A lilting 6/8 time helps hit home a message to simply “hold on.”
Every time I listen to R.E.M., I feel like I’m putting on a warm blanket. I absorbed a huge amount of the band’s work from radio & MTV as a kid, and in my mid-20s, I became an even bigger fan. I realized I should probably write about this song because there is so much to teach through it, and upon listening to it for the first time in many years, it brought on such a clear & specific sense of comfort.
There is so much talk these days about teenagers, depression, and the potential for self-harm present in young people. When the band wrote this song in the early 90s, it was brought to the other members by drummer Bill Berry (who did not even play on the final recording released as a single) and it was valued for its simplicity. Guitarist Peter Buck believed that the song’s straightforward lyrics — not typical of any R.E.M. song — were intended to hit straight at teenaged kids. “Hold on…you’re never alone.”
In addition to hearing this song a great deal while growing up, I remember MTV playing it on loop shortly after 9/11.
Content Warning: Although this song was written with the very clear intent of encouraging those who feel lonely & depressed to hold on to hope and find comfort, this video features a mass disappearance of hundreds of ostensibly depressed people.
Introduction: R.E.M. could be considered one of the bands to invent alternative rock music. Forming in Athens, GA, in the early 1980s, the band put out several exceedingly well-received albums on independent record labels. They had become massively influential (with Thom Yorke & Kurt Cobain included among their biggest fans) and critical darlings before they broke through the mainstream stratosphere in the early 1990s, partially due to many successful music videos during MTV’s apex. “Everybody Hurts” was released as a single from the band’s 1992 album Automatic for the People. The video for the song was nominated for a Grammy and the album was nominated for two Grammys as well. The band won three Grammys previously. The video for “Everybody Hurts” won four MTV Video Music Awards in 1994. R.E.M. was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, their first year of eligibility. They disbanded amicably in 2011 following many health concerns of band members.
Analysis: The meter of song is immediately recognizable from the very beginning. The rising and falling arpeggiated guitar lines are clearly countable in 6/8. The song remains in 6/8 time, also known as symmetrical (because a measure can be divided clearly in half) compound (because the beats are subdivided into three) meter, for its full duration.
Considerations for Teaching: Although the much-lauded music video might be disturbing for students, the song contains no objectionable material or profanity. Although the song is decidedly downbeat, the lyrics very clearly send a message to anyone who is depressed to “take comfort in your friends”. The first words that lead singer Michael Stipe actually says in the music video, as the strings crescendo in a dramatic fashion in the song, are, “Hold on.” The song is intended to convey hope, and was written in a straightforward manner, as guitarist Peter Buck said, to try to reach young people directly. Because of its meter, message, and playability, it seems highly recommendable for teaching, particularly in a secondary setting.