The Alternative Number Ones: R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion”

In The Alternative Number Ones, I'm reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones, and it's for members only. Thank you to everyone who's helping to keep Stereogum afloat.

How did this happen? It's a question that I ask all the time when I'm writing about past pop hits, and there are usually plenty of answers: timing, trends converging, the cult of personality surrounding a particular artist reaching critical mass. It's a mysterious and vaguely magical process, but you can usually answer the question effectively enough. You can do that in this case, too. This time, though, the question feels more urgent than the answer: How did this happen?

For six weeks in spring 1990, Sinéad O'Connor's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got was the #1 album in America. After that, the country went through more than a year without a rock LP on top. Instead, newer forms of popular music held the album charts in thrall, as MC Hammer, New Kids On The Block, Vanilla Ice, and Mariah Carey traded off the top spot. Finally, in May of 1991 -- the last week before Billboard started using SoundScan to keep track of album sales -- something funny happened. R.E.M., longtime heroes of the American college-rock quasi-underground, found themselves on top of the Billboard 200 for the first time ever.