80's Flashback: The B-52's Look

Say what you may, but the 1980's produced some of the most original artists and music of the last century. I look at all these new wannabe bands, trying so hard to be hip & cool, and they don't even come close to the true visionaries that were making history 25 years ago. Avril Lavigne is a "punk"? Give me a break! One of the most original groups to come out of the post-punk scene were The B-52's. I can't recall exactly when I first connected the music to the name but I do remember the summer of 83, then just a "young" teenager, getting down to "Rock Lobster" at a high school dance. They had the best look in my opinion and their album covers were just awesome. I still listen to The B-52's to this day as their sound never got old or dated in my opinion. I loved everything New Wave and was quite a dresser myself . The B-52's were a big inspiration for my "fashions" and I traced their looks countless times on my sketch books. Maybe in the future I will get to scan some pictures and post some of my personal outfits from that time, but you have to promise not to laugh!

A little bio about this great band:

The B-52's are a New Wave rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976. Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson formed the band with drummer Keith Strickland, guitarist Ricky Wilson (Cindy's older brother) and vocalist Fred Schneider after a drunken night at a Chinese restaurant and played their first gig in 1977 at a St. Valentine's Day party for friends. The B-52's sound is marked by the vocals and lush harmonies of Wilson and Pierson, and the generally spoken-word vocals of Schneider. The band's quirky take on the New Wave sound of their era was a combination of dance and surf music set apart by the unusual guitar tunings used by Ricky Wilson. Their costumes - thrift-store chic - set them apart as well, not to mention their notorious bouffant wigs. The band's name comes from a particular beehive hairdo that is wrapped around, instead of teased, with an open "hole" in the top resembling the nose cone of the WWII bomber airplane of the same name. During their early years, wigs of that style were often worn by the band's female singers Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson.

The beehive-shaped hairdo was emblematic of working-class chic in the early 1960s. The style originated in the USA in 1958 as one of a variety of elaborately teased and lacquered versions of big hair that mutated from earlier pageboy and bouffant styles. It was adopted in Britain shortly after, typically worn with pastel colours, taffeta and stilettos. By the mid 1960s the beehive was out of fashion, but probably subconsciously influenced the later more modest conical cuts and bouffants worn by mod girls. The beehive has continued to fascinate connoisseurs and revivalists of 1960s kitsch, like The B-52's.