REM Musical style
"Fall on Me"
Sample of "Fall on Me" from Lifes Rich Pageant (1986), which showcases Peter Buck's jangly, arpeggiated guitar style and features Michael Stipe and Mike Mills harmonizing in the chorus.
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In a 1988 interview, Peter Buck described typical R.E.M. songs as, "Minor key, mid-tempo, enigmatic, semi-folk-rock-balladish things. That's what everyone thinks and to a certain degree, that's true." All songwriting is credited to the entire band, even though individual members are sometimes responsible for writing the majority of a particular song. Each member is given an equal vote in the songwriting process; however, Buck has conceded that Stipe, as the band's lyricist, can rarely be persuaded to follow an idea he does not favor. Among the original line-up, there were divisions of labor in the songwriting process: Stipe would write lyrics and devise melodies, Buck would edge the band in new musical directions, and Mills and Berry would fine-tune the compositions due to their greater musical experience.
Michael Stipe sings in what R.E.M. biographer David Buckley described as "wailing, keening, arching vocal figures". Stipe often harmonizes with Mills in songs; in the chorus for "Stand", Mills and Stipe alternate singing lyrics, creating a dialogue. Early articles about the band focused on Stipe's singing style (described as "mumbling" by The Washington Post), which often rendered his lyrics indecipherable. Creem writer John Morthland wrote in his review of Murmur, "I still have no idea what these songs are about, because neither me nor anyone else I know has ever been able to discern R.E.M.'s lyrics. Stipe commented in 1984, "It's just the way I sing. If I tried to control it, it would be pretty false. Producer Joe Boyd convinced Stipe to begin singing more clearly during the recording of Fables of the Reconstruction.
Stipe insisted that many of his early lyrics were "nonsense", saying in a 1994 online chat, "You all know there aren't words, per se, to a lot of the early stuff. I can't even remember them." In truth, Stipe carefully crafted the lyrics to many early R.E.M. songs. Stipe explained in 1984 that when he started writing lyrics they were like "simple pictures", but after a year he grew tired of the approach and "started experimenting with lyrics that didn't make exact linear sense, and it's just gone from there. In the mid-1980s, as Stipe's pronunciation while singing became clearer, the band decided that its lyrics should convey ideas on a more literal level.[115] Mills explained, "After you've made three records and you've written several songs and they've gotten better and better lyrically the next step would be to have somebody question you and say, are you saying anything? And Michael had the confidence at that point to say yes . . . Songs like "Cuyahoga" and "Fall on Me" on Lifes Rich Pageant dealt with such concerns as pollution.Stipe incorporated more politically-oriented concerns into his lyrics on Document and Green. "Our political activism and the content of the songs was just a reaction to where we were, and what we were surrounded by, which was just abject horror," Stipe said later. "In 1987 and '88 there was nothing to do but be active. Stipe has since explored other lyrical topics. Automatic for the People dealt with "mortality and dying. Pretty turgid stuff", according to Stipe,while Monster critiqued love and mass culture.Peter Buck playing guitar and smiling
Peter Buck's guitar-playing style has defined R.E.M.'s sound
Peter Buck's style of playing guitar has been singled out by many as the most distinctive aspect of R.E.M.'s music. During the 1980s, Buck's "economical, arpeggiated, poetic" style reminded British music journalists of 1960s American folk rock band The Byrds. Buck has stated "[Byrds guitarist] Roger McGuinn was a big influence on me as a guitar player", but said it was Byrds-influenced bands, including Big Star and The Soft Boys, that inspired him more. Comparisons were also made with the guitar playing of Johnny Marr of alternative rock contemporaries The Smiths. While Buck professed being a fan of the group, he admitted he initially criticized the band simply because he was tired of fans asking him if he was influenced by Marr, whose band had in fact made their debut after R.E.M. Buck generally eschews guitar solos; he explained in 2002, "I know that when guitarists rip into this hot solo, people go nuts, but I don't write songs that suit that, and I am not interested in that. I can do it if I have to, but I don't like it." Mike Mills' melodic approach to bass playing is inspired by Paul McCartney of The Beatles and Chris Squire of Yes; Mills has said, "I always played a melodic bass, like a piano bass in some ways . . . I never wanted to play the traditional locked into the kick drum, root note bass work. Mills has more musical training than his band mates, which he has said "made it easier to turn abstract musical ideas into reality.[edit] Legacy
Pavement members standing before a brick wall posing in a black-and-white photo
Pavement is one of several alternative rock bands to cite R.E.M. as an influence; the band even wrote the song "The Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" about R.E.M.
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 alternative rock 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.
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