(Credits: Tidal)
While they settled into far more commercially accessible material later on in their career, REM’s output during the 1980s and early ‘90s was a revelation and a breath of fresh air for the American indie scene.
While the term ‘indie rock’ wasn’t widely in use at the time, much of their work would help to go on and define this nebulous genre, fusing together elements of art rock, post-punk, jangle pop and more to create a modern slant on rock music that appealed to the younger generation.
Especially popular with university-educated individuals, the term ‘college rock’ was given to bands such as REM and later the Pixies to describe this burgeoning style that was being played on college radio stations on campuses across the country, and they’d soon find themselves appealing to an even larger audience outside of their home country.
Given they started out in Athens, Georgia, you’d expect them to be drawing a lot from fellow local weirdos like The B‑52s or Pylon – especially with Michael Stipe’s vocals sometimes sounding punk ‑ or goth‑adjacent. But interestingly, the churning rhythms and moody lyrics that drove the band didn’t actually come from the most obvious sources.
One criticism that often gets levelled at Stipe and his bandmates is that they’re a band that takes themselves far too seriously, and that there’s no humour in what they’re delivering. While the words that he wrote were often about heavy subject matters, that doesn’t mean that Stipe wasn’t able to have a laugh while working, and he found plenty of opportunity to incorporate the things that made him smirk into his music as well.
In an interview with music critic Dorian Lynskey in 2001, while promoting the release of their 12th album, Reveal, Stipe proclaimed that he’s not the stoic and straight-faced individual that everyone considers him to be, and that many of his biggest influences come from his childhood memories, with plenty of laughs to be had in the process.
“I don’t really think of myself as a serious artist,” he argued. “I mean, I take my work very seriously but I’m not a terribly serious person and the music that does inspire me is not always serious music. What ultimately inspired me as a kid was The Monkees and The Banana Splits and The Archies. I think it’s great for humming along to.”
While listening to these artists who were known for appealing to very young audiences with their clean-cut appearances, bright sing-along songs and daytime television performances, it’s hard to imagine Stipe bobbing his head approvingly, but the melodies are ultimately the key factor here. If Stipe says they’re great for humming along to, then surely it’s the tunes that he’s finding the inspiration from, not the content of the songs.
There’s a case to be made that the melodies of these groups are just as strong as what other more ‘mature’ acts at the time were producing, and if Stipe wants to giggle and tap his feet to them, who’s going to stop him.
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