The best way to read The Name of This Band is R.E.M. is with a pair of headphones and a collection of the band’s albums on streaming services or CDs. Opt for the cassettes or vinyl if you want to go old school.
Peter Ames Carlin’s book isn’t just a cultural biography of the band going back to its formation in the-then sleepy college town of Athens, Georgia. It’s also a poetic meditation on what made so many of the band’s songs stand out, and continue to shine.
“It was a new kind of post-punk, alternative music that straddled obscurity and directness, dissent and delicacy, unapologetic and unashamed pure pop,” he writes about the reaction to the band’s music in the early 1980s.
Carlin’s book offers plenty of behind the scenes details and trivia about R.E.M.’s rise. Fans will enjoy reading about how record executives were wary of making “Losing My Religion,” the band’s iconic hit, the first single from its album Out of Time.
It’s also a fascinating history of a different era in music before social media created viral stars, when bands like R.E.M. rose up through college radio. The early sections of the book offer a vivid description of the music scene in Athens and the band’s beginning.
The book also explores the band’s political activism, including their work on environmental causes and promotion of the Rock the Vote campaign.
The band members didn’t agree to interviews for Carlin’s book, and that’s one of the few weaknesses of what is an otherwise well-researched history. Anyone hoping to discover major new revelations about the band and its members will likely be disappointed, but Carlin ably demonstrates the impact R.E.M.’s music has had and why its history is worth revisiting.
‘The Name of This Band is R.E.M.’ is out now, via Doubleday.
