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R.E.M.

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Michael Stipe Calls for Meta Boycott to Protest Far Right Spread

January 19, 2025

R.E.M.‘s Michael Stipe has urged his social media followers to join him in a temporary boycott of Meta and its associated products to protest their part in “helping advance the far right in America”.

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Stipe shared his intentions via a post on Instagram on Sunday (Jan. 19), outlining the ‘Lights Out Meta’ campaign which would take place from Jan. 19 – 26, and asked users to log out of all Meta platforms for the week. As Stipe added, this includes the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Messenger, WhatsApp, Giphy, Meta Quest, and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

“I’ll be logged off for the week. Starting tomorrow,” Stipe wrote. “Please consider doing the same so corporations like Meta can imagine there might be consequences for helping advance the far right in America and world wide. Or are we too addicted [that] we can’t log off even for one week?”

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“Its so gross,” he continued in his post’s caption. “I’m really happy to step away for a week as some form of protest—and then I’ll come back and decide what to do from there.”

Stipe’s decision to take part in a boycott of Meta platforms comes just days after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company’s decision to drop their fact-checking program for Facebook and Instagram, noting it apparently made “too many mistakes and too much censorship” and is “too politically biased.”

Instead, Facebook and Instagram will rely on a method similar to the “community notes” model found on X. This, however, has been met with widespread criticism from commentators who have expressed fear it could lead to further misinformation on social media and strongly contribute to the further spread of far-right ideologies.

Stipe is not the only individual to announce their departure from social media this weekend, with The Cure‘s Robert Smith also telling his followers he is leaving X on Sunday (Jan. 19) in favour of accounts on Bluesky, Instagram, or Mastodon’s Universeodon. “Otherwise I will likely be outside,” added Smith.

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Al Green Releases Moving Cover of R.E.M.’s ‘Everybody Hurts’

November 19, 2024

Soul legend Al Green has turned his attention to college rock favorites R.E.M., sharing a cover of the Georgia outfit’s 1993 single, “Everybody Hurts”.
Released on Tuesday (Nov. 19), Green’s cover of the song sees the veteran singer reimagining the original in his trademark soul style, backing his delivery of the hopeful lyrics with a full band, including strings and backing vocalists.

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“Recording ‘Everybody Hurts,’ I could really feel the heaviness of the song and I wanted to inject a little touch of hope and light into it,” Green wrote on social media. “There’s always a presence of light that can break through those times of darkness.”

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Originally released on the 1992 album Automatic for the People, “Everybody Hurts” was issued as the record’s second single, becoming its most successful. While the album itself peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, “Everybody Hurts” reached No. 29 on the Hot 100, and peaked at No. 13 on the Pop Airplay charts.

It’s since been utilized by a number of charitable organizations, including the Samaritans in the U.K., and the Helping Haiti fund and the Disasters Emergency Committee, who organized a cover version to aid in support of the devastation from the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The cover featured contributions from the likes of Mariah Carey, Miley Cyrus, Rod Stewart, Jon Bon Jovi, Kylie Minogue, and many others, eventually peaking at No. 21 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.

In February 2019, the song became embroiled in slight controversy when President Donald Trump shared clips from his State of the Union address cued to the track over a montage of congressional democrats looking dejected. R.E.M. later protested his usage of the song, evoking the title of their 1988 track “World Leader Pretend” in their response, and ultimately convincing Twitter to take down Trump’s original clip.

The cover of “Everybody Hurts” is Green’s first single to be released since last year’s cover of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”, which in turn followed his first new music in a decade with 2018’s cover of Freddy Fender’s “Before the Next Teardrop Falls”. Green’s last studio album, Lay It Down, was released in 2008 and peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard 200.