R.E.M.

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风格: #噪响流行　#学院摇滚　#后朋克　#另类摇滚
地区: United States of America 美国

艺人介绍

小简介

R.E.M.成立于1980年，他们是在美国的Georgia州的Athens城组建的，当时Bill、Mike和Michael都是Georgia州立大学的学生，而Peter则在当地一家名叫Wuxtry唱片店里工作。当Peter在这家唱片店工作时，认识了经常来买唱片的Michael，他在同他的两个姐姐（Lynda和Cindy）. 　　一起时，还显得很文静，但在他寻找一些难得见到的vinyl B-sides 唱片时，共同的音乐爱好使他们相识交谈并成为了好友，后来他们就搬到Oconee大街上的一个废弃的教堂里住在一起，而在此同时，Mike和Bill也收拾好乐器进入Attens的UGA.大学，但可笑的是，他们最初未相识前似乎是两个截然不同的学生：Bill是一个典型的“坏”孩子──酒鬼兼烟鬼，而Mike是一个诚实的好学生，在一次即兴的放学后的舞会演出里，Mike成了伴奏乐队里的Bass手，而Bill几乎听到Mike的Bass声后离开，但最终还是留下来共同演奏，随后他们二人配合出现在一些小型的现场演出里，一直到他们在1979年1月去Athens之前。

他们四人初次相识是在Bill女朋友的推荐下，他和Mike来到Athens的Oconee大街的老教堂里与Michael和Peter见面。在初次见面里，Michael对Bill的“眉毛”留下了好印象，而对于Mike，Peter和Michael则没有多少印象，不久他们四人走到了一起，并在这个老教堂里排练和创作了一些歌曲，但他们一直没为自己的乐队起一个名字，直到一次夜里四人喝酒后，才开始用粉笔在教堂的地板上胡乱写下几个队名，早晨起来时，他们把名字减少到两个：Negro Eyes和R．E．M．……

当他们居住在教堂里并没有自己的正式乐队名称，在1980年4月5日夜里，他们在教堂里举行了一个party，三支乐队出现在节目单上：Turtle Bay，随后解散了；The Side Effects，这支乐队不久以后就走红了；R.E.M.，当时的乐队名为“Twisted Kites”。

在此后几个月里，R.E.M.参于了许多的地下演出，I.R.S.唱片公司的经理Jay Boberg也来到New Orleans观看R.E.M.的演出，他对这支乐队留下了好的印象，尽管周围观看的人群无动于衷，尽管这支乐队在技术上还有不少问题，但他依然在1982年的六月31日正式与R.E.M.签约，并发行了一张已录制好的EP──Chronic Town，这就是R.E.M.音乐之路的第一步。　　”

在发行了Chronic Town后，R.E.M.便开始在南部为他们的唱片做宣传，他们从每周的周四到周日，不停巡回演出，直到他们的歌声从校园里飘向了出租车上，接着，他们中断了自己的大学生涯，继续巡演，从批萨饼店到三流俱乐部到小型的歌迷会馆，奔波不息。直到了1982年的12月，他们中断巡演三个星期，待在录音室里灌制他们的一张有了很大突破的专辑──Murmur，Murmur在1983年4月正式发行了，Rolling Stone杂志给了这张专辑评价是“无庸置疑的最佳”、“R.E.M.已是Athens最具影响的乐队”，R.E.M.的歌迷在这过去的一年里不断增长着，而且一半以上成了他们的狂热爱好者，但他们的歌影响还没达到商业电台播放的欢迎程度。

R.E.M.随后又开始持续不断的巡演，并一直到他们的专辑──Reckoning开始灌录才停止巡演，这张专辑于1984年的4月发行，他们的歌继续向前走，比起Murmur里的无方向性显得更容易理解、更直观，但是也有一些不同的意见：“It Crawled From The South”的作者Marcus　Gray就批评了Michael在这张专辑里刻意含混、躲藏的嗓音。

这支乐队的黑暗时期出现在1985年，在发行了他们的第三张专辑──Fables of The Reconstruction后不久，他们似乎在长时间的巡演后带来的身心疲惫和繁重的压力下崩溃了，尽管不是特别严重，但是很明显，正如Michael说的“我们累了”，尽管只是劳累，但似乎看上去Fables是他们的最后一张专辑，但最终，他们彼此共同克服了困难并体现在这张专辑里，虽然这张专辑让他们当时的歌迷感到高兴，并最大限度地回顾了乐队本身，但是直到今天，Bill仍然说他讨厌这张专辑而Michael却把它视为自己最喜欢的专辑之一。不管如何，R.E.M.继续开始他们的巡演，他们的第一首真实、明亮的歌曲出现在了他们1986年专辑──Life’s Rich Pageant里。

“Life Rich Pageant”同样是一张精彩的专辑，而对比R.E.M.以往的专辑而言，它的歌曲以往的灰色调变成了一个个明快的火花，“Fall On Me”似乎是他们发表的作品里最充满希望的歌，乐评们猜测这也许是为了得到以往他们所不屑的电台的认可而创作的，但是这首歌并未被电台选播，R.E.M.并未因此而大喜大悲，Michael说“我们可以很好地创作出一些让电台热烈欢迎的歌曲，但是电台并没打算接纳我们”，但是不管如何，提供了一个R.E.M.在Chronic Town时代后自我发展的一个方向：Michael的声音从背景乐声后浮现出来并清晰地飘扬在歌声中（略带一些他的传统的含糊嗓音）。但歌词仍然是Michael典型的创作手法，其余的三位成员可能是做到了他们的最好发挥，特别是Peter，他的吉他声不在是他们以前的专辑里出现的刺耳的风格，而新的吉他风格我们可以在他们的下一张专辑“Document”完整体会到。

同时，这支乐队也开始更多地关注政治，无论是他们的歌词还是他们的行为上。而这也体现在这张“……Pageant”专辑中，并延续到其后的数张专辑里。如“Swan Swan H”就是描述南北战争的歌曲，“Cuyahoga”则是讲述美国的建国之史，包括了早期美国的印地安人悲惨遭遇，“Fall On Me”是讲述有关酸雨的环境保护问题，R.E.M.在这张专辑带来的吵闹声中继续巡演，并不时抽出时间创作他们的下一张专辑──他们艰难获得成功一张专辑：Document。

R.E.M. mark the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock. When their first single, "Radio Free Europe," was released in 1981, it sparked a back-to-the-garage movement in the American underground. While there were a number of hardcore and punk bands in the U.S. during the early '80s, R.E.M. brought guitar pop back into the underground lexicon. Combining ringing guitar hooks with mumbled, cryptic lyrics and a D.I.Y. aesthetic borrowed from post-punk, the band simultaneously sounded traditional and modern. Though there were no overt innovations in their music, R.E.M. had an identity and sense of purpose that transformed the American underground. Throughout the '80s, they worked relentlessly, releasing records every year and touring constantly, playing both theaters and backwoods dives. Along the way, they inspired countless bands, from the legions of jangle pop groups in the mid-'80s to scores of alternative pop groups in the '90s, who admired their slow climb to stardom. It did take R.E.M. several years to break into the top of the charts, but they had a cult following from the release of their debut EP, Chronic Town, in 1982. Chronic Town established the haunting folk and garage rock that became the band's signature sound, and over the next five years, they continued to expand their music with a series of critically acclaimed albums. By the late '80s, the group's fan base had grown large enough to guarantee strong sales, but the Top Ten success in 1987 of Document and "The One I Love" was unexpected, especially since R.E.M. had only altered their sound slightly. Following Document, R.E.M. slowly became one of the world's most popular bands. After an exhaustive international tour supporting 1988's Green, the band retired from touring for six years and retreated into the studio to produce their most popular records, Out of Time (1991) and Automatic for the People (1992). By the time they returned to performing with the Monster tour in 1995, the band had been acknowledged by critics and musicians as one of the forefathers of the thriving alternative rock movement, and they were rewarded with the most lucrative tour of their career. Toward the late '90s, R.E.M. was an institution, as its influence was felt in new generations of bands.

Though R.E.M. formed in Athens, GA, in 1980, Mike Mills (born December 17, 1958) and Bill Berry (born July 31, 1958) were the only Southerners in the group. Both had attended high school together in Macon, playing in a number of bands during their teens. Michael Stipe (born January 4, 1960) was a military brat, moving throughout the country during his childhood. By his teens, he had discovered punk rock through Patti Smith, Television, and Wire, and began playing in cover bands in St. Louis. By 1978, he had begun studying art at the University of Georgia in Athens, where he began frequenting the Wuxtry record store. Peter Buck (born December 6, 1956), a native of California, was a clerk at Wuxtry. Buck had been a fanatical record collector, consuming everything from classic rock to punk and free jazz, and was just beginning to learn how to play guitar. Discovering they had similar tastes, Buck and Stipe began working together, eventually meeting Berry and Mills through a mutual friend. In April of 1980, the band formed to play a party for their friend, rehearsing a number of garage, psychedelic bubblegum, and punk covers in an converted Episcopalian church. At the time, the group was played under the name the Twisted Kites. By the summer, the band had settled on the name R.E.M. after flipping randomly through the dictionary, and had met Jefferson Holt, who became their manager after witnessing the group's first out-of-state concert in North Carolina.

Over the next year and a half, R.E.M. toured throughout the South, playing a variety of garage rock covers and folk-rock originals. At the time, the band was still learning how to play, as Buck began to develop his distinctive, arpeggiated jangle and Stipe ironed out his cryptic lyrics. During the summer of 1981, R.E.M. recorded their first single, "Radio Free Europe," at Mitch Easter's Drive-In Studios. Released on the local indie label Hib-Tone, "Radio Free Europe" was pressed in a run of only 1,000 copies, but most of the those singles fell into the right hands. Due to strong word of mouth, the single became a hit on college radio and topped the Village Voice's year-end poll of Best Independent Singles. The single also earned the attention of larger independent labels, and by the beginning of 1982, the band had signed to I.R.S. Records, releasing the EP Chronic Town in the spring. Like the single, Chronic Town was well received, paving the way for the group's full-length debut album, 1983's Murmur.

With its subdued, haunting atmosphere and understated production, Murmur was noticeably different than Chronic Town and was welcomed with enthusiastic reviews upon its spring release; Rolling Stone named it the best album of 1983, beating out Michael Jackson's Thriller and the Police's Synchronicity. Murmur also expanded the group's cult significantly, breaking into the American Top 40. R.E.M. returned to a rougher-edged sound on 1984's Reckoning, which featured the college hit "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)." By the time the band hit the road to support Reckoning, they had become well known in the American underground for their constant touring, aversion to videos, support of college radio, Stipe's mumbled vocals and detatched stage presence, Buck's ringing guitar, and their purposely enigmatic artwork. Bands that imitated these very things ran rampant throughout the American underground, and R.E.M. threw their support toward these bands, having them open at shows and mentioning them in interviews. By 1985, the American underground was awash with R.E.M. sound-alikes and bands like Game Theory and the Rain Parade, which shared similar aesthetics and sounds.

Just as the signature R.E.M. sound dominated the underground, the band entered darker territory with its third album, 1985's Fables of the Reconstruction. Recorded in London with producer Joe Boyd (Richard Thompson, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake), Fables of the Reconstruction was made at a difficult period in R.E.M.'s history, as the band was fraught with tension produced by endless touring. The album reflected the group's dark moods, as well as its obsession with the rural South, and both of these fascinations popped up on the supporting tour. Stipe, whose on-stage behavior was always slightly strange, entered his most bizarre phase, as he put on weight, dyed his hair bleached blonde, and wore countless layers of clothing. None of the new quirks in R.E.M.'s persona prevented Fables of the Reconstruction from becoming their most successful album to date, selling nearly 300,000 copies in the U.S. R.E.M. decided to record their next album with Don Gehman, who had previously worked with John Mellencamp. Gehman had the band clean up its sound and Stipe enunciate his vocals, making Lifes Rich Pageant their most accessible record to date. Upon its late summer release in 1986, Lifes Rich Pageant was greeted with the positive reviews that had become customary with each new R.E.M. album, and it outstripped the sales of its predecessor. Several months after Lifes Rich Pageant, the group released the B-sides and rarities collection Dead Letter Office in the spring of 1987.

R.E.M. had laid the groundwork for mainstream success, but they had never explicitly courted widespread success. Nevertheless, their audience had grown quite large, and it wasn't that surprising that the group's fifth album, Document, became a hit shortly after its fall 1987 release. Produced by Scott Litt — who would produce all of their records over the course of the next decade — Document climbed into the U.S. Top Ten and went platinum on the strength of the single "The One I Love," which also went into the Top Ten; it also became their biggest U.K. hit to date, reaching the British Top 40. The following year, the band left I.R.S. Records, signing with Warner Bros. for a reported six million dollars. 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.

The Green tour proved to be draining for the group, and they took an extended rest upon its completion in 1989. During the break, each member pursued side projects, and Hindu Love Gods, an album Buck, Berry, and Mills recorded with Warren Zevon in 1986, was released. 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 one, 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. Since the band was exhausted from the Green tour, they chose to stay off the road. Nevertheless, Out of Time became their biggest album, selling over four million copies in the U.S. and spending two weeks at the top of the charts. R.E.M. released the dark, meditative Automatic for the People in the fall of 1992. Though the group had promised a rock album after the softer textures of Out of Time, Automatic for the People was slow, quiet, and reflective, with many songs being graced by string arrangements by Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Like its predecessor, Automatic for the People was a quadruple platinum success, generating the Top 40 hit singles "Drive," "Man on the Moon," and "Everybody Hurts."

After piecing together two albums in the studio, R.E.M. decided to return to being a rock band with 1994's Monster. Though the record was conceived as a back-to-basics album, the recording of Monster was difficult and plagued with tension. Nevertheless, the album was a huge hit upon its fall release, entering the U.S. and U.K. charts at number one; furthermore, the album won praise from a number of old-school critics who had been reluctant to praise the band, since they didn't "rock" in conventional terms. Experiencing some of the strongest sales and reviews of their career, R.E.M. began their first tour since Green early in 1995. Two months into the tour, Bill Berry suffered a brain aneurysm while performing; he had surgery immediately and had fully recovered within a month. R.E.M. resumed their tour two months after Berry's aneurysm, but his illness was only the beginning of a series of problems that plagued the Monster tour. Mills had to undergo abdominal surgery to remove an intestinal tumor in July; a month later, Stipe had to have an emergency surgery to remove a hernia. Despite all the problems, the tour was an enormous financial success, and the group recorded the bulk of a new album. Before the record was released in the fall of 1996, R.E.M. parted ways with their long-time manager Jefferson Holt, allegedly due to sexual harassment charges levied against Holt; the group's lawyer, Bertis Downs, assumed managerial duties.

New Adventures in Hi-Fi was released in September 1996, just before it was announced that the band had re-signed with Warner Bros., reportedly for a record-breaking sum of 80 million dollars. In light of such a huge figure, the commercial failure of New Adventures in Hi-Fi was ironic. Though it received strong reviews and debuted at number two in the U.S. and number one in the U.K., the album failed to generate a hit single, and it only went platinum where its three predecessors went quadruple platinum. By early 1997, the album had already begun its descent down the charts. However, the members of R.E.M. were already pursuing new projects, as Stipe worked with his film company, Single Cell Pictures, and Buck co-wrote songs with Mark Eitzel and worked with a free jazz group, Tuatara.

In October of 1997, R.E.M. shocked fans and the media with the announcement that Berry was amicably exiting the group to retire to life on his farm; the remaining members continued on as a three-piece, soon convening in Hawaii to begin preliminary work on their next LP. Replacing Berry with a drum machine, the sessions resulted in 1998's Up, widely touted as R.E.M.'s most experimental recording in years. It was only a brief change of direction, since the band's next album, 2001's Reveal, marked a return to their classic sound. Around the Sun followed in 2004. A worldwide tour followed in 2005, which included an appearance at the London branch of Live 8. In 2007, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That same year, they began work on Accelerate, which was released in 2008.

R.E.M.　快转眼球乐队 / REM

艺人介绍

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R.E.M. 快转眼球乐队 / REM

艺人介绍

热门评论

最新简评（共502条）

R.E.M.　快转眼球乐队 / REM