got more refined over time. That's the thing about writing. You don't get comfortable. The good writers don't anyway. And I doubt he genuinely believes he's a bad lyricist. He's probably just being humble. I can't make you enjoy 90s REM but maybe one day it will click for you. I've written enough blogs defending them here.

>>126734094
It didn't get refined, they made it have more broader appeal, they signed deals and worked with people that straight up reprehended Stipe about his style
>[Producer] Don Gehman came in with his really big drum sound, and that opened some doors for us. He was also the first person to challenge me on my lyrics, just saying, “What the fuck is this about?”
>I crossed my arms and walked out of the room. But I appreciated the challenge a lot. Don just said: “Think about what you’re singing. What is this? Why do you want to put that out?”

I hope he is dead

>>126734157
That's honest and constructive feedback and it did work in their favor. This is like arguing with a wall. There's still tons of mystique in Michael's lyrics, it's still open for interpretation while also being more personal. That's not a bad thing at all and I don't know why you're painting it that way.

>>126723406
COA

>>126734178
https://youtu.be/awX5lGiqrl4?feature=shared

>>126734208
God forbid someone try to be positive and encouraging for others

>>126729041
>No member ever had some public drug crash out
Didn't Peter Buck get kicked off a plane for blacking out on xans or something like that? kek

>>126734235
im just shitposting now, we just disagree, maybe I come around liking their late stuff someday

>>126734299
I hope you do. There's a lot of great stuff.

>>126726215
>>126726376
>>126733981
truth be told, there are actually no bad songs on Monster