The haunting alternative rock anthem helped define the sound of the early ’90s.

For a while, it seemed like R.E.M. would never emerge from their status as underground rock heroes into the mainstream. Once they made that jump, however, they routinely delivered songs that did very ...

“I don’t really know how else to regard it, except that some energy force in the universe pulled the four of us together to write pop music for the particular moment that we were there doing it,” says ...