Pick a song from an artist or band that’s had the biggest impact on your life.

I don’t know the exact reason, but I got deep into R.E.M. at age 11 or 12 (the year would have been 1998 or 1999): started with Automatic for the People and Out of Time and worked my way all the way back to Murmur (and the Chronic Town EP. I found something in these artsy misfits that spoke to me, and in turn discovered the artists that inspired them (Patti Smith, Velvet Underground) as well as bands who were their contemporaries or were influenced by these guys. I was still buying their stuff on CD into my college years.

I didn’t have to think too hard about this prompt, R.E.M. was my band.