The B-52s May 14, 2010

The first of many acts to cement the college town of Athens, GA, as a hotbed of alternative music, the B-52s took their name from the Southern slang for the mile-high bouffant wigs sported by singers Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, a look emblematic of the band's campy, thrift-store aesthetic. Forming in the mid-'70s after a drunken evening at a Chinese restaurant; the bandmembers had little or no previous musical experience and performed most of their earliest shows with taped guitar and percussion accompaniment.

After pressing up a few thousand copies of the single "Rock Lobster," the B-52s traveled to the famed Max's Kansas City club for their first paying gig. Subsequent appearances at CBGB brought the group to the attention of the New York press, and in 1979, they issued their self-titled debut album, a collection of manic, bizarre, and eminently danceable songs which scored an underground club hit with a reworked version of "Rock Lobster." 1980s follow-up, Wild Planet, went Top 20 and was certified gold thanks to "Private Idaho," the band’s second Hot 100 hit.

In 1989, the B-52s returned with Cosmic Thing, their most commercially successful effort to date. The album launched several hit singles, including "Channel Z," an alt and college rock radio hit that landed #1 on Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. But it was their later releases that solidified the band a permanent place in pop culture history. "Love Shack" became the band’s signature anthem while "Roam" and "Deadbeat Club" charted high and gave the band multi-platinum success along with a cover appearance in Rolling Stone Magazine.