Music can provide comfort in trying times such as the ones we're living through, but that doesn't extend to all music.
Songs about the apocalypse, for example, may not be the best ones to listen to right now.
Even so, it seems that some people have a sense of humour as R.E.M.'s 'It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)' has re-entered the iTunes charts in a number of countries.
It's currently at #54 in the US iTunes charts and at #96 in the UK. In Canada, it's at #103 and it's at #97 in Australia.
The song was originally released as a single by R.E.M. in 1987 but it seems that music fans still find something apt in its lyrics - even though it was not inspired by any sense of impending doom.
Michael Stipe previously said that it was inspired by a dream he had about attending rock critic Lester Bangs' birthday party and being the only person whose initials weren't LB (ergo, Leonard Bernstein, Lenny Bruce, etc.)
"I wrote the words to ‘End of the World’ as I sung it," he added. “When they showed me that song in the studio I just said, ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.’ I wanted it to be the most bombastic vocal that I could possibly muster. Something that would completely overwhelm you and drip off your shoulders and stick in your hair like bubblegum.”
