In the mid 1980s, my favorite band was R.E.M. At that time, they were
the kings of college radio and snotty rock critics. But high school
kids were still using Van Halen, Loverboy and Journey as their
soundtrack for getting in trouble. When classmates would kid me about
listening to the weird, minimalist music that they didn't play on
commercial radio, however, I would simply reply, "Yeah. Just watch.
There'll be an R.E.M. tape in your collection by the time you come home
for Thanksgiving break of your freshman year of college."
I was at a party during Thanksgiving break of my freshman year of
college. One of detractors came up and thumped me in the sternum. "You
were right about R.E.M.!"
The herd had caught on.
R.E.M. went on to a major label, multimillion-dollar deal and became
mainstream. I still liked R.E. M., but it had grown beyond being an
outlier band from Athens, Georgia. Their output changed, perhaps
dictated by a much bigger audience.
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