Credits:

The Go-Go’S

Description:

Its not quite right to say that the Go-Gos’ 1981 debut, Beauty and the Beat, is where new wave caught hold in the U.S., but its not quite wrong, either. Prior to this, there had certainly been new wave hits — Blondie had been reaching the Top Ten for two years running — but the Go-Gos ushered in the era of big, bright stylish pop, spending six weeks at the top of the U.S. charts and generating two singles that defined the era: the cool groove of Our Lips Are Sealed and the exuberant We Got the Beat. So big were these two hits that they sometimes suggested that Beauty and the Beat was a hits-and-filler record, an impression escalated by the boost the Go-Gos received from the just-launched MTV, yet thats hardly the case. Beauty and the Beat is sharp, clever, and catchy, explicitly drawing from the well of pre-Beatles 60s pop — girl group harmonies, to be sure, but surf-rock echoes throughout —