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Known as the pioneers of alternative rock, R.E.M. went from being college dropouts playing in hole-in-the-wall local clubs to bona fide superstars headlining at massive concert arenas within a decade. The band formed in 1980 when University of Georgia undergrad Michael Stipe met Peter Buck in an Athens, Georgia, record shop, realized they had the same taste in music and decided to form a group. Within a year, they connected with fellow students Bill Berry and Mike Mills, childhood friends from nearby Macon who had played together in various Southern rock groups. In Continued...

April 1980 the four starting calling themselves R.E.M. named for the dream state “rapid eye movement.” Their first album, Murmur, was hailed by critics as one of the best rock records of 1983 and included the college radio hit "Radio Free Europe," establishing a pattern for their career. Their audience continued to grow, their albums began to produce underground hits and they toured the United States, finally breaking through to mainstream audiences with a variety of chart topping R.E.M. songs off such albums as Life's Rich Pageant (1986) and Document (1987).
After Document, R.E.M. signed with Warner Brothers Records for a reported $6 million. The first album under the new contract was Green, which was released on Election Day 1988. Green continued the success of Document, going double platinum and generating the Top Ten single "Stand." R.E.M. supported Green with an exhaustive international tour, in which they played their first stadium dates in the U.S. Though they had graduated to stadiums in America, the group continued to play clubs throughout Europe. After a break R.E.M. reconvened during 1990 to record their seventh album, Out of Time, which was released in the spring of 1991. Entering the U.S. and U.K. charts at number #1, Out of Time was “a lush pop and folk album, boasting a wider array of sounds” than the group's previous efforts; its lead single, "Losing My Religion," became the group's biggest single, reaching number four in the U.S. After the success of another album, R.E.M. resigned with Warner Brothers for reportedly $80 million. Despite the departure of Buck, the band continued to record and perform through the late 90s and well into the new millennium . In the words of Rolling Stone: “The quartet's arty mix of punk energy, folky instrumental textures, muffled vocals, and introspective, often oblique lyrics has influenced a generation of alternative-rock bands.”