10 Most Underrated Guitarists In Rock Music History
2. Peter Buck - R.E.M.
In the age when MTV was just starting to come into its own, there was no way to accurately describe what R.E.M. was doing. Even though they were only getting played at the college radio level, the sounds of songs like Radio Free Europe and So. Central Rain were enough to get people listening to the underground side of rock as well, along with trying to figure out whatever the hell Michael Stripe was getting at half the time. If you listen to the crux of what Peter Buck is doing though, there's a lot of rock history hidden in between his guitar fills.
Being a student of the punk community as well as having a love for the early days of rock and roll, the beginning of R.E.M. saw Buck trying to sound like the Clash by way of the Byrds, creating a middle ground between the rebellious side of underground rock while also paying tribute to the bands of the '60s that shaped him as well. Along with a more punk rock mentality, Buck was willing to learn much more about music as he went along, trading his guitar for a mandolin on Losing My Religion and creating different spaces when he did pick up his guitar like the strange ambience of a song like Drive.
R.E.M. may have been known as the world's most successful underground band, but it goes much deeper than just the underground for Peter Buck. This was a man born out of the generation of record stores, and his playing tends to fill in the spaces in rock history that had yet to be written.