R.E.M. grew out of the vibrant music scene of Athens, Georgia, in 1980. Lead singer Michael Stipe, a recent transplant from the St. Louis suburbs, was taking art classes at the University of Georgia and singing in a kitschy cover band when he met record store clerk and guitarist Peter Buck. Sharing an interest in the New York music scene and a frustration with conventional pop, they started playing together. Before long, a friend connected Buck with a drummer named Bill Berry, who introduced him to a bass player he knew from high school, Mike Mills. This alliteratively named rhythm section was the more musically experienced half of the quartet, having played in bands together growing up in Macon, Georgia.
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