Re: REM Over-rated now, but not then..
> I dont think Up was particularly radio friendly. I just think
> that when their song to the Man in the Moon soundtrack got some
> radio play, they figured out, "hey, we can do a radio
> friendly variation of our old selves and sell some records! Even
> if it is adult contemporary stations!"
They have always put out radio friendly singles. Daysleeper was the same. So was Shiny Happy people, Stand, etc. They have a good strategy of appealing to the masses with their singles and then saving the better stuff for the inside.
> Because I think they tried to do their usual thing of making new
> types of music, but soon discovered the radio stations didn't
> exactly want to follow them there.
I think Up is a very good example of new type of music for REM. It wasn't very well received as you might remember because people wanted classic REM and this didn't meet their preconceived expectations (Much in the very same way people look down on Blur's 13 (their best album))
So all in all, just because of "The Great Beyond" I wouldn't slag off REM yet. If all of the new album sounds like radio friendly crap, then you will have a good point. However, seeing as how this radio single thing has always been a consistent tactic of theirs, I'm certainly not going to make judgements this early. Let's wait for another half a month before we decide.
Kirstie
> And so, like the red hot chilipeppers, they wrote those couple
> of tracks that could fit next to David Gray's latest, and then
> kept pushing ahead.
> I say this without even hearing the new album.