Most of you who are around my age, probably know this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCQ0vDAbF7s
Shiny happy People by the Alternative rock band REM, which is regarded as one of the worst songs by the group. It's been called incredibly wussy and just not a good song. In 2006, it was Number one of AOL's Music's list of „111 Wussiest songs of all time.“ Even Michael Stipe, the frontman of REM said that he hated this song.
But is this really all that's behind this song? Is it really just a hiccup in the great library of songs that REM has, or is there a certain undiscovered genius in this song?
If we look deeper into the lyrics, you will find out that behind that very cheerful facade of this song, there is a very dark tone to all of it. REM is mostly criticized that there songs are to dark and depressing, so why is this song so cheerful? The answer is, it isn't. Infact, REM is mocking this song.

In June of 1989, a large group of chinese students demonstrated for a more democratic china in beijing, which received a very large support by the city residents. The protests where striked down with force by hardline leaders, who gave the military the order to enforce martial law. The military shot hundreds of innocent and unarmed protesters. This day went down as the June 4 Massacre.
The Chinese government condemned the protests as a "counter-revolutinary riot", and has prohibited all forms of discussion or remembrance of the events since.
Now why do i tell you all this? What does it have to do with the song? Alot actually.

In the same year, a piece of propaganda with a picture of smiling people in the pic called „The shiny happy people holding hands“ was appartently hung around all over china, just to make sure that everyone was acting happy.
(That reminds me)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioDuLqK_LuY
What where REM doing here? Well, apparently the song was a sarcastic response to the critics, who always complained that REM's music is always depressing. so they took this piece of Propaganda and mocked their own song and what it respresented. Sadly, alot of people don't catch on to it and celebrate it for it's mocking.
Now, do i think this is a good song? I am not sure. It's really cliche as hell, but at the same time, that's what it's accomplishing to do. REM is a great band, who made classics like Losing my religion, man on the moon and Stand, so you can't say that they're a bad band. I think the song itself is not good, but for what it stands for, it's genius.