R.E.M.

R.E.M. began in Athens, Georgia in 1980, with Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry building a style that became central to American alternative rock. Early releases such as Radio Free Europe and Chronic Town introduced Buck's chiming guitar and Stipe's elusive vocals, while records including Reckoning and Fables of the Reconstruction showed how quickly the band were widening their range.

By the time of Out of Time and Automatic for the People, R.E.M. had moved from college-rock touchstone to one of the defining bands of their era without losing their character. They kept shifting shape after that, from the direct charge of Monster to the reflective later records, before ending the band in 2011 after more than three decades.