Out Of Time

I seem to recall R.E.M. saying in their early days that they planned to break up at the millennium.  Might have been a good idea--few fans think their last decade was their best.  Actually, in 1997 drummer Bill Berry quit, and maybe that was the end of the band as we know it.

Regardless, the day of reckoning has come, and R.E.M., one of the top bands of our time, has called it quits.  They end not with a bang, but with a murmur.

They formed in 1980, and for the first ten or so year did it right, exactly the way an alternative band should.  They had their own sound, didn't compromise, became more and more popular, signed to a major label, and broke out with gigantic hits.  True, by the mid-90s it was all downhill, but it was fun most of the way.