Pop Song '89 by R.E.M.

Album: Green (1988)

Charted: 86

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Songfacts®:

This was written as a play on the Doors song "Hello, I Love You." Instead of talking to a girl about sex, it's about the weather or politics.
R.E.M. played an early version on their Document tour before this was released. It didn't even have words then, but the band had a lot of trouble keeping themselves from laughing because they had so much fun with it.
The video was directed by lead singer Michael Stipe. It features him and three women all dancing topless as a way to satirize videos that objectify women. When MTV asked for a censored version, Stipe superimposed black bars over the chests of all four dancers. He said, "A nipple is a nipple."
This was REM's 89th recorded track, if you count mini-album "Chronic Town" and B-sides. >>
Suggestion credit:
Michael - New York, NY
Michael Stipe said in the October 1992 issue of Q magazine: "It's a complete piss-take. I guess it's the prototype of, and hopefully the end of, a pop song. It would be the last pop song ever."

Stipe has described it as one of his "fruit loop songs" along with "Shiny Happy People" and "Stand."
Peter Buck remembers thinking this sounded like a Dream Syndicate song and calling up frontman Steve Wynn to make sure he didn't mind. Wynn gave the OK and agreed it did sound a bit like the group's Karl Precoda on guitar.
This was featured on the TV series Parks and Recreation in the 2014 episode "Prom."

Comments: 7

Karen from Manchester, NhUh, Fred...correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the REM guys from Georgia, not NY?
Fred from Laurel, MdOK, this is one of those crazy, totally off-the-wall hunches, but here goes. I'm not a New Yorker, but I know that in NYC, the public schools are numbered, and noticing what this song's title is in initials, I was wondering, does anyone in REM have a connection to PS89? Anyone in the Big Apple know anything about this? Or did the band single out this song for a numerical title just because its sequence number happened to match the year of its release as a single, and my hunch is all wet?
Brad from Lexington, KyIt's not a parody of the Doors, it's a tribute to them, and is completely an R.E.M. original. Anyone who's ever heard "Hello, I Love You" could tell that. And no, it's not terrible, your taste in music is.
Cody from Lititz, Pai have to say this is terrible i saw it was a parody of the doors and had to listen to it....and i did...and now i want to cut off my ears...
David from Great Barrington, MaI always considered this song to be the band's social commentary about the state of pop music in 1989.Weather? Government?...Hi, Hi; is the best anyone could come up with. No one had the ability to write a pop song with meaning.
Bones from New Plymouth, New ZealandIt was released as a single in 89 but green was released in 88
Epp from Pittsburgh, PaThis song is about someone who really has no clue what to say to a girl. So instead of talking about passionate meaningful stuff, he makes small talk. Also, the 89 in the title is a double meaning- it's their 89th song and was released on the '89 alubum Green

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