Album in this Chart:

.:. Reckoning .:.
.:. Lifes Rich Pageant .:.
.:. Document .:.
.:.Fables of the Reconstruction .:.
.:. Automatic for the People .:.
.:. Out of Time .:.

Studio albums

1. Murmur (12 April 1983) #36 US US: Gold
2. Reckoning (14 April 1984) #27 US; #91 UK US: Gold
3. Fables of the Reconstruction (10 June 1985) #28 US; #35 UK US: Gold
4. Lifes Rich Pageant (28 July 1986) #21 US; #43 UK US: Gold
5. Document (1 September 1987) #10 US; #28 UK US: Platinum
6. Green (8 November 1988) #12 US; #27 UK US: 2x Platinum
7. Out of Time (12 March 1991) #1 US; #1 UK US: 4x Platinum/UK: 5x Platinum Worldwide: 13 million
8. Automatic for the People (6 October 1992) #2 US; #1 UK US: 4x Platinum/UK: 5x Platinum Worldwide: 18 million
9. Monster (27 September 1994) #1 US; #1 UK US: 4x platinum/UK: 3x Platinum Worldwide: 10 million
10. New Adventures in Hi-Fi (10 September 1996) #2 US; #1 UK US: Platinum/UK: 2x Platinum Worldwide: 5.5 million
11. Up (27 October 1998) #3 US; #2 UK US: Gold/UK: Gold Worldwide: 3 million
12. Reveal (15 May 2001) #6 US; #1 UK US: Gold/UK: 2x Platinum Worldwide: 4 million
13. Around the Sun (5 October 2004) #13 US; #1 UK UK: Platinum Worldwide: 2 million

Formation (1980-1982)

R.E.M. formed at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, in January 1980. Discovering they had similar tastes, vocalist Michael Stipe (born January 4, 1960 in Decatur, Georgia) and guitarist Peter Buck (born December 6, 1956 in Berkeley, California) began working together, eventually meeting bassist Mike Mills (born December 17, 1958 in Orange County, California) and drummer Bill Berry (born July 31, 1958 in Duluth, Minnesota). In April 1980, the band formed under the name Twisted Kites to play a birthday party for their friend Kathleen O'Brien, rehearsing a number of garage, psychedelic bubblegum, and punk covers in a converted Episcopalian church. By the summer, the band had settled on the name R.E.M. after flipping randomly through the dictionary. Around the same time, the band met Jefferson Holt, who became their manager after witnessing the group's first out-of-state concert in North Carolina. Eventually, the band members dropped out of school to concentrate on their musical career.

Over the next year and a half, R.E.M. toured throughout the South, playing a variety of garage rock covers and folk-rock originals. At the time, the band was still learning how to play, as Buck began to develop his distinctive, arpeggiated jangle and Stipe ironed out his cryptic lyrics. During the summer of 1981, R.E.M. recorded their first single, "Radio Free Europe", at Mitch Easter's Drive-In Studios. Released on the local indie label Hib-Tone, "Radio Free Europe" was pressed in a run of only 1,000 copies. The single became a hit on college radio and topped the Village Voice's year-end poll of Best Independent Singles. Their country/folk sound was contradicted by a driving bassline and an urgency that suggested The Who in their early mod phase. Paired with the distinctive voice of Stipe and his inaudible and indecipherable lyrics, R.E.M.'s sound was unique in the post-punk era of the early 1980s.