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."
Radio
R.E.M. Lyrics
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Ah, yo turn to that station
The world is collapsing
Around our ears
I turned up the radio
But I can't hear it
And I called you out
I could tell that you had been crying, crying
It's that same sing-song on the radio
Makes me sad
I meant to turn it off
To say goodbye
To leave in quiet, that radio song (see ya)
Hey, hey, hey (ha-ha)
(Hup, hup) I've everything to show (everything to show)
I've everything to hide (everything to hide)
Look into my eyes
Listen
When I got to the show
Yo, ho, ho
I could tell that you had been crying, crying
It's that same sing-song and the DJ sucks
It makes me sad
I tried to turn it off (turn it off)
To say goodbye, my love
That radio song
Hey, hey, hey
The world is collapsing
Around our ears
I turned up the radio
But I can't hear it
Yeah
(Yeah)
(Baby, baby, baby, baby)
(Hup, hup)
I tried to sing along
But damn that radio song (man) hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
I've everything to show (everything to show)
I've everything to hide (everything to hide)
Look into my eyes, listen to the radio
I turned up the radio
But I can't hear it
No, I can't hear it
Hey, hey, hey
(Say what?) hey, hey, hey
(Lemme hear that bass first)
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey (yeah, hup)
Hey, hey, hey (say what, say what, say what?)
Hey, hey, hey
Check it out
What are you saying, what are you playing?
Who are you obeying, day-out, day-in, huh?
Baby, baby, baby, baby
That stuff is driving me crazy
DJs communicate to the masses
Sex and violent classes
Now our children grow up prisoners
All their life, radio listeners
The lyrics of R.E.M.'s song "Radio Song" depict the frustration of the singer towards the lack of meaningful content on the radio. The song begins with the singer expressing his inability to find anything worthy on the radio and asks someone to change the station. He then goes on to describe how the world is falling apart, and he turns up the volume to find comfort in the radio, but he can't hear it. When he reaches his destination, he recognizes that someone has been crying and tries to console them, but the radio playing in the background makes him sadder because of its repetitive and meaningless tune. He wishes to turn it off to say goodbye quietly.
The song's lyrics highlight the singer's feelings of helplessness and frustration towards the repercussions of the music industry's commercialization. The constant repetition of songs on the radio, regardless of their quality or content, drives people away from something that could have a more meaningful impact on their lives. The lyrics are a critique of how DJs and the music industry cater to popular tastes, which leads to an endless cycle of radio listeners who are doomed to never find meaningful content on the radio.
Line by Line Meaning
Hey, I can't find nothing on the radio
I'm having trouble enjoying the music on the radio
Ah, yo turn to that station
Please, change the channel to another station
The world is collapsing
Around our ears
I turned up the radio
But I can't hear it
Yeah
Despite increasing the volume, the world's chaos is overwhelming and I can't listen to the radio properly
When I got to the house
And I called you out
I could tell that you had been crying, crying
It's that same sing-song on the radio
Makes me sad
I meant to turn it off
To say goodbye
To leave in quiet, that radio song (see ya)
Hey, hey, hey (ha-ha)
When I arrived home and saw that you were crying, I wanted to leave quietly while turning off the radio. The same song, at that moment, only makes me sadder.
(Hup, hup) I've everything to show (everything to show)
I've everything to hide (everything to hide)
Look into my eyes
Listen
I have some things that I want to reveal and some that I want to keep hidden, please look into my eyes and listen
When I got to the show
Yo, ho, ho
I could tell that you had been crying, crying
It's that same sing-song and the DJ sucks
It makes me sad
I tried to turn it off (turn it off)
To say goodbye, my love
That radio song
Hey, hey, hey
When I got to the live show and saw that you were crying, I wanted to turn off the same song that was playing on the radio that made me feel sad and leave. The DJ is terrible and the song only adds to my misery.
The world is collapsing
Around our ears
I turned up the radio
But I can't hear it
Yeah
The world feels like it's collapsing around us, but even though I tried to increase the volume on the radio, I couldn't listen to it properly.
I tried to sing along
But damn that radio song (man) hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
I tried to sing along, but that radio song is so frustrating and annoying.
I've everything to show (everything to show)
I've everything to hide (everything to hide)
Look into my eyes, listen to the radio
I turned up the radio
But I can't hear it
No, I can't hear it
Hey, hey, hey
I have different things that I want to reveal and keep hidden. Please, look into my eyes while I listen to the radio, even though I can't hear it properly.
(Say what?) hey, hey, hey
(Lemme hear that bass first)
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey (yeah, hup)
Hey, hey, hey (say what, say what, say what?)
Hey, hey, hey
The bass sounds great, but that's all for now. Say what you want, I'm still frustrated with that radio song.
Check it out
What are you saying, what are you playing?
Who are you obeying, day-out, day-in, huh?
Baby, baby, baby, baby
That stuff is driving me crazy
DJs communicate to the masses
Sex and violent classes
Now our children grow up prisoners
All their life, radio listeners
What kind of message is this song sending, who is it for, and who controls it? It's driving me crazy. DJs promote sex and violence for the masses without any positive change. Now children grow up listening to these songs, and it shapes their life.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Michael Mills, Michael Stipe
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind