Beauty and the Beat

Editors’ Notes

The Go-Go’s vision of the teenage experience is immortal. Their debut, Beauty and the Beat, encapsulates the nervous energy, romantic longing, and overarching sense of carefree fun that define so many kids’ high school years into an eleven-song album that is as sweet and addictive as packet of Hershey kisses. “We Got the Beat” is an anthem for mall girls and punkers alike, while “How Much More,” “You Can’t Walk In Your Sleep,” and “Skidmarks On My Heart” were snappy hits for sharp kids everywhere. Even when The Go-Go’s were projecting pure adolescent melodrama in songs like “Lust to Love,” “This Town” and “Fading Fast” they always drew with diamond clarity. The album might never again feel as potent as it did in the middle months of 1982, when “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat” were spilling out of teenagers’ radios all over the country and The Go-Go’s, The B-52s, and The Police seemed to be taking over the industry with a brand of danceable guitar-driven pop music, but it is hard to think of an album that traces pop music with as much focus or glee.