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An Introduction to An Incomplete Overview of the Year in Athens Music


Athens music is unwieldy in the best way. Though we may still be best known to outsiders as the home of R.E.M. and Elephant 6, and there will always be a steady crop of local musicians working dutifully to replicate those jangly, heat-soaked vibes, the Classic City scene in 2015 could hardly be said to have any one dominant sound or style.

Though that diversity is a huge positive for local audiences, not to mention our town’s creative fabric, it provides a challenge for Flagpole, as chronicler and colorbearer of the scene, when it comes time to recap the year in local music. Any attempt to do so will inevitably leave out a significant chunk of what’s been going on.

Of course, our crack (cracked?) music staff has been hella busy chronicling and, um, colorbearing our buns off since Jan. 1. If you’re craving a real crash course in the past 12 months of local music, there are hundreds of features, album reviews, Threats & Promises columns, photo galleries, video premieres and other posts archived and readily available on this website, which you are invited to pore over—for free!—this holiday season.

For the first official installment in Flagpole‘s series of year-end music coverage—we’ll continue next week with a collection of Athenians’ favorite musical moments and conclude on Jan. 6 with our top 10 albums list—we took looks at the recent rise of noisy rock, chaotic pop and bedroom electronica, with a focus on the buzz-fueled bands in those genres who are proudly representing Athens beyond our borders. Plus, four musicians who have recently moved to town gave us their initial thoughts on their new home base.

Together, we hope our year-end series provides you with at least a serviceable snapshot of the current moment in Athens music, and, if you need one, a reminder that we’re home to one of the most vibrant and vital scenes in the country.

Dig in, and here’s to even more music in 2016!

2015 in review

The Year Athens Indie-Pop Got Complicated
Athens’ 2015 Noise-Rock Ascent
Four 2015 Transplants On Why They Moved to Athens
Four Artists Who Helped Athens Find its Electronic Voice in 2015

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