i was a deadhead in the early 80's but was entranced by Murmur and saw REM for the first time in 1983 spring break on daytona beach (yes the stage was set up on the beach). Lost touch with them for the other early albums which everyone thinks are so cool but rediscovered them in the mid 90's. my favorite album to this day is New Adventures in Hi Fi and there are gems on the later albums (Beat a Drum, All the Way to Reno) although i can't even listen to Around the Sun. I saw their first show in 2008 at Langerado, Raleigh and last of main tour in Atlanta (Accellerate songs rocked, acoustic Let Me In, etc) and i have always judged bands by their live shows so you have to keep that separate from the albums. For anyone who thinks they got soft listen to the power chords on Circus Envy from Live at the Olympia in Dublin - yea turn it up real loud followed by These Days. I felt like they finally found a drummer too. And a number of songs on Collapse Into Now can be studied by upcoming bands for how to write a pop song. Anyway... i'm bummed i won't get to see them perform live again. Cheers !!

Hmm, If I say that the 2 albums that introduced me to REM were Green and Out of Time, then will I get the same kind of reaction you get from Deadheads when you mention Workingman's and American Beauty.

wow... thanks for reading my comments, guys... i appreciate it... great show & best of luck... "i'm outta here..."

Can't wait for the REM Hell freezes over tour. Not.

REM were are record company pet band from day one. They were signed to IRS which was Miles Copeland's label, the ultimate record biz insider. They existed to cash in on the work of edgier, more important bands.

I'm not sure if my comment posted... here are a couple of the funnier excerpts:

In some ways, this reminds me of when Michael Jordan retired from the Washington Wizards. When he left the Chicago Bulls (for the second time) was far more relevant to pop culture. He just sort of hung around for a few years after his peak, much as he insisted he’d never do. It must be just that hard to leave the game. Any game.

I used to get R.E.M. mixed up with REO Speedwagon. Ouch. I apologize to all involved for that one. Obviously, it was the similarity in their names. In any case, I couldn’t fight that feeling.

I always followed Stipe and his antics. I read a lot of his quotes and admired the fact that he found “love songs odious.” True, because I think the only song of theirs with “love” in the title is “The One I Love,” which I just put on a mix CD. (Hadn’t made a mix CD in years. It’s all playlists these days. CDs were definitely easier to make than mix tapes. Wonder if peeps back in the day used to make mix records? Bought a press and all? THAT would be romantic.)

This is just so trivial. They were a great band, and then they weren't. The exact point it happened doesn't matter. Maybe this show's time could be better spent talking about their accomplishments, the gorgeous music they made that meant so much to so many people, rather than carping about when it stopped.

There are no instruments known to science with sufficient sensitivity to be able to detect my interest in REM.

I mean, what is that all about? WHAT?

Why do bands have to officially 'break up' anyway? I'd rather they just went on and did other things, maybe worked together, maybe not. That said, I am 50 and hooked onto REM in the early 80's. They lost me a little after Monster, but I still love the old stuff, which does not feel dated at all. Sadly, my husband always felt Michael Stipe was insufferably self absorbed :)

Personally, I enjoyed REM's earlier albums, with their multi-layered harmonies and rougher edges. I lost interest once they started making more straight-forward music.

That said, 30 years is nothing to sniff at in terms of longevity.

you cannot have a great reunion tour in 10 years without breaking up earlier.

The band shifted after Bill Berry's departure.
I still looked forward to new releases but more fir songs not whole CDs. The fragmented digital world leaves us all for a loss as a band Like REM won't be seen again for a long time

I think Michael Stipe is serious about retirement. But I predict that they will regroup with Ron Woods as their guitarist. And maybe Joan Jett on lead vocals.

truly enjoying your broadcast!

i wrote this blog yesterday:

http://www.funnyindian.com/its-the-end-of-r-e-m-as-we-know-it/

maybe you can quote from it? = )

thanks! - rajiv

Is it just me or are we forgetting that Green, Out of Time and Automatic for the People are landmark and unique records! While the mid to late 80s R.E.M. are the band we all fell in love with in college, it was their mid career records that set them apart as a band who could reinvent themselves time and time again. As for when they should have broken up, I applaud them for maintaining their integrity throughout their career and bowing out respectfully...when they did so is irrelevant to me. I find it comforting that they did so after what I consider their best record since Automatic.

R.E.M. was the last band that actually MATTERED to me. Perhaps its a function of aging that we don't care as much as we once did. But that anticipation of a new REM release in the late 80's early 90's is something that won't leave me.

Anything on EMI, brilliant
Anything on WB, bubble gum

REM, particularly Out of Time, were a big factor in my introduction to popular music after a childhood devoted to classical music. After I announced my appreciation, my uncle was happy to introduce me to the earlier albums, and I was hooked.

Unfortunately Monster and beyond haven't aged well for me. At least the 2011 me doesn't much like them anymore. But with the news of the breakup I went back to Document and Murmur for the first time in years and realized how great those albums still sound to me. I'll forgive the albums I no longer care for, a perhaps overlong career, as well as the more recent albums I couldn't listen to more than once (or even all the way through), for that early post-punk greatness. "Lower, Wolves" outweighs a lot of "eh" rock.

Although I'm glad the last 2 albums were as good as they could be, it was apparent the magic was gone and the band was floundering once Bill Berry left the band. But what a legacy...."Murmur", "Life's Rich Pageant", "Document", "Automatic for the People" and others...they will be sorely missed. At least they went out one a good note and with their dignity intact.

I wasn't a huge fan - my favorite song being "Crush w/ Eyeliner."

That said, REM was a band w/ a social conscience, and they didn't hit you over the head with it. And they didn't soak their fans like some bands - Stones and Floyd being two examples of "Corporate Rock."

I'm kind of sad they're calling it quits.

I always found this band painfully irritating.

So many rules for bands to stay cool - Be popular but not too, be commercial but not too, enter and leave at just the right time. I fell in love with REM with Murmur WAY back in the dark ages of 1984. I like some of their subsequent work, others not so much, but they have always been so much better than most of the other stuff out there.

Thanks REM!

I don't understand all of these break-up announcements. Why don't they just let us go on thinking they are together, but are simply not producing anything. R.E.M is a staple. There is no way after all these years we are going to think of the three of them as other than R.E.M. even with an official break-up announcement. Is there a legal reason why official break-up announcements are necessary? Like announcing a corporation dissolution?

It was all over with Everybody Hurts

Oh it hurt so much

thank god its over,

Why was the break up announcement needed? Was it to show how important they are or they think they are? Why not just not work together unless they change their minds?

Lamentable. For all the fuss that is made about U2--and the idea that REM has always wanted to be U2 but never achieved it--I feel that REM has held out way better than they have.

Donna from Long Island - For me REM is the best band that ever was. They came in on their own terms and left the same way. REM should be proud. I have enjoyed the last thirty one years immensely. Bill, Peter, Mike & Michael - thanks for rocking my world.

I think any REM fan gravitates to the album/era that originally pulled them in. For me, that was "Pageant" along with "Document" and "Green". That is what I measure all of their albums against. I don't love the post-Bill Berry albums, or even "Monster" and "Hi Fi" the way I love what came before. But "Around the Sun" is the only one that I can't listen to. That ain't bad over a span of 15 albums. I think "Collapse Into Now" was a fitting album to finish with, but had they continued, I'm sure I'd have eagerly bought and listened to whatever they put out, and probably found something about it to like. I think 5 or 10 years from now, when we're able to look at their work as a whole, that we'll be able to appreciate just how consistent they were over 31 years of making music.

REM is still together? Oh..., ah..., oh well. Whatever.

I loved Murmur and eagerly bought the second album. The first side was pretty good but the second side dragged on - something drained out of them. The pop hits of the ensuing decades(!) didn't move me in the least. Now, when I listen back to Murmur, it almost seems like a different band, one that I actually like. Too bad THAT band never made another record...

How can a band "overstay" their welcome? Are tickets sold? YES. Are CDs and downloads sold? YES. Then they were apparently always welcome. I worry about a music media that finds the types of questions appropriate. Let us as fans decide what we like, your job is not to decide what should be out there for us to like!

Back in the old days (early 1980s) I saw R.E.M perform in a tiny club (the name is long forgotten, as is the club itself) on Route 110 in Farmingdale, and a skating rink somewhere else on Long Island. By the next tour, they were playing Radio City and I couldn't feel the magic anymore.