Fact Finder - Music

R.E.M.'s 'Losing My Religion' is one of the most unlikely hits of the 90s, built around a mandolin riff rather than a guitar. Guitarist Peter Buck had recently bought a mandolin and was practicing while watching television; he recorded himself to remember the patterns, inadvertently creating the song's signature hook. Despite the title, the song is not about religion. The phrase 'losing my religion' is an old Southern US expression meaning to lose one's temper or reach the end of one's rope. The song was a massive crossover success, propelling R.E.M. from college radio darlings to global superstars. It won two Grammy Awards and reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100. Its highly artistic music video, inspired by the filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky and the painter Caravaggio, won Video of the Year at the MTV VMAs.