Re: Top 5 greatest American bands of all time
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R.E.M. was basically the first college rock / indie rock band and their success paved the way for others to do the same.
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Really? I'm pretty much completely ignorant on this subject. It just seems to me like if REM hadn't done it, some other band would have. When you say they "paved the way," are you talking about inspiring others to start bands, labels/producers/A&R/whoever being forced to accept that that kind of band can be profitable, or what?
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Yes. To all of it. REM wasn't the first indie rock band (minor point, but I'd defer to stuff like Television and Pere Ubu, who came along about five years earlier, and even Mission of Burma). However, they were the first commercially successful indie rock band/college rock/what have you.
Yes, they influenced a LOT of people to start bands, they influenced A&R guys everywhere (who wanted to find the next REM), etc. They certainly weren't huge out of the box, but even in mid-Texas, where I was going to college in '83, *everyone* knew who they were. This was around the time of South Central Rain, and several years before "Out of Time" or even "Green".
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I'm just having trouble putting REM on the same level as, say, The Beach Boys, or Hendrix. To me they're not in the same stadium, but it seems like tons of people think they're perfectly even and maybe even better than those types of bands. Just typing that is weird; REM is, in every sense, better than Hendrix? Really?
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"Better" in what way? As in, "more talented"? Of course not. But Jimi's career flamed out so quickly, he hardly really even left any output on which to judge. And, as others have pointed out, even though he was American, the band actually has its genesis in the UK. There is no question that Jimi Hendrix is one of the most amazing musicians to have ever lived, and arguably, the single greatest guitarist. But I believe that is a different issue than whether or not the Jimi Hendrix Experience is one of the five greatest bands in American history.
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