As an elder millennial, I like early REM. I can place them on the alt indie history timeline. Yet unlike sonic youth or pavement or my bloody valentine, REM made it well into top 40 territory. I don’t have a strong attachment to the band. Compared to Radiohead or Interpol who seem to be engrained in my core memories. I don’t know if college aged people today have major exposure to music from 98-2008.
i just remember MTv being seismic in 91. Smells Like Teen Spirit, that video of Even Flow live in Seattle, Magic has HIV and Kurt Loder is wearing a CON-DOM shirt before spinning Ain't Too Proud to Beg where Left Eye is wearing a condom in her right eye. 120 Minutes was the best, Matt Pinfield got me through some crappy papers about Ethan Frome and any one of those books that uses red on the body as a symbol of whatever
there was that day the video for Losing My Religion came out and it seemed like a harbinger of both the beginning and end of the dual pillars of 80s college / grunge. bless you Murmur, bless you Meat Puppets, bless you MTv. touch me i'm sick, everybody, i wanna dip my balls in it!
