REM/YMMV


 * Americans Hate Tingle: Although the band is huge in England now, as the Germans Love David Hasselhoff example below attests, the band initially was not very successful there. First, IRS records had crappy distribution outside the U.S. and second the U.K. indie scene was obsessed with their own native jangly guitar band.
 * Anvilicious: Michael Stipe intentionally made "Everybody Hurts" this so the message would be unmistakeable to listeners, mainly the teen market he was trying to reach.
 * Covered Up: Their version of "Superman" has become better known than the Clique's original.
 * So much so that when the song appeared, re-recorded, in a 1999 commercial, some parts of their fandom were shocked that the band had supposedly sold themselves out in such a manner. The group responded with the fact that, simply, it wasn't their song to begin with, so they basically had no control over what was done with it.
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: "Voice of Harold", which features Michael Stipe singing the liner notes to a Gospel album over the backing track of "7 Chinese Bros."
 * Chances are you experienced the joy of hearing It's the End of the World As We Know It play on the radio (or in Rock Band due to a recent DLC pack) while your friends struggle to sing along with the lyrics that aren't the song title.
 * As said in the Beam Me Up, Scotty entry on the main page, "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" got its title from an incident involving Dan Rather being attacked by someone, who kept shouting (some form of) the phrase as he was beating the veteran newsman. Now watch Dan Rather performing the song with them in 1995. You can't say the man has no sense of humor.
 * Late in The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite Michael Stipe can be heard audibly trying to hold back his laughter during the chorus, due to his perceived mispronunciation of the word "Seuss" (he thought he was saying "Dr. Zeus"). Made even funnier by the fact that it makes the already incomprehensible chorus even harder to understand.
 * In the CD booklet for Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage as Stipe is discussing the music video for Imitation of Life he points out that holding a monkey or an orangutang in a music video was one of Peter Buck's life wishes.
 * Michael Stipe's dancing in the music video for Immitation of Life.
 * Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: During "Let Me In" live performances, the bandmembers form a closed circle and perform an acoustic version of the song as a tribute to Kurt Cobain, to whom the song is dedicated.
 * "Everybody Hurts" performed live in Lima. *** Heck, "Everybody Hurts" performed anywhere. The 1993 MTV Video Music Awards is another notable example.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: Too many to list. "Everybody Hurts" is probably the zenith.
 * Epic Riff: Many. The most famous one is "Losing My Religion" for obvious reasons, but others include "Man on the Moon," "Drive," and "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?". Some of their more recent material, such as "Supernatural Superserious" and "Discoverer," also applies.
 * Face of the Band: Michael Stipe, although he isn't the main creative force as every member contributes to the final product.
 * Fanon Discontinuity: Changes from person to person. For some fans, it's after Fables of the Reconstruction, when the band cleaned up their sound; for others, after they signed on Warner Bros. For most, it's after Bill Berry left.
 * While their appeal varies, the first three albums without Berry (Up, Reveal, and Around the Sun) are often considered a Dork Age that was ended by Accelerate.
 * First Installment Wins: Most people feel that debut album Murmur is their best album. Reckoning, their second, occasionally gets this as well.
 * Somewhat averted by the popularity of Green and Document.
 * Automatic for the People, although markedly different to their earlier material in many ways, has frequently been strongly-received too. Some British polls have even ranked it alongside critical favourites such as OK Computer and Revolver in the past.
 * Germans Love David Hasselhoff: When their popularity dropped off in America, they remained popular in the UK and Ireland, mostly because the genre of music the band performs remains extremely popular in those countries. Indeed, Around the Sun (their only studio album never to have had a song place even on the Bubbling Under chart in the U.S.) produced a #5 hit in the UK.
 * For that matter, "The Great Beyond" hit #3 in the U.K., and it wasn't even an album track, but written for the movie Man on the Moon -- which didn't make a peep at their box office.
 * Also inverted: their first album, Murmur, was a hit in the US but did not chart anywhere else (except New Zealand, where it was only a minor hit). They did not even hit the top 10 in any other country besides the US until they signed with Warner Bros.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: The opening lyrics of "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)": "That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an airplane..."
 * Narm: "Shiny Happy People" and to some, "Everybody Hurts"
 * Narm Charm: Some think "Everybody Hurts" is cheesy, but it's basically so uplifting that it doesn't really matter.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks / Its Popular So It Sucks: A lot of fans are still bitter about them going "commercial".