walking upstream…
R.E.M.
sourcesWikipedia · American Songwriter
R.E.M. grew out of a University of Georgia party in Athens, turning Peter Buck's chiming Rickenbacker and Michael Stipe's mumbled, oblique lyrics into the founding text of American college rock. Murmur and Reckoning built a sound too literate for arena rock and too melodic for hardcore, and the band spent the 1980s quietly becoming America's most influential underground act before Out of Time and Automatic for the People carried that same restraint to the top of the charts. They proved an entire generation of bands that mystery could be as powerful as spectacle.
the sound in question
1981
Radio Free EuropeR.E.M.
walk the tributaries ↓
The Byrds1960s · Folk rock / Psychedelic rock
Peter Buck has named Roger McGuinn as a formative influence on his own playing, and the Byrds' twelve-string chime is audibly the DNA underneath Buck's arpeggiated, never-quite-resolving guitar parts.
listen: upstream & heresource: Wikipedia ↗
1965
Mr. Tambourine ManThe Byrds
1981
Radio Free EuropeR.E.M.
listen forListen to the Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man" alongside R.E.M.'s "Radio Free Europe" — both ring with a bright, cascading twelve-string figure that carries the song more than any riff or solo does.
Big Star1970s · Power pop / Jangle pop
Big Star's Radio City became a foundational text for 1980s college rock, and "September Gurls" in particular served as a template for the jangly, hook-forward guitar sound R.E.M. built their early records around.
listen: upstream & here
1974
September GurlsBig Star
1984
So. Central RainR.E.M.
listen forPlay Big Star's "September Gurls" next to R.E.M.'s "So. Central Rain" — both wrap plainspoken melody in bright, chiming guitars, treating the tone of the strings itself as the hook.
Patti Smith1970s · Punk rock / Art rock / Proto-punk
R.E.M.'s founding members bonded over a shared love of proto-punk and poets-turned-rockers like Patti Smith, and Michael Stipe's mumbled, elliptical delivery draws on that same instinct to treat rock vocals as literature rather than plain narration.
listen: upstream & here
1975
GloriaPatti Smith
1983
Talk About the PassionR.E.M.
listen forSet Patti Smith's "Gloria" against R.E.M.'s "Talk About the Passion" — both bury urgent, half-legible vocals inside a driving, guitar-forward groove, daring you to lean in and decode the words.