A lot of famous bands go on long past their prime, doing nostalgia tours and squeezing their hits for all they’re worth. But not R.E.M., one of the biggest bands in the world during a stretch of the 1990s. The band went from regularly playing shows for more than 100,000 people to calling it quits. Contributor Will Leitch, who occasionally bumps into the former members of R.E.M. in the grocery store, talks about how rare and admirable it is to know when to move on, and how the music is still there for all of us even if the band is not.

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