Thanks for existing, R.E.M. It's hard to overstate how much these guys changed everything, creating an entire rock audience in their own image.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The music became secondary to being rock stars.
I feel like the rap metal at the end of the 1990s destroyed rock music for everybody and suddenly everybody felt like they had to apologise for being in rock bands. People suddenly felt bad about wanting to reach massive audiences and the sense of theatre, that we have in our live show, became something to avoid.
Rock in the mainstream culture has lost a lot of its mojo.
Rock became an incredible commercial success, people just became bored with serious music, and it was forgotten.
I understand how hard rock fans feel inside out, because I was one of those people.
I enjoy looking at old photos of some of my favorite rock icons, but also get inspired from the younger bands that are coming up and really creating their own style, their own image.
When I first started in rock, I had a big guy's audience for my early records. I had a very straight image, particularly through the mid '80s.
It's really hard to imagine there ever being the kind of impact there was when punk rock happened in the late 70's. I wish there would be one big change like that again, but I don't know if that'll ever happen.
The Beatles just changed everything right across the board. They just had that right combination of clean-cut good looks - a cute band - but under that they had a real rock n' roll thing going on.
The rock biz is the low end of the creative world. Faces come and go so fast.