Staying Power of Select Few '80s Bands Like R.E.M. & U2 Still Astounding

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to view Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out, Stewart Copeland's home-movies-based documentary on his former band. Aside from being an insightful, intimate look into the career trajectory of one of rock's greatest bands, the film set me to thinking about how many bands in rock history have shared the Police's fateful lack of longevity, or at least have been unable to carry out their careers without major personnel changes.

Which leads me to the few '80s bands that have not only stayed together for a quarter-century or more but have remained vital and relevant artists. Off the top of my head, I don't even think I can come up with enough to fill up one hand counting. What I can come up with, of course, are U2 and R.E.M. While U2 has managed the truly unbelievable feat of maintaining all original members across 25-plus years, R.E.M. has persevered almost as completely, despite the departure of drummer Bill Berry in 1997. In fact, according to the R.E.M. official website, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills plan to reconvene later this month to begin work on the band's next album, its 14th full-length studio release. In the meantime, EMI Records, which owns the catalogue of IRS Records, is set to release a compilation on September 12 to cover the band's primary underground output, And I Feel Fine...The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987. Yeah, that sounds like vitality to me.

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