R.E.M. released its first single—"Radio Free Europe"—in 1981 on the 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 group released its critically acclaimed debut album, Murmur, and built its reputation over the next few years through subsequent releases, constant touring, and the support of college radio. Following years of underground success, R.E.M. achieved a mainstream hit in 1987 with the single "The One I Love". The group signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1988, and began to espouse political and environmental concerns while playing large arenas worldwide.
By the early 1990s, when alternative rock began to enter the mainstream, R.E.M. was viewed by subsequent acts such as Nirvana and Pavement as a pioneer of the genre. The band released its two most commercially successful albums, Out of Time (1991) and Automatic for the People (1992), which veered from the band's established sound and catapulted it to international fame. R.E.M.'s 1994 release, Monster, was a return to a more rock-oriented sound, but still continued its run of success. The band began its first tour in six years to support the album; the tour was marred by medical emergencies suffered by three of the band members.
In 1996, R.E.M. re-signed with Warner Bros. for a reported US$80 million, at the time the most expensive recording contract in history. Its 1996 release, New Adventures in Hi-Fi, though critically acclaimed, fared worse commercially than its predecessors. The following year, Bill Berry left the band, while Stipe, Buck, and Mills continued the group as a trio. Through some changes in musical style, the band continued its career into the next decade with mixed critical and commercial success, despite having sold more than 85 million records worldwide and becoming one of the world's best-selling music artists. In 2007, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in their first year of eligibility. R.E.M. disbanded amicably in September 2011, announcing the split on its website.
In January 1980, Michael Stipe met Peter Buck in Wuxtry Records, the Athens record store where Buck worked. The pair discovered that they shared similar tastes in music, particularly in 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 [Buck] was saving for himself." Through mutual friend Kathleen O'Brien, Stipe and Buck then met fellow University of Georgia students Mike Mills and Bill Berry, who had played music together since high school and lived together in Georgia. The quartet agreed to collaborate on several songs; Stipe later commented that "there was never any grand plan behind any of it". Their still-unnamed band spent a few months rehearsing in a deconsecrated Episcopal church in Athens, and played its first show on April 5, 1980, supporting the Side Effects at O'Brien's birthday party held in the same church, performing a mix of originals and 1960s and 1970s covers. After considering Twisted Kites, Cans of Piss, and Negro Eyes, the band settled on "R.E.M." (which is an initialism for rapid eye movement, the dream stage of sleep), which Stipe selected at random from a dictionary.
The band members eventually dropped out of school to focus on their developing group. They found a manager in Jefferson Holt, a record store clerk who was so impressed by an R.E.M. performance in his hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, that he moved to Athens. R.E.M.'s success was almost immediate in Athens and surrounding areas; the band drew progressively larger crowds for shows, which caused some resentment in the Athens music scene. Over the next year and a half, R.E.M. toured throughout the Southern United States. Touring was arduous because a touring circuit for alternative rock bands did not then exist. The group toured in an old blue van driven by Holt, and lived on a food allowance of $2 each per day.
R.E.M. was pivotal in the creation and development of the alternative rock genre. AllMusic stated, "R.E.M. mark the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock." In the early 1980s, the musical style of R.E.M. stood in contrast to the post-punk and new wave genres that had preceded it. Music journalist Simon Reynolds noted that the post-punk movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s "had taken whole swaths of music off the menu", particularly that of the 1960s, and that "After postpunk's demystification and New Pop's schematics, it felt liberating to listen to music rooted in mystical awe and blissed-out surrender." Reynolds declared R.E.M., a band that recalled the music of the 1960s with its "plangent guitar chimes and folk-styled vocals" and who "wistfully and abstractly conjured visions and new frontiers for America", one of "the two most important alt-rock bands of the day." With the release of Murmur, R.E.M. had the most impact musically and commercially of the developing alternative genre's early groups, leaving in its wake a number of jangle pop followers.
R.E.M.'s early breakthrough success served as an inspiration for other alternative bands. Spin referred to the "R.E.M. model"—career decisions that R.E.M. made which set guidelines for other underground artists to follow in their own careers. Spin's Charles Aaron wrote that by 1985, "They'd shown how far an underground, punk-inspired rock band could go within the industry without whoring out its artistic integrity in any obvious way. They'd figured out how to buy in, not sellout-in other words, they'd achieved the American Bohemian Dream." Steve Wynn of Dream Syndicate said, "They invented a whole new ballgame for all of the other bands to follow whether it was Sonic Youth or the Replacements or Nirvana or Butthole Surfers. R.E.M. staked the claim. Musically, the bands did different things, but R.E.M. was first to show us you can be big and still be cool." Biographer David Buckley stated that between 1991 and 1994, a period that saw the band sell an estimated 30 million albums, R.E.M. "asserted themselves as rivals to U2 for the title of biggest rock band in the world." Over the course of its career, the band has sold over 85 million records worldwide.
Alternative bands such as Nirvana, Pavement, Radiohead, Coldplay, Pearl Jam (the band's vocalist Eddie Vedder inducted R.E.M. into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), and Live, have drawn inspiration from R.E.M.'s music. "When I was 15 years old in Richmond, Virginia, they were a very important part of my life," Pavement's Bob Nastanovich said, "as they were for all the members of our band." Pavement's contribution to the No Alternative compilation (1993) was "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence", a song about R.E.M.'s early days. Local H, according to the band's Twitter account, created their name by combining two R.E.M. songs: "Oddfellows Local 151" and "Swan Swan H". Kurt Cobain of Nirvana was a fan of R.E.M., and had unfulfilled plans to collaborate on a musical project with Stipe. Cobain told Rolling Stone in an interview earlier that year, "I don’t know how that band does what they do. God, they’re the greatest. They've dealt with their success like saints, and they keep delivering great music."
During his show at the 40 Watt Club in October 2018, Johnny Marr said: "As a British musician coming out of the indie scene in the early '80s, which I definitely am and am proud to have been, I can't miss this opportunity to acknowledge and pay my respects and honor the guys who put this town on the map for us in England. I'm talking about my comrades in guitar music, R.E.M. The Smiths really respected R.E.M. We had to keep an eye on what those guys were up to. It's an interesting thing for me, as a British musician, and all those guys as British musicians, to come to this place and play for you guys, knowing that it's the roots of Mike Mills and Bill Berry and Michael Stipe and my good friend Peter Buck."
Disappear
R.E.M. Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And jumped out the passenger side
The only thing worth looking for
Is what you find inside
But that had not yet appeared
Lost, invisible, here
Tel Aviv and Agadir
Taroudant and Olomouc
The vanishing point appear
I looked for you and everywhere
I looked for you and everywhere
There is a calm I haven't come to yet
I spend half my life figuring what comes next
I telescoped in
I'll finally win
I'll finally win the prize
That now my eyes see
A comic's perfect timing squeezed
I'm headfirst fighting everything
The crushing force of memory
Erasing all I've been
The vanishing point appears
I looked for you and everywhere
I looked for you and everywhere
Tell me why you're here
I came to disappear
Look at this face
Can you believe it?
Am I living in a beautiful vacuum?
Because I can't see it
The vanishing point appears
I looked for you and everywhere
I looked for you and everywhere
Tell me why you're here
I came to disappear
Tell me why you're here
I came to disappear
I came to disappear
R.E.M.'s song Disappear is a poetic and introspective examination of the desire to escape and the search for meaning in life. The lyrics describe leaving behind the mundane and seeking to find something deeper within oneself, represented by the vanishing point, the point at which parallel lines appear to converge. The singer has traveled across the world, looking for this elusive point, but has yet to find it. Along the way, the singer has also searched for someone to share this journey with, but has come up empty.
The chorus of the song, "I looked for you and everywhere, tell me why you're here, I came to disappear," encapsulates the conflict between wanting to find connection and meaning, and the desire to escape from the world altogether. The singer seems to be caught between these two opposing desires, uncertain of which path to follow.
The song's bridge delves into the struggle to reconcile the past with the present, and the constant search for what comes next. The line "the crushing force of memory erasing all I've been" speaks to the weight of the past and the difficulty of moving forward.
Overall, Disappear is a melancholic yet introspective meditation on the pursuit of meaning and the struggle to reconcile the desire for connection with the desire to escape.
Line by Line Meaning
I've dragged my feet across the seat
I have reluctantly moved forward from the comfort of my seat
And jumped out the passenger side
I have exited the vehicle from the easier side
The only thing worth looking for
The most important thing to search for
Is what you find inside
The thing that you discover within yourself
But that had not yet appeared
But I have not found it yet
Lost, invisible, here
I am feeling lost and unseen in this place
Tel Aviv and Agadir
These two cities that I have visited
Taroudant and Olomouc
And these two other cities
Before I learned to see
Before I gained my ability to perceive
The vanishing point appear
The point where something disappears from view has become visible
I looked for you and everywhere
I have searched for you all over the place
There is a calm I haven't come to yet
I have not experienced inner peace and quietness yet
I spend half my life figuring what comes next
A considerable amount of my life is spent trying to predict the future
I telescoped in
I have narrowed my focus onto one particular thing
I'll finally win
I will ultimately be victorious
I'll finally win the prize
I will be victorious in my quest for something prize-worthy
That now my eyes see
That which is now clear to my sight
A comic's perfect timing squeezed
The most opportune moment for a comedian to deliver a punchline
I'm headfirst fighting everything
I am diving into every challenge head-on
The crushing force of memory
The overwhelming strength of recollection
Erasing all I've been
Wiping away my whole past self
Tell me why you're here
Please explain your reason for being present
I came to disappear
I have come here to fade away from the world
Look at this face
Observe this countenance
Can you believe it?
Do you find it believable?
Am I living in a beautiful vacuum?
Is this an existence of idyllic nothingness?
Because I can't see it
Because I am unable to perceive it
Tell me why you're here
Please explain your intention of being present
I came to disappear
I came here to vanish from the world
Tell me why you're here
Why are you present here?
I came to disappear
I am here to fade away and vanish
I came to disappear
My purpose is to fade away
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Peter Buck, Michael Mills, Michael Stipe
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind