Description
Go-go is an upbeat, funky Black popular music from Washington, D.C. with a history as long as that of house or hip-hop. Natalie Hopkinson is the Media and Culture Critic for The Root, with access to clubs, producers, and artists, and is therefore well-placed to tell the story of the music from the 70's to the present. With the regentrification of the District, more of the Black population and the go-go industry have moved to the Maryland suburbs. In Go-Go Live, Hopkinson gives a critical, inside account of the scene and how it survives in a changing city.
The guitarist Chuck Brown, the "Godfather of Go-Go," created the music by mixing sounds borrowed from church and the blues with the funk and flavor that he picked up playing for a local Latino band. Born in the inner city, amid the charred ruins of the 1968 race riots, go-go generated a distinct culture and an economy of independent, almost exclusively black-owned businesses that sold tickets to shows and recordings of live go-gos. At the peak of its popularity, in the 1980's, go-go could be heard around the capital every night of the week, on college campuses and in crumbling historic theaters, hole-in-the-wall nightclubs, backyards, and city parks.
Go-Go Live is a social history of black Washington told through its go-go music and culture. Encompassing dance moves, nightclubs, and fashion, as well as the voices of artists, fans, business owners, and politicians, Natalie Hopkinson's Washington-based narrative reflects the broader history of race in urban America in the second half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first.
Museum Story
The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) hosted its inaugural Hip-Hop Block Party in 2022, to celebrate the first anniversary of the release of the Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap. More than 8,000 people attended in person and thousands more watched online. The event featured performances by local and national talent, presentations and activities that explored hip-hop music's origins and cultural influence for 12 hours. In 2023, the tradition returned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop.
Details
- Paperback
- 232 pages
- 9.3" x 6.1"
- Written by Natalie Hopkinson
