POP history was made recently when the Go-Go's ''Beauty and the Beat'' (I.R.S. SP 70021) became the first No. 1 album ever by a band of women who write their own songs and play their own instruments. Founded in Los Angeles four years ago by the lead vocalist Belinda Carlisle and the rhythm guitarist Jane Wiedlin, the quintet recorded their debut album last spring, and it took more than six months to climb to No. 1, spurred by the success of the hit single ''Our Lips Are Sealed.'' Now, with another single, ''We Got the Beat,'' near the top, and album sales approaching two million, the Go-Go's are the hottest new act in rock-and-roll....There is nothing particularly regal about Go-Go's or Joan Jett, and their albums have no aspirations toward high art. The Go-Go's infectiously high-spirited style of pop combines the streamlined rhythms of new wave, typified by Gina Schock's pounding drums on ''We Got the Beat,'' with older pop influences such as the 1960's surf music, bubble gum and such ''girl groups'' as the Crystals, But where the 60's girl groups' feelings about men were dramatically emotional, ranging from outright worship to furious scorn, the Go-Go's view of the sexual tug-of-war is cheerfully even-handed.

There is nothing particularly regal about Go-Go's or Joan Jett, and their albums have no aspirations toward high art. The Go-Go's infectiously high-spirited style of pop combines the streamlined rhythms of new wave, typified by Gina Schock's pounding drums on ''We Got the Beat,'' with older pop influences such as the 1960's surf music, bubble gum and such ''girl groups'' as the Crystals, But where the 60's girl groups' feelings about men were dramatically emotional, ranging from outright worship to furious scorn, the Go-Go's view of the sexual tug-of-war is cheerfully even-handed.

Their songs, written mostly by Jane Wiedlin with the lead guitarist Charlotte Caffey, have a buoyant thread of humor, and the coy, kittenish quality of the group vocals suggests a parody of traditional feline wiles rather than the real thing. The humor is underscored by album art that pictures the group in cold-cream masks and bubble baths. The song in their album that most perfectly captures the Go-Go mixture of rock-and-roll enthusiasm and hip irony is a blithe, double-edged song about Los Angeles called ''This Town.'' ''This town is our town/ It is so glamorous/ Bet you'd live here if you could and be one of us,'' goes the chorus. The Darker Side too