So long, REM, we hardly knew ye

And that's the point with a band that trades on lyrical mystique. They were perhaps the original indie dweebs gone overground. If their bandwagon wasn't stalled by New Adventures in Hi-Fi (generally good but way too long) then today's news was on the cards since Bill Berry left in 1997, that was really the beginning of the end. REM had fewer big hits than you think, though everyone should check out their 80s stuff too (Murmur is fantastic in my opinion).

REM were a college rock band. In America this refers to the network of campus radio stations, which popularised a certain style of music, not metal, between 60s retro and punk. As an aside, campus culture is under threat, globally speaking caught between cuts and profit making; a vision of education austere and functional.

In Britain the ideal of comprehensive education is being dismantled. This will impoverish popular culture, pop music especially. Musicians have traditionally met in college or on the dole queue. Both avenues are closing, if not already closed. Popular culture is nothing without free time and disposable income. We face a future of more and more public schoolkids dressing up and twanging banjos.

Let's pee in the corner
Let's pee on the spot-light...