In this article: This land is our land

The world according to R.E.M.

Their songs have long tapped into the emotional underpinnings of the times. So it should come as no surprise that in an emotionally charged election year, the band's new album carries a political message: Be heard.

By Michele Hatty

"I've been to places where people my age [had] never voted in a democratic election."

Here it comes. Take a deep breath. "You can't live in this country right now and not breathe politics." OK, he does it -- hoists the political banner that scores of musicians across the country have been waving since 9/11 stirred a sea change of charged emotions within American music. Songs of patriotism and protest speak to a heightened national consciousness that historically reflects periods of dissension and debate in America; one need look only to the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War for examples.

Michael Stipe, 44, is sitting beside me in a converted warehouse in Manhattan's newly trendy Meatpacking District, looking intently into my brown eyes with his own intensely clear blue ones, and explaining why R.E.M.'s latest album, "Around the Sun," has been influenced so heavily by the world -- and politics -- around him. Where else to express that but through his work?

In a soft, almost apologetic voice, he continues: "I'm sorry, but that's a very big part of 2004. Not because of the election, but because of the events of the last several years. That's had an influence on the songs I've written, and I've tried to be really true to that."

But influence goes both ways. Since R.E.M. formed in 1980 in Athens, Ga., they have become one of the most prominent bands in the world: They've racked up 17 albums, many of which are multiplatinum, and 13 Grammy nominations (three wins), and have been hailed by music critics as one of the most important American bands of our time. They've inspired fans with their smart, edgy pop commentary in signature songs like "Losing My Religion," "Everybody Hurts" and "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" Their newest album is equally brash and proves they are intent on retaining their role as the unofficial keepers of the American conscience.

To that end, Stipe and bandmates Mike Mills, 45, and Peter Buck, 47, are spending this day filming the video for the album's first single, "Leaving New York," a melancholy lullaby of loss that reflects Stipe's deep attachment to a city forever changed by the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. "I wanted to write a love song to New York," he explains.

To capture the essence of the city, Stipe spent a day filming in old haunts all over Manhattan: places filled with happy memories, previously unmarred by the fears many Americans now have about getting on a plane and going out in public. It was that very loss of security and freedom that revealed just how much Americans take for granted.

"I've been to places where people my age [had] never voted in a democratic election," Stipe says, his voice rising. "To go to the voting poll with someone in former Czechoslovakia, a grown man, and watch him cast his vote for the first time brings tears to your eyes. [The right to vote is] a privilege I want to remind people of."

To do that, R.E.M. joined with other big-name acts, including Bruce Springsteen, to perform in several swing states in the Vote for Change tour, which ends Monday and benefits the grass-roots, liberal-leaning political action committee MoveOn. The Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam and the Dixie Chicks, among others, headlined similar shows. On Wednesday, R.E.M. kicks off a North American solo tour, during which they'll continue to push Americans to be more politically aware.

Some critics have called the band's stance too heavy-handed. When asked whether musicians and politics should mix, even Stipe says he's conflicted.

"I don't think they mix very well. I think they're like oil and water. As a music fan, there's nothing I hate more than feeling like someone's viewpoint is being kind of crammed down my throat in the form of a pop song," he admits. "But as a lyricist, the truest I can be is to not filter the things that are influencing the things I think about a great deal. I learned a long time ago, if I'm thinking about something so intensely that it makes it into a song, I'm not the only person thinking or feeling that."

Rap artist Q-Tip, who sings Stipe's empowerment-themed lyrics on a track called "The Outsiders," agrees with his friend: "When you hear in a song something you always felt but were afraid to voice, and you see 30,000 other people at a concert feel the same way, all of a sudden you don't feel so alone."

Still, Mills admits that the band has suffered from being seen as too ideological. "In the late '80s, early '90s, we were heavily political in our music and activities, and it started to be a little too much," he says. "People started looking for political meanings in songs that didn't have any, and we all felt the music was getting shortchanged. So we decided to keep it on a personal level."

The bassist, his shaggy blond hair making him look more 25 than 45, sees the band's shift back into politics as crucial. "We're [speaking out] as citizens. As members of a democracy, we are exercising the very right that men and women have fought and died for, which is to speak up and try to effect change in our own country. It has nothing to do with the fact that we're musicians."

But surely, if they were just guys hanging out on a street corner, they wouldn't get the ear of the public the way they do as multiplatinum celebrities.

Buck concedes the point but notes that R.E.M. is just one voice in a cacophony of public opinion. Pointing to well-known conservative talking heads, Buck rattles off a raft of criticism: "Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Pat Robertson, Bill O'Reilly -- those people give the news to a huge amount of the United States right now. What is considered political commentary is nothing more than entertainment, and not very well-performed entertainment. As long as those guys can do it, then I can do a tour pointing out that maybe people should vote."

The band's latest album reflects the melancholy of the age we live in, Buck says. "Michael was trying to capture the times," he says. "After 9/11, I immediately felt sad. I felt sad for all the people who died. I felt sad for the way this was going to change our country. I saw that coming. The next day, I was like, 'This is going to make this country way more repressive, more xenophobic.' People are living in a lot of fear right now."

For his part, Stipe hopes "Around the Sun" will speak to some of our culture's collective needs. "I don't think I'm very wise. I don't know everything. I haven't lost a sense of curiosity about the world," he says. "I like it when, in a gentle way, people challenge my ideas of how the world runs -- make me think about my own viewpoints, you know?"

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THIS LAND IS OUR LAND

R.E.M. is one of many acts that have set political, cultural and social beliefs to music. Joan Baez and Bob Dylan did it during the Vietnam era with "The Times They Are A-Changin'." Marvin Gaye did it in the '70s with "What's Going On." Toby Keith did it post-9/11 with "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)." And the beat goes on ...

Photographs by George Lange for USA WEEKEND