R.E.M. – Shiny Happy People

“Shiny Happy People” – Single by R.E.M. from the album Out of Time
B-side: “Forty Second Song”
Released: May 7, 1991
Recorded: September–October 1990
Label: Warner Bros.
Songwriters: Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe
Producers: Scott Litt, R.E.M.
Charted No.10 in US, No.6 in UL,No.10 in Germany, No.3 in Canada.

The title and chorus are based on a Chinese propaganda poster. The slogan “Shiny happy people holding hands” is used ironically – the song was released in 1991, two years after the Tiananmen Square uprising when the Chinese government clamped down on student demonstrators, killing hundreds of them.

Kate Pierson from the B-52s sang backup. She was in demand for her distinctive vocals after the B-52s achieved mainstream success with “Love Shack” in 1989. R.E.M. and The B-52s are both from Athens, Georgia.

This was the second single from the album. A very light, happy song, it was a stark contrast to the very profound “Losing My Religion,” which was released first.

The accompanying music video for “Shiny Happy People” was directed by American film and music video director Katherine Dieckmann. She was asked by the band to direct the video, and drew some inspiration from a scene in the 1948 movie Letter From an Unknown Woman by German director Max Ophuls. In this scene, a couple goes to a carnival with a railroad car attraction. Rotating landscape backdrops roll past their “window”, and eventually we learn they’re propelled by an old man pedaling a stationary bicycle behind the scenes. Dieckmann wanted to re-create this situation, using a large children’s painting for the moving mural. Stipe suggested her to contact a friend that was schoolteacher, having her fifth-grade class create the backdrop.

“Shiny Happy People” from R.E.M.’s critically-acclaimed, 1991 album, “Out Of Time”

© 2005 R.E.M./Athens LTD 1991
Shiny Happy People (Video)