The Name of This Band Is R.E.M.

A Biography

By: Peter Ames Carlin

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

An electrifying cultural biography of the greatest and last American rock band of the millennium, whose music ignited a generation—and reasserted the power of rock and roll

"[Carlin's] unique gift for capturing the sweep and tenor of a cultural moment...is here on brilliant display."—Michael Chabon

In the spring of 1980, an unexpected group of musical eccentrics came together to play their very first performance at a college party in Athens, Georgia. Within a few short years, they had taken over the world–with smash records like Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster and Green. Raw, outrageous, and expressive, R.E.M.’s distinctive musical flair was unmatched, and a string of mega-successes solidified them as generational spokesmen. In the tumultuous transition between the wide-open 80s and the anxiety of the early 90s, R.E.M. challenged the corporate and social order, chasing a vision and cultivating a magnetic, transgressive sound.

In this rich, intimate biography, critically acclaimed author Peter Ames Carlin looks beyond the sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll to open a window into the fascinating lives of four college friends–Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry–who stuck together at any cost, until the end. Deeply descriptive and remarkably poetic, steeped in 80s and 90s nostalgia, The Name of This Band is R.E.M. paints a cultural history of the commercial peak and near-total collapse of a great music era, and the story of the generation that came of age at the apotheosis of rock.

©2024 Peter Ames Carlin (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Vivid....Peter Ames Carlin's book isn’t just a cultural biography of the band going back to its formation in the-then sleepy college town of Athens, Georgia. It’s also a poetic meditation on what made so many of the band’s songs stand out, and continue to shine.... A fascinating history of a different era in music.”—Associated Press

“The Name of This Band Is R.E.M. carefully tracks the band’s remarkable trajectory from kegger parties in the college town of Athens during the early ’80s to global ubiquity and its slow burn into dissolution in 2011.”—Los Angeles Times

“Carlin writes rock ‘n’ roll lives with a rare blend of documentary authority, narrative verve, and empathetic insight. His unique gift for capturing the sweep and tenor of a cultural moment—in this case, the long transitional moment between punk and the turn-of-the-century flowering of “indie” that was defined by the lifespan and the records of R.E.M.—is here on brilliant display.”—Michael Chabon, bestselling author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Thoroughly interesting

The voice of the narrator is really hard to take. It could’ve been much more enjoyable.

A little redundant but overall pretty interesting for REM fans.

Book gets a little monotonous in parts and the detailed description of how each album came together felt repetitive and redundant, but overall, it was an interesting listen.

Historical content

Great insight to the cultivation of the band, and the effects to the music industry.