R.E.M. grew out of the vibrant music scene of Athens, Georgia , in 1980. Lead singer Michael Stipe, a recent transplant from the St. Louis suburbs, was taking art classes at the University of Georgia and singing in a kitschy cover band when he met record store clerk and guitarist Peter Buck. Sharing an interest in the New York music scene and a frustration with conventional pop, they started playing together. Before long, a friend connected Buck with a drummer named Bill Berry, who introduced him to a bass player he knew from high school, Mike Mills. This alliteratively named rhythm section was the more musically experienced half of the quartet, having played in bands together growing up in Macon, Georgia.
Fellow Athenians the B-52’s had released a successful debut album shortly before R.E.M. formed, and a group named Pylon was about to experience some success of its own. Locals could tell there was something special about R.E.M., too. They were energetic and confident, but their sound omitted the polished synthesizers and guitar pyrotechnics. They sought to challenge the conventions of rock, which ironically meant establishing a firm set of rules for themselves. They would not produce glitzy videos for MTV, they would not become an arena band, they would not sacrifice their style to reach a broader audience, Stipe would not lip sync for television, and they would share songwriting credits.
The band signed with the independent record label I.R.S. in 1982 and released a five-song EP later that year. Their debut LP, Murmur, earned the nickname Mumble because of Stipe’s subdued voice and frequently indecipherable lyrics. But the Byrdsy jangle of Buck’s Rickenbacker, along with Mills’s high harmonies, gave the songs clear pop appeal. It was an enormous critical success, and Rolling Stone named it the best album of 1983 — beating a handful of other classics including Michael Jackson’s Thriller…