15 of R.E.M.’s Most Memorable Music Videos

At the time R.E.M. filmed the video for “So. Central Rain,” they were still a bit reticent about appearing on MTV and skeptical about lip-synching. They opted to film the clip live, with the band hidden behind spotlit screens as a fragile, shaggy young Michael Stipe sang wistfully into a chunky studio microphone.

When Michael Stipe made the video for “Fall on Me,” he was famous for mumbling already-inscrutable lyrics. Frustrated by being misunderstood and misrepresented, the singer put the lyrics up on the screen, pushing blunt typography to the forefront of an otherwise abstract clip.

James Herbert’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” captures the manic spirit of the song simply by panning around a messy, cluttered shack occupied by a restless young boy. The video was dirt cheap to make, but stands out as one of the most memorable clips in the history of the medium.

R.E.M. made a point of retaining complete control over their music videos when they signed to Warner Bros. in 1988. “Orange Crush,” the first video of their career as a major label act, makes this very clear by using the martial rhythms of the song as the soundtrack for a short film by Matt Mahurin that draws ambiguous parallels between images of a confused young boy and overtly homoerotic black and white footage of a buff man digging through soil and crawling through grass.

Peter Care shot the video for “Drive” in 1992, right around the time “moshing” became part of the national lexicon. While moshing, crowd surfing and stage diving are typically presented as acts of joyful aggression, this video, in which Michael Stipe is held up by a sea of hands, is somehow both meditative and oddly menacing.

Jake Scott’s iconic video for “Everybody Hurts” depicts lonely souls stuck in a traffic jam along I-10 in Texas. The director was inspired in large part by the traffic jam sequence in Federico Fellini’s 8½, but the mood of the piece is moving entirely on its own terms, particularly as Michael Stipe leads people out of their cars and out into freedom.

Jem Cohen’s video for “Nightswimming,” one of the most beloved ballads in the R.E.M. discography, is just as simple and plaintive as the song itself. At some points, it’s quite literal, but for the most part, this collection of quiet, emotionally loaded moments is ideally suited to Michael Stipe’s intimate vocal performance and sentimental lyrics.

Peter Care’s clip for “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” is notable for the first appearance of Michael Stipe’s fully shaven head, but it’s memorable for frenetic editing that shifts the camera off into corners and away from the band at some moments, and zooms in on Stipe’s awkward dancing at others.

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ video for “Tongue” matches the song’s odd balance of cuteness, sexiness and heartbreaking loneliness with images of awkward teenagers gazing longingly at footage of R.E.M. in concert in Seventies-style rec rooms. The attention to detail here is marvelous, but the clip isn’t overly nostalgic.

Jem Cohen’s dim, romantic clip for “E-Bow the Letter,” R.E.M.’s 1996 collaboration with Patti Smith, is ideally suited to the sound and sentiment of the song, which remains one of the band’s finest and most distinct compositions. Cohen’s lonely street scenes are gorgeous, but the images of Stipe performing with the band in a room lit by hundreds of tiny white lights are among the most elegant and breathtaking shots in the band’s filmography.

Peter Care and Spike Jonze’s video for “Electrolite” includes a few questionable visual ideas – the fisheye lens stuff is a bit much – but for the most part, its gentle surrealism is an inspired match for the sentiment of the song, which is a romantic lullaby for Los Angeles at the end of the 20th Century.

The Snorri Brothers’ visual interpretation of “Daysleeper,” the first video from the band’s 1998 album Up, complements the song’s headache-addled daze and captures the depressed, disconnected feeling of its protagonist in shots of a shellshocked, bespectacled Michael Stipe working in a fluorescent-lit office building.

Garth Jennings’ video for “Imitation of Life” was shot in just 20 seconds, but the footage was looped and edited in such a way that it zooms in on several small and strange moments at an elaborate pool party set in the Seventies.

Michael Stipe teamed up with his sister Linda for “Discoverer,” a triumphant number from R.E.M.’s final album, Collapse Into Now. The siblings made the video by messing around with the architectural design program AutoCAD, which is not intended for any sort of artistic utility. The result is fascinating in its use of text, bright color and jittery dynamics.

Michael Stipe’s clip for “Pop Song 89” was NSFW long before watching rock videos in a cubicle was a possibility. The singer dances awkwardly with a trio of topless girls. Stipe himself is topless, and when MTV insisted on black bars covering the girls’ breasts, he edited in a black bar for his own chest as well. Solidarity!