R.E.M.’s ‘Losing My Religion’ Reaches 1 Billion YouTube Views
The surreal music video for R.E.M.’s 1991 classic, “Losing My Religion,” has officially entered YouTube’s Billion Views Club. According to the video sharing platform, the clip has averaged over 300,000 views globally per day across YouTube so far this year.
“Losing My Religion” peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart dated June 22, 1991, and spent 21 weeks total on the chart. The Tarsem Singh-directed clip went on to win six awards at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, including video of the year, best group video, breakthrough video, best art direction, best direction and best editing. The song also won best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal at the 34th annual Grammy Awards.
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In April, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe was a guest on Rick Rubin’s Broken Record podcast, where he recalled the rollout of the now-iconic hit. “We released it as a first single thinking it was going to set up the next song,” he said. “It’s such a weird song, we had no idea it was going to resonate the way that it did.”
On memories of making the track, Stipe delved into changing the lyrics in the chorus. “I changed one lyric,” he recalled. “‘That’s me in the corner / That’s me in the kitchen’, what I was pulling from was being the shy wallflower who hangs back at the party or at the dance and doesn’t go up to the person that you’re madly in love with and say ‘I’ve kind of got a crush on you, how do you feel about me?’”
Watch the “Losing My Religion” music video below.
