🚚 Free Worldwide Shipping on All Orders!Shop Now
HomeStore

COOL TOWN: HOW ATHENS, GEORGIA, LAUNCHED ALTERNATIVE MUSIC AND CHANGED AMERICAN CULTURE - PAPERBACK - BOOK

COOL TOWN: HOW ATHENS, GEORGIA, LAUNCHED ALTERNATIVE MUSIC AND CHANGED AMERICAN CULTURE - PAPERBACK - BOOK

In the summer of 1978, the B-52's conquered the New York underground. A year later, the band's self-titled debut album burst onto the Billboard charts, capturing the imagination of fans and music critics worldwide. The fact that the group had formed in the sleepy southern college town of Athens, Georgia, only increased the fascination. Soon, more Athens bands followed the B-52's into the vanguard of the new American music that would come to be known as "alternative," including R.E.M., who catapulted over the course of the 1980s to the top of the musical mainstream. As acts like the B-52's, R.E.M., and Pylon drew the eyes of New York tastemakers southward, they discovered in Athens an unexpected mecca of music, experimental art, DIY spirit, and progressive politics--a creative underground as vibrant as any to be found in the country's major cities.

In Athens in the eighties, if you were young and willing to live without much money, anything seemed possible. Cool Town reveals the passion, vitality, and enduring significance of a bohemian scene that became a model for others to follow. Grace Elizabeth Hale experienced the Athens scene as a student, small-business owner, and band member. Blending personal recollection with a historian's eye, she reconstructs the networks of bands, artists, and friends that drew on the things at hand to make a new art of the possible, transforming American culture along the way. In a story full of music and brimming with hope, Hale shows how an unlikely cast of characters in an unlikely place made a surprising and beautiful new world.
$23.00
COOL TOWN: HOW ATHENS, GEORGIA, LAUNCHED ALTERNATIVE MUSIC AND CHANGED AMERICAN CULTURE - PAPERBACK - BOOK
$23.00
Product image 1

Description

In the summer of 1978, the B-52's conquered the New York underground. A year later, the band's self-titled debut album burst onto the Billboard charts, capturing the imagination of fans and music critics worldwide. The fact that the group had formed in the sleepy southern college town of Athens, Georgia, only increased the fascination. Soon, more Athens bands followed the B-52's into the vanguard of the new American music that would come to be known as "alternative," including R.E.M., who catapulted over the course of the 1980s to the top of the musical mainstream. As acts like the B-52's, R.E.M., and Pylon drew the eyes of New York tastemakers southward, they discovered in Athens an unexpected mecca of music, experimental art, DIY spirit, and progressive politics--a creative underground as vibrant as any to be found in the country's major cities.

In Athens in the eighties, if you were young and willing to live without much money, anything seemed possible. Cool Town reveals the passion, vitality, and enduring significance of a bohemian scene that became a model for others to follow. Grace Elizabeth Hale experienced the Athens scene as a student, small-business owner, and band member. Blending personal recollection with a historian's eye, she reconstructs the networks of bands, artists, and friends that drew on the things at hand to make a new art of the possible, transforming American culture along the way. In a story full of music and brimming with hope, Hale shows how an unlikely cast of characters in an unlikely place made a surprising and beautiful new world.

You may also like

-70%
Thumbnail 1

NIRVANA - KURT COBAIN - JOURNALS - PAPERBACK - BOOK

$30.00

$9.00

-70%
Thumbnail 1

GINA SCHOCK - MADE IN HOLLYWOOD - HARDCOVER BOOK

$20.00

$6.00

-70%
Thumbnail 1

KATHY VALENTINE - ALL I EVER WANTED: A ROCK 'N' ROLL MEMOIR - BOOK

$18.95

$5.68

-70%
Thumbnail 1

BOOZE & VINYL: A SPIRITED GUIDE TO GREAT MUSIC & MIXED DRINKS - HARDCOVER - BOOK

$25.00

$7.50

-70%
Thumbnail 1

TOM PETTY - PETTY: THE BIOGRAPHY - PAPERBACK - BOOK

$17.99

$5.40

Thumbnail 1

JIMI HENDRIX - SOUNDS LIKE A RAINBOW - HARDCOVER - PICTURE BOOK

$17.99

-70%
Thumbnail 1

STEVIE NICKS - GOLD DUST WOMAN - PAPERBACK - BOOK

$18.99

$5.70

Thumbnail 1

ROCK THIS TOWN! BACKSTAGE IN CLEVELAND: STORIES YOU NEVER HEARD & SWAG YOU NEVER SAW - PAPERBACK - BOOK

$18.95

-70%
Thumbnail 1

RECORD STORE DAY: THE MOST IMPROBABLE COMEBACK OF THE 21ST CENTURY - PAPERBACK - BOOK

$20.00

$6.00

-70%
Thumbnail 1

THE BEATLES - THE BEATLES LYRICS - PAPERBACK - BOOK

$27.99

$8.40

Thumbnail 1

KID CONGO POWERS - SOME NEW KIND OF KICK: A MEMOIR - HARDCOVER - BOOK

$18.99

Thumbnail 1

THE INK IN THE GROOVES: CONVERSATIONS ON LITERATURE AND ROCK 'N' ROLL - PAPERBACK - BOOK

$19.95