Cool Town

In the summer of 1978, the B-52s 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-52s 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-52s, 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 80s, if you were young and willing to live without much money, anything seemed possible. Cool Town reveals the passion, vital