How did these guys fall so hard out of the alternative music zeitgeist? Unlike Radiohead, The Cure, The Smiths etc., I pretty much NEVER hear anybody younger than their late thirties talk about this band (or album in question) other than to briefly remark that "Oh huh, guess they pretty much invented the genre" then move on entirely.
Because Michael Stipe isn't needy for attention and relevance like Morrissey and Robert Smith are.
Sad but true.
They're like Elvis Costello or The Police in that their overall aesthetic was immensely appealing to Boomers/Gen X but doesn't mean nearly as much to younger people. Plus they don't have that "cool hidden gem" mystique of Big Star. Instead REM is the strangely popular old band your dad likes.
Do you think there's a chance they could pull a Carpenters or a Bee Gees where they become so lame that they clock over into being cool again?
It's hard to imagine, because even their cooler hipster material like Murmur is so opaque and subdued. Nothing is obvious enough to jump out in a tiktok say. Then again, End of the World could easily become a meme (again).
Chronic Town/Murmur/Reckoning are still popular with jangle pop/power pop people but those have always been niche genres
The later stuff is literally too sincere for a modern audience, it doesn’t have enough of a sardonic edge to it to hit the same target demographic as The Smiths
>jangle pop/power pop people
Where can I find them.
r/indieheads
Of course R.E.M. aren't relevant to teenagers in 2023, they broke up a decade ago and have kept out of the news since. Plus, they never really had a striking image or a dramatic backstory, so people who are only into music for the aesthetic aren't going to give a shit about them.
Because they simply aren't as good as The Cure or The Smiths. Even their best albums like Murmur or Reckoning can't hold a candle to Pornography or The Smiths' debut.
Pornography is crybaby shit and the smiths debut is literally just murmur but gayer and more monotonous
>NOO music can't be sad
How does it feel to be retarded? Pornography simply has a more cohesive dark atmosphere which is propelled by they rhythm section to create much stronger songs than anything REM made.
>iterally just murmur but gayer and more monotonous
Wrong again. The instrumentation is executed better and the band complements each other much more significantly than Murmur which is mainly just Michael Stipe singing literally meaningless lyrics over Peter Buck's Marr worship.
>>NOO music can't be sad
it can be sad, but music can't be melodramatic, which is what the cure's """"goth"""" albums are
>How does it feel to be retarded?
how does it feel than an strawman is your best argument?
>The instrumentation is executed better
If by better you mean in a more one-dimensional way, then yes
the 9-9 - shaking through - we walk run alone is more creative than the smiths entire album
Not if it's the Smiths s/t with Charming Man on it. That song smokes every plinky dinky Rickenbacker riff Buck ever played.
yes, the charming man riff is very good, for better or worse all of the smiths good riffs are just imitations of that one
Even if his riffs are not as good as that one, at least Buck managed to make more than 1 good riff
Let's not pretend Buck didn't milk the Wolves Lower riff at least 100 times
Not that anon but I think the Cure's albums are great even if they may be somewhat "melodramatic." I think it works with the context of their music to create something quite unique in terms of capturing a dark atmosphere.
The thing is that there is nothing dark about being melodramatic, at least not in the way the cure does it
as flawed and juvenile as NIN is, I think they did a way better approach in using melodrama to create an unsettling narrative
he did way more songs, so that was predictable
in fact the only reason why smiths are so celebrated is that they didn't overstay their welcome enough for people to realize how much of an one trick pony they were, REM was more creative in their prime but they also had a shit ton of albums
I disagree, Strangeways is very different from s/t while the middle 2 albums are much more similar. A lot of their songs do feel phoned-in but then Marr will put out a Girl Afraid or a This Night. That said I do think a 5th LP probably would have seen them falling off.
Well, agree to disagree. I think the way The Cure managed to create their atmosphere, especially on their goth albums, has not really been matched by many of the other groups of the time except for maybe Joy Division.
Uknown Pleasures's atmosphere is almost a polar opposite to something like pornography though
Joy Division creates very dry, hollow sound that cleverly hide their punk angst
While Pornography maximize that angst, but removing the "punk" about it
none of REM members is active in the current mainstream music scene so they got no one making people randomly remember they existed except some random youtube algorithm (because that's how most zoomer knows music nowadays).
they are too subtle to be popular in our current culture
Their southern Gothic stuff is too subtle to be memed by zoomer culture, too sincerely working class to be fashionable, while simultaneously not being performatively working class enough to be fashionable, not anthemic enough to be fit into 15 second tiktok clips, not overtly queer enough to be "iconic" to the transtrender crowd (despite stipes bisexuality), and the band members matured too gracefully to be jesters in the public eye
honestly this, Stipe seemed to be the only one who's more extroverted or less nerdy compared the rest and even he also went mostly silent after the band's breakup. Think they never really enjoyed their popularity and prolly have saved a lot of money so they didn't need to go back promoting R.E.M. to the younger generation.
idk but they suck
This is peak boomer music.
They have like only 2 songs that are still good today.