R.E.M. | Fiction: An Alternative Biography

by David Buckley (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $3.25

  R.E.M.'s public image has always been tightly controlled. Icons of anti-celebrity rock, who bacame huge celebrity rock stars, they were, according to the story, the first U.S. post new-wave band who were both commercially successful and cool. Drawing on exclusive interviews with Mike Mills, Peter Buck and other members of R.E.M.'s nuclear family, Fiction re-evaluates the music and career of a group who sold almost no records for the first half of their existence, then became 'the biggest rock group in the world' in the second half.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $3.25

  When asked why the band had never sanctioned an official biography, Peter Buck of R.E.M. commented: I think we should hire someone who's a good fiction writer and get them to make it all up. That'd be good. The four musketeers of rock - Michael Stipe, Bill Berry, Mike Mills and Peter Buck - have been praised by the music press as one of the most important and popular rock bands since the 1970s. R.E.M. achieved commercial success in the 90s, reputedly selling over 25 million copies of just two albums, Out of Time and Automatic for the People . The band's public image has always been tightly controlled: seen as icons of anti-celebrity rock who became huge celebrity rock stars, they were, according to the story, the first US post-new-wave band who were both big and cool. But is this story fact or fiction? Is the received version of events, as constructed by the music press, a credible version of R.E.M.'s career and of how music is made in the post-punk era? This book takes a fresh look at the R.E.M. story, asking whether they are the last great alternative rock band, or if their music is merely a pastiche of already worn-out styles. And wondering if it is possible for a group as successful, well-known and rich as R.E.M. were in the 90s to remain wholly true to their ideals. The book looks at the band's music, placing it in context and suggesting how and why it made the impact it did, and also draws on interviews with members of R.E.M.'s musical nuclear family, their producers and the people who knew them before they were famous.