Performance
Sound
R.E.M. were the undisputed kings of American-bred alt-rock by the time the mid-1990s rolled around. Emerging from the college-town kudzu of Athens, Georgia, with the game-changing jangle of July 1981's "Radio Free Europe" single and August 1982's subsequent
Chronic Town EP, the underground quartet perfected a more fully realized signature sound on their April 1983 full-length debut,
Murmur.