REM bolted out of the blocks with an instantly delectable and experimental sound, but which bands proved pivotal to them in their early days? Find out here.

Michael Stipe turned 65 right after New Year’s ... It will have been 14 years this March since R.E.M. — an Athens, Georgia, foursome that for a stretch of about five years in the 1990s ...

With songs like “Drive” and “Everybody Hurts,” R.E.M. used delicate instrumentation to say something powerful. But on the follow-up, Monster, the Athens, Georgia, band chose to get loud. However, for ...