h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Then of course,theres what they were named after:Rapid Eye Movement-that moment between being awake and being asleep-when one is dreaming.
Sorry for the pedanticity (ifs thats what it is)
But they are a great band

I don't believe that they were named after that

well as far as I know its true, for what I know which isn't much, I think I remember them saying it sometime.

R.E.M. is "Rapid Eye Movement," which is the physical manifestation of a certain kind of brain-wave activity, the kind which normally accompanies dreaming. The eyeballs swivel around and bounce back and forth under the lids, getting a really good workout. It's sort of creepy and sort of funny to watch someone sleep while in the R.E.M. stage.

As with many band name stories, this one is shrouded in obscurity, both intentional and not. One story has Stipe opening a dictionary at random, closing his eyes, and putting his finger down on the entry for R.E.M., the sleep phenomenon.

In later years (publicity interviews for "Up," which I read but don't remember where-- sorry), Stipe would actually allude to REM sleep, and tie that in with the band's mission, or style, or idiom, or what have you. I read a quote where he was talking about one of the songs on "Up," and mentioned the dream-like quality of the thing, saying that he liked the way the pictures painted by their words and music can possess that sense of clarity and internal logic, even if they make no sense at all in a logical, waking kind of way.

Whether they started out this way, or gradually made peace with the fact that REM sleep can in some way be related to songwriting, is anyone's guess...

>.O.<

At Murmurs.com - there is a link from the article - this question and answer is posted

"Doesn't R.E.M. stand for 'rapid eye movement'?"

In the scientific field of sleep research, the acronym r.e.m. indeed stands for "rapid eye movement," and refers to the stage of sleep in which, among other things, dreaming occurs. But, in the case of the band, no, it doesn't necessarily. The story related by Peter Buck on the band's early 1983 Late Night with David Letterman appearance is that they picked it out of the dictionary (not all dictionaries include scientific terms like "r.e.m.," so don't be disappointed if you don't find it) and they liked it because it was so ambiguous.

If it doesn't stand for Rapid Eye Movement, you've got to wonder what the hell else it stands for.

Random Ear Mania?
Raunchy Essex Men?
Rusty Elevator Motor?

Anyone?

Or even Rich Eclectic Men
There is an article on'Dreams' thatmentions REM but i can't seem to provide you with a link
[ 'puter ignorance]
I get far too much REM anyway-the sleep

Keep on livin' Keep on lovin'
Bos

An alternative would be "Roentgen Equivalent in Man," or rem. It's the unit used to measure the severity of human exposure to radiation. Too many rems and you're dead.

I'm not saying that's where the name came from. And while it probably did come from "Rapid Eye Movement," specialists don't appreviate that as R.E.M. but as "REM" (rhymes with "gem").

So R.E.M. might as well be a proper name, like "Cynthia" or "Rupert." Or if you prefer, like "Gesualdo" or "Schoenberg." It means "the scandalously famous and talented band from Athens, Georgia," and nothing else.

Okay, okay, alow me to set the record straight... First of all, R.E.M. was founded in 1979 and NOT 1980... I remember this because I was born in 1979, and when I read it in the Rolling Stones Histoy of R.E.M., I thought that will be easy to remember.

The name R.E.M. does stand for Rapid eye movement. They named their band after a sleepsless night of rehersals...

So, there you all have it...

Hello Dax, I would like to post a greeting on your page, but I can't until you activate it! Please post something, then I can greet you

Hi Galaxy Babe !

I think I just did, ativated it that is...

But I´m a newbi here, so bare with...

The story I read (in "It crawled from the south" beware its as hard to read as it looks) was that during their frst performance at the church in athens they asked all the guests to write suggestions on the wall...they were almost twisted kites but rem won out in the end because it was ambiguous...however it wasn't from a dictionary or anything else but a random suggestion be a party guest (anon)