In the wake of countless musical revolutions from grunge to acid house to trip-hop to Britpop, how can this relatively quiet, though well-known and respected band stand head-and-shoulders above all?

R.E.M., a tinny rock band from the Athens, Georgia formed during the heyday of the disco, punk, ska, and new wave movements of New York and London. In that time of faddish dictates, such a band should have never been allowed to gain such a strong following - and yetR.E.M. did. Rock fans, interested more in sincerity than trends, supported R.E.M. for years, allowing the band to release several albums while under the mainstream's radar. This strong network of underground music fans began to spread to cities like Minneapolis, Portland, Boston, Seattle, and even Los Angeles. Bands like The Replacements, Hüsker Dü and The Pixies followed the example of R.E.M. and catered to these audiences, ignoring MTV mainstream fluff, and playing their own brand of music. Ten years after R.E.M. helped to found and solidify an "alternative" music scene, with the added help of major label support and proper studio time, Nirvana's Nevermind replaced Michael Jackson at the top of the American album charts. That event made being Radiohead, Tori Amos, and Ani DiFranco in the '90s possible. Nothing was the same after that big bang, and all it took was a Murmur.

Relevance to history aside, what will always remain R.E.M.'s legacy are the songs. The beautiful thing about these songs is that after twenty years, they keep getting more complex, more detailed, and just plain better. If you were one of the few that truly gave Up a chance, you were rewarded with an album with more tricks than that silly rabbit. What other band can seamlessly use the influence of Leonard Cohen while commenting on the death of Matthew Sheppard on the squealingly appealing "Hope" and then craft a musical homage to The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson that highlights the wonderfully tender and innocent moments that come from eros and agape on "At My Most Beautiful"? Any fan that has stuck by R.E.M. has been constantly and unendingly rewarded by a band that refuses to sell out, despite the number of zeroes on their record contract. Few bands are willing to mess with a successful sound; these guys have done it and done it well since their breakthrough, Document.

There is a wonderful literacy and poetry about every R.E.M. album. Listen closely to each one and you'll hear the title reverberating back at you. Life's Rich Pageant flourished among songs that challenged the so-called R.E.M. sound of the time and changed the band's approach to writing and recording tracks. Green was a great title, simultaneously indicating the exuberance and naivete of a band signed to a major label. Even New Adventures In Hi-Fi found R.E.M. taking on the mundane project of recording a live album while touring to support Monster. They changed the process so radically, that not only did it result in a set that pushed out the lengths of their typically brief songs, it reinvigorated the band as a whole and reinvented the idea of a live album. The great thing is, you can tell by listening to it that there's a joy in each member in playing these songs.

When it comes down to it, R.E.M. possessed four of the brightest, most talented and most under-appreciated musicians that ever made music together. Peter Buck is an innovator, unwilling to be satisfied with his aptitude for playing guitar or limiting himself to it. As a drummer, bassist and songwriter, Bill Berry was very much the foundation of the band. That he left to pursue a private existence outside the spotlight only makes his character and importance to the band's history all the more apparent. Michael Stipe's personality, intelligence, conscience, and gentility make him that rare rock star that wows both the girls and the boys when he sings on stage. He is an interpreter's nightmare, yet behind the madness of his words, there is an unconscious attempt to make better each person willing to divine the encrypted messages. My favorite member, however, is Mike "Superman" Mills, the nerdy one who wore those strange Nudie-design suits during R.E.M.'s Monster phase. Stipe gets the hype, but he and others know that Mills is the real musical genius here. He's a serious multi-instrumentalist and singer whose bold contributions and wild musical creativity have spurred on the great changes that have made R.E.M. the celebrated band they are today.

Frankly, if you're one of those fans that only listen to the I.R.S. recordings, then you've missed the ballpark in trying to understand why this band are so amazing. From Chronic Town through Up, this band have had the artistic integrity, fortitude, and curiosity about themselves, their world, and their music to write and arrange songs that are not meant to satisfy any particular person or group. They are consummate artists - continuously driven and inspired to push themselves and others further into the great beyond. Ethics like that cannot be bought and sold.

Read these R.E.M. reviews: Automatic For The People, Document, Life's Rich Pageant, Fables of the Reconstruction, Murmur, Reckoning