“It’s the End of the World” by REM was first released in 1987 on their album Document. It reached as high as No. 69 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. The song covers a wide variety of topics ranging from the political turmoil in the US over the 70s and 80s to a group of figures from pop culture whose initials are all “LB”, all while intertwined with the doomsday theme of the song. We decided to analyze this song because in the 70s and 80s the United States experienced turmoil which the country had never seen. The Cold War had everyone on the edge of their seats waiting for the one wrong move that would trigger a nuclear war, which would have the capacity to effectively end the war as people knew it. Not only can this be seen in the lyrics, but also in the spacing of words in the song. Oftentimes the spacing does not make sense and this is supposed to symbolize the turmoil in the world.