When Atlanta was a Beehive
By Charlie. Filed in Travel |
It doesn’t all begin with REM after all. Long before the boys from Athens started making their way to the big city, playing bars and clubs for small and stunned audiences, there was the B-52s . Whatever contributions Atlanta has made to the world of alternative music, the first wave has to be acknowledged as beginning in 1976, when they first started putting their sounds and their sense of humor together to create something no one had ever seen before.
It almost seemed too hip for anywhere, except for the deepest parts of Los Angeles, where the Hollywood people did not dare to tread. They had a sense of irony long before it became a commodity, and it was always totally fabulous, with a capital letter (it doesn’t matter which).
It wasn’t only REM that they would influence. They were playing, or anticipating, the same kinds of sensibilities that are found in the early Talking Heads stuff. The is music that is great to listen and dance to, but it also sounds like music that is quoting music. It’s as if there were a deeply detached artistry involved, making fun of the chords and the rhythms they were playing, even while they were playing it loud and passionately.
It makes sense that the whole ambience of the band would be shrouded in irony, when the name refers to the beehive hairdo , and the female members were sporting that same look along with all the accoutrements of new wave, pre-punk, and post, all in the same colorful and bouncy fun breath.
It’s hard to say whether anyone could have predicted that it would come from here. Five star hotels in Atlanta have always been famous and fabulous, and still certainly are, but the place in music history is still largely hidden. But the roots are here. And the roots are not blond.
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