Description
The B-52s were always queer, though not overtly, and this book dissects the coded queer messaging in the B-52s music, using Cosmic Thing as a launching point. Alongside the authors own queer awakening, this book looks at what was obvious all along – the B-52s aren't just pop culture icons, they are queer history.
The B-52s fifth record Cosmic Thing took the world by storm in 1989 in the wake of the band's single greatest tragedy: losing guitarist Ricky Wilson to complications from AIDS in 1985. Cosmic Thing is a celebration of queer joy in the face of that seismic setback. Not only did the B-52s have to fight through their pain and grief to make Cosmic Thing, they were up against a conservative government under Reagan (then Bush), a misunderstood virus still ravaging the queer community and the expectations of what 'serious' artists were supposed to look like.
Table of Contents
2. 'Dance This Mess Around' – Early successes and fame
3. 'Deep Sleep' – Things go a bit off the rails
4. 'Cosmic Thing' – Like Lazarus, the B-52s rise from the dead
5. 'Keep This Party Going' – A complicated legacy
Product details
| Published | 04 Sep 2025 |
|---|---|
| Format | Paperback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 152 |
| ISBN | 9798765133125 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Dimensions | 165 x 121 mm |
| Series | 33 1/3 |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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