athens georgia was the home of this college rock band
R.E.M.
title: Music of Athens, Georgia text: Music of Athens, Georgia The music of Athens, Georgia, includes a wide variety of popular music and was an important part of the early evolution of alternative rock and new wave. The city is well known as the home of chart-topping bands like R.E.M. and The B-52s, and several long-time indie /rock hip-hop groups. Athens hosts the Athens Symphony Orchestra and other music institutions, as well as prominent local music media, such as the college radio station WUOG. Much of the modern Athens music scene relies on students from the large University of Georgia campus in the city. The University title: University of Georgia text: maintained by UGA Campus Transit. Athens has been named one of the top ten places in America to live and is home to many popular music artists including the American rock bands R.E.M. and Widespread Panic. UGA has been ranked number one among "campus scenes that rock!" by "Rolling Stone" magazine. Every summer since 1996 the city has hosted AthFest, a non-profit music and arts festival in the downtown area. While university students can enjoy the college town of Athens, they are less than an hour away by automobile from a large metropolitan city – Atlanta, Georgia, a designated global title: Athens, Georgia text: has music venues, restaurants, bars, and coffee shops that cater to its creative climate. The music of Athens, Georgia, includes a wide variety of popular music and was an important part of the early evolution of alternative rock and new wave. The city is well known as the home of chart-topping bands like R.E.M. and The B-52s, and several long-time indie /rock hip-hop groups. The Athens music scene grew in the early 1970s and later during the 1980s with the Georgia Theatre and 40 Watt Club as the aforementioned bands scored breakout hits. Other notable bands were Widespread Panic, Dreams title: Athens, Georgia text: So Real, Indigo Girls, Vigilantes of Love, Matthew Sweet, The Method Actors, Love Tractor, Pylon, Flat Duo Jets, The Primates, Modern Skirts, The Whigs, and Corey Smith. National acts that have come out of Athens include: The Whigs, Reptar, Danger Mouse, Dreams So Real, alternative duo Jucifer, Servotron, Vic Chesnutt, Drive-By Truckers, Elf Power, Neutral Milk Hotel, Lera Lynn, The Sunshine Fix, Colt Ford, Velocirapture, Brantley Gilbert, Corey Smith, Harvey Milk, The Olivia Tremor Control, of Montreal, Widespread Panic, Perpetual Groove, Five Eight, Dead Confederate, Thayer Sarrano, Jet by Day, Mothers, and Athens Boys Choir. R.E.M. members Michael Stipe, Mike title: Athens, Georgia text: R.E.M., the B-52's, Widespread Panic, and Neutral Milk Hotel. The city is also known as a recording site for such groups as the Atlanta-based Indigo Girls. In the late 18th century, a trading settlement on the banks of the Oconee River called Cedar Shoals stood where Athens is today. On January 27, 1785, the Georgia General Assembly granted a charter by Abraham Baldwin for the University of Georgia as the first state-supported university. Sixteen years later, in 1801, a committee from the university's board of trustees selected a site for the university on a hill above Cedar Shoals, in what