REM breaks up.

Here's their first performance on Letterman in 1983. Punk and new wave were the only templates for "different" rock bands at the time, so it's funny to see REM with some punk moves (Peter Buck is kinda acting all Sex Pistols) despite the fact that their sound had little to do with their punk and new wave contemporaries.

Decide yourself if radio's gonna stay
Reason: it could polish up the gray
Put that, put that, put that up your wall
That this isn't Country at all

Radio station: decide yourself

Keep me out of Country and the word
Wheel of fortune's leading us: absurd
Push that, push that, push that to the floor
That this isn't nothing at all

Straight off the boat, where to go

Calling out in transit
Calling out in transit
Radio Free Europe (radio)

Decide: defy the media's too fast
Instead of pushing palaces to fall
Put that, put that, put that up your wall
That this isn't fortunate at all

Radio station: decide yourself

We're calling out in transit
Calling out in transit
Radio Free Europe (radio)

Decide yourself: come in on a boat
Media's too fast
Keep me out of Country and the word
Disappointment into us: absurd

Straight off the boat, where to go?

Calling out in transit
Calling out in transit
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe

Calling out in transit
Calling out in transit
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe

Calling them "the underground band from Athens, Ga., that helped invent the alternative-rock sound of the 1980s," The NYT write up gets it exactly right:

The group formed in the college town of Athens, home of the University of Georgia, in 1980 and developed a cult following, becoming a darling of college radio stations with an artsy mix of punk-band energy, folk-rock instrumentation, airy hooks and mumbled, introspective lyrics. It was a potent sound that influenced a generation of alternative rock bands.