By: David Schultz
A couple weeks back, Michael Stipe announced the dissolution of R.E.M., proclaiming that “all things must end” and bringing a sense of closure to the storied career of the Athens, Georgia band that helped define alternative rock in the late Eighties and early Nineties. The band’s formal pronouncement accomplished something that R.E.M. had been unable to achieve in the past five or ten years: it inspired people to talk about them. Although their past two albums, Accelerate and Collapse Into Now sold relatively well, neither failed to captivate the collective imagination like Document or Automatic For The People; Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills’ decision to not tour behind their most recent release surely a contributing factor to its unremarkable reception.
If R.E.M.’s announcement felt anti-climactic, it’s because it was. It surely did seem as if R.E.M. had hung it up long ago or, at the very least, had stopped trying real hard. Since it didn’t seem that too many people were hanging on their next move, why announce a break-up? Why not just fade gently into the rock and roll night and leave your options open to do something in the future? The answer is very likely a cynical one: for the first time in years, critics, pundits, bloggers and fans returned their gaze towards R.E.M. and took stock of the band’s significant accomplishments as alt-rock godfathers and unlikely MTV superstars. Rather than taking up space in the limitless environs of the where-are-they-now warehouse, R.E.M. is now the subject of features in major magazines. Rather than devising ways to sell copies of their recently released Collapse Into Now, they have tilled the soil for an upcoming greatest hits release. Most significantly, there can’t be a reunion tour in 2017, if the band never broke up.
Far from an acceptance of the inevitable decline of any significant artist, R.E.M.’s latest announcement is just another savvy step in a career marked by shrewd and perceptive decisions.
A couple weeks back, Michael Stipe announced the dissolution of R.E.M., proclaiming that “all things must end” and bringing a sense of closure to the storied career of the Athens, Georgia band that helped define alternative rock in the late Eighties and early Nineties. The band’s formal pronouncement accomplished something that R.E.M. had been unable to achieve in the past five or ten years: it inspired people to talk about them. Although their past two albums, Accelerate and Collapse Into Now sold relatively well, neither failed to captivate the collective imagination like Document or Automatic For The People; Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills’ decision to not tour behind their most recent release surely a contributing factor to its unremarkable reception. If R.E.M.’s announcement felt anti-climactic, it’s because it was. It surely did seem as if R.E.M. had hung it up long ago or, at the very least, had stopped trying real hard. Since it didn’t seem that too many people were hanging on their next move, why announce a break-up? Why not just fade gently into the rock and roll night and leave your options open to do something in the future? The answer is very likely a cynical one: for the first time in years, critics, pundits, bloggers and fans returned their gaze towards R.E.M. and took stock of the band’s significant accomplishments as alt-rock godfathers and unlikely MTV superstars. Rather than taking up space in the limitless environs of the where-are-they-now warehouse, R.E.M. is now the subject of features in major magazines. Rather than devising ways to sell copies of their recently released Collapse Into Now, they have tilled the soil for an upcoming greatest hits release. Most significantly, there can’t be a reunion tour in 2017, if the band never broke up.
Far from an acceptance of the inevitable decline of any significant artist, R.E.M.’s latest announcement is just another savvy step in a career marked by shrewd and perceptive decisions.
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