The B-52’s

Over the years, B-52’s personnel have recorded with members of the Talking Heads, Iggy Pop and R.E.M., cementing the band’s stature in a sort of pre-Internet era of pop evolution, when conduits for new music were restricted to the radio, MTV and the circulation of mix-tape audiocassettes. The B-52’s fall on the “affable” end of the spectrum of good-time party bands, juxtaposing the honey-sweet vocals of Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson with the goofy, Rod Roddy-style spoken-word delivery of Fred Schneider. The Athens, Georgia-based quartet first swaggered onto the airwaves during the post-punk hangover of the late ’70s, with a breezy, approachable brand of New Wave pop and danceable beats, perfectly captured in debut single “Rock Lobster.” Emphasizing sunny agitation (“Private Idaho”), youthful idleness (“Deadbeat Club”) and unapologetic revelry (“Love Shack”), the lyrics of B-52’s songs are suspended like shiny commemorative coins in the crystalline Lucite of the band’s playful arrangements.