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Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City [Paperback]

Natalie Hopkinson
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Book Description

May 22, 2012
Go-go is the conga drum–inflected black popular music that emerged in Washington, D.C., during the 1970s. 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 1980s, 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. In the 1990s, the middle class that had left the city for the suburbs in the postwar years began to return. Gentrification drove up property values and pushed go-go into D.C.'s suburbs. The Chocolate City is in decline, but its heart, D.C.'s distinctive go-go musical culture, continues to beat. On any given night, there's live go-go in the D.C. metro area.


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Editorial Reviews

From Bookforum

Hopkinson's book is part requiem for a culture that she sees being cast aside by a changing DC, and part appreciation of its unlikely survival and evolution. Her interviewees are full of rich stories. —Mike Madden

Review

“Part history of, part elegy for, ‘the displacement of black communities and a slow death of the Chocolate City,’ the text is supplemented by a rich photo insert documenting both dance floor and street. . . . Her assessment of a local phenomenon offers a glimpse of a culture off the mainstream’s radar.” - Publishers Weekly


“Hopkinson writes with great, sometimes astonishing, insight, and this is a work that is sorely needed. Recommended for readers interested in gentrification, nongovernmental DC, and the music that animates its culture.” - Molly McArdle, Library Journal


“[A] fascinating new book about go-go, D.C., and race in urban America. . . . Hopkinson’s book is also a plaint of ambivalent hopefulness that this post-Chocolate City, Barack Obama-era Washington, D.C., can begin to overcome that separate-and-unequal racial division still at the heart of America.” - Michael Corbin, Baltimore City Paper


"Go-Go Live is not just a fantastic read, but THE definitive study of D.C.'s most overlooked and unheralded art form. Natalie Hopkinson captures the soul of the city."—Dana Flor, codirector of The Nine Lives of Marion Barry


"Go-Go Live is a terrific and important piece of work. Music, race, and the city are three key pivot points of our society, and Natalie Hopkinson pulls them together in a unique and powerful way. I have long adored Washington, D.C.'s go-go music. This book helped me understand the history of the city and the ways that it reflects the whole experience of race and culture in our society. It puts music front and center in the analysis of our urban experience, something which has been too long in coming."—Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class and director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto


"Black Washington, D.C., has a famously rich history and culture. Natalie Hopkinson has an established reputation as one of the most sophisticated commentators on contemporary black culture in the capital city. Go-Go Live is not only a fascinating account of a musical culture, but also a social and cultural history of black Washington in the post–civil rights era."—Mark Anthony Neal, author of New Black Man


"Natalie Hopkinson knows the music, the heartbeat, and the people of Washington well, but Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City is much more than a book about D.C.'s indigenous sound. It is a vital, lively, and ultimately inspiring look at the evolution of an American city."—George Pelecanos

"Natalie Hopkinson's Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City demonstrates the essential connections between culture and community in an American city. For generations now, go-go music in Washington D.C. has not only given the authentic, nonfederal parts of that city its musical milestones, but it has—in the voice of so many great lead talkers—marked the civic and political time. From Chuck Brown forward, go-go has proven resilient and real. They say you can't understand this music unless you are there in the club, in the moment, but this book comes close."—David Simon, creator of the television series The Wire and Treme


"Taking us into the little-studied terrain of go-go, the cousin of hip-hop born and bred in Washington, D.C.¸ Natalie Hopkinson reveals go-go as a lens for seeing, in stark colors, how the economy, politics, and especially the drug trade have traduced black communities around the world."—Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University

Product Details

  • Paperback: 232 pages
  • Publisher: Duke University Press Books (May 22, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0822352117
  • ISBN-13: 978-0822352112
  • Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.6 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #676,688 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Go-Go and DC June 29, 2012
By Doug
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I learned of this book while listening to a radio interview with the author, Natalie Hopkinson, soon after the death of Chuck Brown. I was especially excited to hear that Ms. Hopkinson is a fellow Howard Univ. graduate. I was exposed to go-go music while a student at Howard Univ. during the early 1980's through a housemate who was a DC native. I ordered two copies of this book before it was released - one for myself and one for my college friend, John G. It was John G (his go-go name) who took me to go-go clubs to see and hear Rare Essence, Trouble Funk and Redds and the Boys. It was at one of those go-go parties that John G arranged for my name to be shouted out by the lead talker who I can still hear say "I'm gonna pull out the spotlight y'all. Gonna put Big D on display." With my personal experiences and appreciation for go-go, I impatiently waited for the book(s) to arrive.

The book finally arrived and I started reading expecting that the book would in some way chronicle my own go-go experiences. It did not take long to determine that the book is less about go-go and more about the idea that DC is dying or dead as a Chocolate City. While go-go is certainly DC and DC is not DC without go-go, I was not convinced of a link between go-go and the so-called death of the Chocolate City DC.

There are numerous references to ethnographic and sociological studies and theories and, in places, this book reads like one of them. That DC, or black DC, had/has its own (sub)culture, complete with its own form of music, was obvious to many Howard Univ. students, especially those who lived off-campus in the neighborhoods of DC. With respect to its go-go music tradition, DC is a sort of Galapagos.

While references to Juergen Habermas's theories about the public sphere are interesting, as a former DC resident, a musician and someone who enjoys old-school go-go music, I wanted to hear more about the music itself. It would be interesting to know how the music for the songs is constructed, the composition of a go-go band, how instruments, in addition to drums, are used, what makes a good go-go musician, and the evolution of go-go music since the mid-1970's. Instead, the author recounts interviews with several individuals who each comment authoritatively, but almost exclusively, on the business created by go-go music and on the people who promote and consume it.

I enjoyed the book in large part because I spent years living in DC and had my own personal go-go experiences. I'm interested to know whether my friend John G, who has lived his entire life within the gravitational pull of go-go, will find the book interesting. I hope he does and I look forward to having a discussion with him about it.

Thanks to the author for her efforts to preserve the unique genre of music that is go-go. I appreciate how difficult it is to describe art, especially music, with words.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Cool book December 10, 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I loved the book but I honestly can't imagine anyone outside of Washington, D.C. or not having any familiarity with D.C. feeling the same way. I really liked the quotes at the beginning from Duke Ellington's perspective. It shows a historical viewpoint of the city, which helps readers understand the cliquish behavior of the present Washingtonians but it is also a great introduction to the book. The part about visions being Asian owned came as a shock to me and I'm glad that was in the book as well. I also appreciated the justification of the negative acts surrounding go-go, although the part about the dippas was a little bit of reach to me. Something's about the go-go can't be excused. Still, it was written by someone who isn't from D.C. and I don't feel any biases coming from the author. She really did her research and it's great reading about my city and its music from a non-Washingtonians perspective. Anyone from D.C. especially those who frequented the go-go scene would love this book. Plus because I am a 26, I learned thing about the go-go experience and the real D.C. from the 90's I never knew.

Great gift. Even if the person isn't an avid reader, reading about this can surely bring back some memories and create appreciation. Long live old dc!
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Book For The Natives February 13, 2013
Format:Paperback
I read it from the perspective of someone who was born in Washington, DC and who has lived in the area for most of my life. Growing up here, it was easy to forget that I was a "minority" until I was out of the area. GoGo music has its roots in Afrika, of course, but was invented by the late, great Chuck Brown and it remains a local treasure. As the author pointed out, the gentrification of DC is leading to the music being marginalized and pushed into Ward 9, and we probably won't fully realize its impact until it's nearly disappeared, like the blues, jazz and other art forms created by us for us.
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