Michael Stipe | |
|---|---|
 Stipe in 2008 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | John Michael Stipe |
| Born | January 4, 1960 Decatur, Georgia, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1980–present |
| Formerly of | R.E.M. |
John Michael Stipe (/ˈstaɪp/; born January 4, 1960) is an American singer, songwriter and artist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.
Stipe was born in Metro Atlanta in January 1960. Due to his father's military commission his family moved constantly, with Stipe spending part of his childhood in West Germany before finishing high school in suburban St Louis. Stipe attended the University of Georgia in Athens, where he became involved in the local college rock and jangle pop scene. He formed R.E.M. after meeting his bandmates at the university and soon dropped out to pursue music with them. The band issued its debut single, "Radio Free Europe," and subsequently signed to I.R.S. Records, meeting wide acclaim and soon great commercial success.
Possessing a distinctive voice, Stipe has been noted for the "mumbling" style of his early career. Since the mid-1980s, Stipe has sung in "wailing, keening, arching vocal figures" that R.E.M. biographer David Buckley compared to Celtic folk artists and Muslim muezzin.[2] He was in charge of R.E.M.'s visual aspect, often selecting album artwork and directing many of the band's music videos. Outside the music industry, he owns and runs two film production studios, C-00 and Single Cell Pictures.
As a member of R.E.M., Stipe was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. As a singer-songwriter, Stipe influenced a wide range of artists, including Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Thom Yorke of Radiohead.[3] Bono of U2 has described his voice as "extraordinary",[4][5] and Yorke told The Guardian that Stipe is his favorite lyricist, saying "I loved the way he would take an emotion and then take a step back from it and in doing so make it so much more powerful".[6]
- ^ Stipe, Carrey Duet On R.E.M. – Penned Soundtrack
MTV.com
Retrieved June 20, 2016 - ^ Cite error: The named reference
buckley87was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Fricke, David (October 24, 2011). "'The One I Love': Radiohead's Thom Yorke on the Mystery and Influence of R.E.M." Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 26, 2014. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
- ^ The South Bank Show, May 12, 2003.
- ^ "U2 Like REM like U2 like REM". U2. April 3, 2001. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
- ^ Adams, Tim; @TimAdamsWrites (February 23, 2013). "Thom Yorke: 'If I can't enjoy this now, when do I start?'". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved February 10, 2024.