I think they are!

Yes they are

I concur.

real talk?

REM and U2 and the bands that came from that time, like Duran,Inxs,a-Ha,Depeche are the last of a breed of really great bands that could just turn out incredible, diverse music, and still all of them do it to this day, because of there differences its hard for me to call one "superior" i do know the one i listen to the most, but they all continue to do great work, and some of them better know than before.

like, genetically?

lastdecember said:

I think that since the last few years of this decade, U2 has shown themselves to be superior to R.E.M. overall careerwise; but at their prime both R.E.M. and U2 were the biggest and best bands on the planet, though they took very different paths to get there. Like lastdecember said, they are contemporaries of each other, but their sound and outlook are vastly different from each other. U2 always wrote anthemic songs that were meant to sound good in arenas, while R.E.M. wrote more personal songs with a musical bent that could not easily be categorized. R.E.M.'s sound had punk elements to it, but it also had bits of southern rock and country to it as well. Frankly, I am a huge fan of both bands and spent much of the late 80's to the mid-90's alternating their CD's in my stereo. (At least when I wasn't listening to Prince, Mariah, grunge or hip-hop.)

I think REM is a little more stylish & original. But in the end I like U2's songs more.

REM's early stuff is better than U2's early stuff, but U2's later era work is better than REM's.

Stax said:

You know I was just thinking bout that. I hated U2 till Achtung, Baby was released. I thought Joshua Tree was utter crap, and still do. Maybe it was where I was in my life but I thought Bono's constant preachiness was more annoying than that little deadhead revival that happened in the late 80s on college campuses.

Granted the only reason I liked REM was cause I couldn't figure out half the time what Stipe was mumbling bout which was intriguing oh and the boy i had a mad crush on was totally into them.
[Edited 10/16/07 22:45pm]

lazycrockett said:

I like both of their early stuff, but I was into early REM more than U2. I like a fair amount of U2's late stuff, but there is very little REM that I like after Document. To me, they took a nose dive.

Edit: I suppose Orange is a solid album also.
[Edited 10/16/07 23:19pm]