10 Greatest Classic Rock Songs Of The 1980s

With MTV quickly becoming a fixture in everyone's household, the music world suddenly became more concerned about how you looked rather than how you sounded. If you weren't in the particular video-friendly mold, you didn't have a prayer of getting any mainstream success in this decade. That didn't stop R.E.M. though, who rocketed to the top of the rock sphere with "Radio Free Europe."

Before blowing up, Michael Stipe and co. were just another band on the college radio circuit in their native town of Athens, Georgia. What they were doing was fantastic, but there was no grand ambitions to get famous. Once the band started to record their debut Murmur, the band started to hit upon something no one had heard before.

"Radio Free Europe" may have taken off with audiences, but nobody could really pin down what the band's draw was. The song sounded like something out of the 60's jangle pop realm, while Stipe's lyrics were too mumbled to even decipher properly. In an age where looks were everything, one of rock's most faceless acts conquered the rock world by sheer song power.

This was the first taste listeners got of alternative music, which went on to flesh out and grow into the biggest genre in the world once the 90's rolled around. It wasn't exactly the glamorous time yet, but for right now, everyone was tuning into the raving station.