Why R.E.M. Don't Get The Credit They Deserve

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by firepile, Nov 3, 2021.

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  1. jwb1231970

    jwb1231970 Ordinary Guy

    Location:
    USA
    It is easy to forget that bands have an audience is in other countries other than your own
     
  2. segue

    segue Psychoacoustic Member

    Location:
    Hawai'i
    Who said REM don't get the credit they deserved?
    REM's buddies, Atlanta band The Swimming Pool Q's...now there's a band that didn't get the credit they deserved. REM's first big gig was opening for them!

    [​IMG]
     
  3. RobCos02330

    RobCos02330 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mass
    Great point.
     
  4. RobCos02330

    RobCos02330 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mass
    perfectly said.
     
  5. rockerreds

    rockerreds Senior Member

    I've always seen a ton of REM in thrift shops, for what it's worth.
     
  6. Sear

    Sear Dad rocker

    Location:
    Tarragona (Spain)
    It seems that this is the official "Let's downgrade REM" thread of the forum. I'm out .
     
  7. WDeranged

    WDeranged Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    They do seem to have fallen out of recent popular memory. But that just means they're due an epic revival in the next ten years.
     
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  8. markreed

    markreed Forum Resident

    Location:
    Imber
    We do have to be realistic about R.E.M's current popularity and perception, and at the moment, R.E.M. are definitely less popular than they have been since about 1984.
     
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  9. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    When Up was released I was working in HMV and was barely interested in a new REM album at all. Not that I had any problem with them, more that I'd listened to so much other stuff since I was most into REM. Anyway, I liked it on first listen and still like it. It surprises me that it's not all that much loved.
     
  10. Sear

    Sear Dad rocker

    Location:
    Tarragona (Spain)
    I've played now Automatic for the people again, and it's one of the best albums I've ever heard. And I've heard quite a few
     
  11. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    This is what's puzzled me about this thread and other REM ones. They've always had a great deal of respect here. I assumed it would be the same everywhere else, especially the US.
     
  12. ModernDayWarrior

    ModernDayWarrior Senior Member

    The thing I notice is that I never really see anyone walking around wearing an REM shirt like people wear a lot of other legacy acts t shirts. They seem like the one band that not a lot of people feel nostalgic about. I still hear their songs on classic rock radio but that’s really it.
     
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  13. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    I don't remember seeing REM T-shirts as much as Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers and even James (in the UK) back in their heyday. Perhaps their designs just aren't striking enough. Being striking wasn't really the REM way, even the band name!
     
  14. DolphinsIntheJacuzzi

    DolphinsIntheJacuzzi Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    No. The bands that show up on T-shirts - then and now - are bands that have iconic logos or fonts. And R.E.M. never did. Probably the closest they came was the bear & font from Monster. And that bear was a bit kooky for the great, unwashed masses.
     
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  15. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    That's the T-shirt I saw most but that's a bit later on. They did some huge UK shows on the Monster tour. I've always liked the Monster cover. The poor thing's seen in every charity shop and car boot sale these days! Undeservedly, I've always liked the album too.
     
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  16. markreed

    markreed Forum Resident

    Location:
    Imber
    Trust me on this : I think R.E.M. are brilliant. It's not about how good the albums are. It's about how the band are perceived in 2021. They aren't popular anymore by a long shot, and seem to be fading from history in the way that Depeche Mode, New Order, Kraftwerk, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Pixies, etc aren't.
     
  17. Ghost of Ziggy

    Ghost of Ziggy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hell
    I had a Monster era t shirt!
     
  18. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    No, I agree with you.

    I actually think this is a big factor in what helped rock fall out of favor with the masses. We still have way too many people who decide if an artist has over 100k listeners on Spotify or if a video has (x) amount of views, that they are the enemy and have gone mainstream and turned into Maroon 5/Coldplay on them. When it's really ridiculous.

    For many years I've watched Anthony Fantano reviews on YouTube and you can see how much the ethos has changed in the past decade, especially as he's moved from reviewing indie rock to more mainstream hip hop. I remember in 2011 when he reviewed a My Morning Jacket album, the comments section was littered with "I saw their video on VH1 last night at 3 am, they're dead to me, they've gone corporate" while earlier this year one of his rap reviews had a "obviously this artist is good when you look at how well it streams". It's showed how much times have changed, rock fans were put off by MMJ daring make a video that got played in the wee hours on VH1 obviously making them way too commercial and mainstream (keep in mind, "Holding On To Black Metal"'s video has 92k views and the song has 7m streams, over the course of a decade and it peaked near the bottom of the rock and alternative charts -- but for some this may as well been Justin Bieber or Ed Sheeran), yet hip hop fans are largely cool with the idea of their favorites being embraced by tens of millions. It makes you know exactly why one genre keeps getting bigger and bigger and the other gets more and more irrelevant because they tear their own down if they come close to anything remotely mainstream while hip hop fans revel in their faves reaching a mass audience. Drake fans relish his chart domination while My Morning Jacket fans felt like going to #48 on the rock chart and getting their video played a couple times when five people are watching VH1 was getting too mainstream shows why hip hop does so much better these days, that hipster attitude is dead.
     
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2021
  19. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    I find it impossible to believe that any of these other acts save for Led Zeppelin are more listened to in 2021 than R.E.M.
     
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  20. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Metallica's still pretty damn huge. They have 17 million monthly listeners and just dropped a mammoth box set for Black Album a few months ago.
     
  21. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    Okay, I missed Metallica in that list. Are they still active? I would think they'd be on a similar level as R.E.M..
     
  22. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Their last record was 2016 but they still tour, they did a couple nights headlining at a hard rock festival locally back in Sept
     
  23. 905

    905 Senior Member

    Location:
    Midwest USA
    I'm mostly surprised at how most people have no clue about them past Kenneth.
    I'm not on Facebook anymore, but I was when REM broke up. And I remember how none of the people in my circle had a clue about all the music they released after Kenneth.

    Reveal is actually my favorite album from them.
     
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  24. Jamsterdammer

    Jamsterdammer The Great CD in the Sky

    Location:
    Málaga, Spain
    Honesty, no idea why they don't get the credit, 'cause they deserve it! The second half of the 1980s were not the greatest in rock music, but R.E.M. was one of the shining lights of that period.
     
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  25. pocketcalculator

    pocketcalculator Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    R.E.M. never pushed the merch much. Some indie bands did, but it was, in other corners, a sign of bad taste. Selling vinyl at your show was fine, but t-shirts were gauche. Fugazi famously never sold them, and it took the tour for their seventh album for the Replacements to finally print them up (which featured each band member's face on a $1, $2, $5, or $10 bill.)
     
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