Confession: I am 57 years old and a dad. My children (21 and 18) introduced me to Stranger Things a few years back. In one of the early episodes, I spotted an R.E.M. poster (Murmur) in Jonathan’s bedroom. It got me thinking about the show’s timeline in relation to the release dates of R.E.M.’s early albums on I.R.S. Records (1983-1987). The creators of the show were born in 1984. They clearly have an affinity for the times. I find the realism of the show to be intoxicating. Watching the show is akin to regression therapy for me. I see a lot of myself in Jonathan; and Nancy is very much like my first girlfriend. They both graduated high school in 1986 - same as me.
· Murmur was released on April 12, 1983. Clearly, Jonathan was an early fan. Season 1 is set from November 6-12, 1983, during the fall of his sophomore year.
· Reckoning was released on April 9, 1984. Season 2 is set from October 29 to November 5, 1984, during the fall of his junior year.
· Fables of the Reconstruction was released on June 10, 1985. Season 3 is set from June 28 to July 4, 1985, before the start of his senior year.
· Season 4 is set from March 21-27, 1986, during the spring of his senior year. Lifes Rich Pageant was released on July 28, 1986, the summer before Jonathan started college.
I’m looking forward to the fifth and final season. According to the press, Season 5 will be set during the fall of 1987. This would align with the fall semester of Jonathan’s sophomore year in college. Document was released on September 1, 1987. For those of us in college at the time, the album was the perfect kick off to the fall semester. It was the band’s final release on I.R.S. Records and, for many fans, the end of their Golden Era. Throughout most of the 1980s, R.E.M. had an almost cult-like following. When Document hit record stores and scored two big, radio hits with heavy rotation on MTV, die-hard fans felt that they had sold out. The situation worsened past 1988 with the band’s releases on Warner Bros. Records. Although their success continued to grow with international distribution, their hardcore fan-base began to shrink.
Here is a ten-song, Spotify playlist from the R.E.M. albums released on I.R.S. Records over the arc of the show. I encourage you to listen to the complete albums from first to last track. There are many, great songs on each record. My personal favorite is Lifes Rich Pageant. Every song on that record is near and dear to my heart. The records from these years define high school and college life for many of us born in the late 1960s…and the same can be said for Stranger Things.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2IW2EY6lWKyX8rih2fVuxM?si=97b50e50ab364c79
“Radio Free Europe” (Murmur, 1983)
“Talk About the Passion” (Murmur, 1983)
“South Central Rain” (Reckoning, 1984)
“Don’t Go Back to Rockville” (Reckoning, 1984)
“Driver 8” (Fables of the Reconstruction, 1985)
“Can’t Get There from Here” (Fables of the Reconstruction, 1985)
“Begin the Begin” (Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986)
“Fall on Me” (Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986)
“The One I Love” (Document, 1987)
“It’s the End of the World as We Know It” (Document, 1987)
