Songoftheday 7/5/19 - Richard said "Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy"...

"What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" - R.E.M.
from the album Monster (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #21 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 18

Today's song of the day comes from the alternative rock band from Athens, Georgia, R.E.M., whose 1992 album Automatic For The People had grown to become their fans' and critics' most cherished work. The set had also scored three top-40 pop hits in the U.S. with "Drive", "Man On The Moon", and the epic ballad "Everybody Hurts". But veering away from the somber quietness of that record, the band returned two years later with an ambitious title - Monster. The lead single from the album, "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?", was alluding to an assault on TV newscaster Dan Rather in which the attackers shouted the phrase (paraphrased phrase, I guess). The song deals with an older generation trying to grapple the commercialization of information in the youth, something way foreboding decades before true "social media"...

"What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" spent three weeks under the pop top-20 in America in November of 1994. The song was the first to enter at #1 on Billboard magazine's Modern Rock radio chart, staying there for five weeks, while spending five weeks at #2 on their Mainstream Rock list. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Canada (#2), New Zealand (#4), Finland (#6), Poland (#7), Ireland (#8), the UK (#9), and Norway (#9). It also hit the top-40 in Belgium (#19), the Netherlands (#21), Sweden (#21), Austria (#21), Switzerland (#22), and Australia (#24). The Monster album was nominated for the first Grammy Award for Rock Album in 1995, which went to the Rolling Stones for Voodoo Lounge.

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Here's R.E.M. on the tour behind the Monster album in 1995...