Slate: R.E.M. vs. U2 - Who was the best rock band of the '80s?

[allbecauseofu2]

bump

 

[Yahweh_OMG]

I love both.
REM is great, I've seen them 3 times and it's one of the best band ever..... however, they are very far from U2......

 

[Zoots]

1980 Boy

1981 October

1982

1983 War / Murmur

1984 The Unforgettable Fire / Reckoning

1985 Fables Of The Reconstruction

1986 Life's Rich Pageant

1987 The Joshua Tree / Document

1988 Rattle And Hum / Green

1989

U2: 6
REM: 6

 

[allbecauseofu2]

bono has a better voice for techno exploration the stripe.

 

[b. john allen]

i disagree with the article. R.E.M.'s last three albums are not unimpressive, and not drab. There is so much going on on all three. Up is the album of a lost bad trying to find their way again, with their drummer gone. Ironically titled as it might be, it's straight from the heart. With Walk Unafraid as anthem, keeps doing what it's good at, which is reïnventing themselves, might that be with 4 or 3 members.
U2's last albums are most accuratley to be called "drab" and most vcertainly "unimpressive". U2 seems to have a certain fear of reïnventing themselves, which is what they did in the 90s. Now, they're going with the (main)stream, which (to me) is the wrong way. If you want to be contemporary you'll have to make an effort, instead of making the same songs over and over again.

 

[allbecauseofu2]

a band does not have to reinvent themselves on every album. i hope people don;t think thats required now. I don;t want some one doing it if they don;t feel it at the time. u2 dosn't need to do that right now. but 2 albums from now, they might.