In the wake of Nirvana's tsunami-like success in 1991, all guitar or "alternative" bands signed prior to "Teen Spirit" were suddenly looked down upon by the labels that had signed them for not being more like Nirvana.
Prior to the ginormous success of Nevermind, R.E.M. had been enjoying their largest commercial success, as unlikely as that may seem, with the acoustic "Losing My Religion" and the unusually chipper "Shiny Happy People" both going Top 10.
Prior to the album's release, R.E.M. had announced their decision to not tour in support of the album, which shocked fans and Warner Brothers executives alike. The suits at The Bunny could be seen visibly shrinking at their desks because the band that they'd just signed, who was on only the second album of a six-album deal, was now refusing to tour.
Released in March '91, Out Of Time was the most mature album of R.E.M.s career and not at all what fans of Document or Green had been expecting, yet the band's golden touch continued uninterrupted as radio and MTV airplay more than made up for the lack of a national concert tour.
In September, Nirvana's Nevermind was released and, by November, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was the fastest-selling single in the country. Demand for the album was also so strong that Nirvana's label, DGC Records, soon found themselves incapable of filling orders for the album, forcing their pressing plant to add additional shifts and work around the clock.
By late '92, Nirvana's impact upon the rest of the industry was impossible to ignore. Even the biggest hair metal bands on the planet, Bon Jovi and Poison, had undergone grunge makeovers. Bon Jovi's Keeping The Faith arrived to large record company fanfare, but would spawn no major hits.
Perhaps if the members of R.E.M. had been out on tour, they would have experienced firsthand the sea change that was sweeping across the land, but, instead, they disappeared into the studio right as Nevermind and Nirvana's popularity exploding.
When they emerged with a finished product - the largely mid-tempo and acoustic Automatic For The People - there was much hand wringing at the WB that the band had brought a ukulele to a gun fight.
Making matters worse, the band again chose to not tour in support of the album, which spawned a half dozen singles and still managed to sell over three million copies, but would see their impressive run of albums featuring a Top 10 single come to a sudden and unnerving end.
By the time work on a new album began in 1994, the band had already made the conscious attempt to crank up the guitars in a conscious attempt to match the sonic intensity of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and their ilk or risk losing traction at radio.
Tragically, before the album they were now making to compete with Nirvana could even be completed, Kurt Cobain died.
While the resulting album, Monster, was a chart-topping hit, the fact that R.E.M. had consciously cranked up the distortion in an obvious bid to remain commercially relevant had come as a bit of a disappointment to longtime fans.
The end of the two-year touring and promotional cycle for Monster also coincided with the end of the band's contract with Warner Brothers.
Presented with many offers from other labels, the band found none of them more appealing than the prospect of soaking Warner Brothers at a time when the label was trying to stabilize itself after a period of tumultuous executive turnover.
Warner execs had no doubt seen the band's declining airplay and sales numbers, but, like Best Buy selling CD's at a loss in order to keep moving more large appliances, the WB was convinced that keeping R.E.M. on their roster would help entice other noteworthy acts to sign with The Bunny.
Still, even the most positive of prognosticators had to see the WB's upfront payout of over $80 million to secure the band for another five studio albums as an act of crazed desperation.
Warner execs had no doubt seen the band's declining airplay and sales numbers, but, like Best Buy selling CD's at a loss in order to keep moving more large appliances, the WB was convinced that keeping R.E.M. on their roster would help entice other noteworthy acts to sign with The Bunny.
Still, even the most positive of prognosticators had to see the WB's upfront payout of over $80 million to secure the band for another five studio albums as an act of crazed desperation.
Making matters almost immediately worse was the fact that the band's first album under this new pact was the style-hopping New Adventures In Hi-Fi, which had been cobbled together from impromptu recording sessions in hotel rooms and arena soundchecks during the Monster tour.
Revisiting the album some twenty two years after its release, one can now plainly see New Adventures... for the self-conscious, style-hopping mess that would lead Bill Berry and many longtime fans of the band to wash their hands of the whole affair.
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the wake-up bomb