Web posted on: Tuesday, October 27, 1998 12:32:13 PM

(CNN) -- They're three of the most successful bands of this generation. And U2, R.E.M., and Aerosmith are still churning out platinum records for their growing fan base.

This week on Billboard charts, Aerosmith owns the No. 5 hit "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing," R.E.M. has released a new record titled "Up," and U2 has given fans a greatest hits album from its 1980s reign.

WorldBeat takes a look at the careers of these three bands this week. Aerosmith, in particular, reveals how they've survived since the early 1970s, through plenty of personal problems.

"We took drugs for so long that we forgot what it was like to be normal," says Aerosmith's frontman, Steven Tyler. "Since we got sober of our own choice, there's nothing gets you higher and there's 20,000 people out there hanging on your every movement."