Book Review: Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City

Abstract

Chuck Brown, longtime leader of the Soul Searchers and the widely acknowledged �godfather of go-go�, liked to proclaim: �I created this sound so I could eat. And everyone who plays in this band can eat� (p. 51). Musical innovation is often born out of material necessity, and go-go, a fusion of funk and hip-hop music peculiar to the Washington, DC area, has occupied a significant position in the economic life of black communities within and surrounding the US capital city. Natalie Hopkinson�s Go-Go Live explores the segregated local economy that supports the go-go scene as well as the music�s deep cultural importance to a black urban population living (at least until recently) in the shadow of the White House. For Hopkinson, the largely black-owned infrastructure of go-go � the dance clubs, recordings shops and T-shirt businesses as well as the music�s distinctive aesthetic of live performance � constitutes a uniquely local public sphere that has sustained the city�s black community through bad times and slightly better ones. Scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds have examined with growing nuance and insight the relationship between cities, musical practices and community identities. African American and Latin musical traditions have been an especially rewarding site for urban exploration in the USA (see, among many other studies, Campbell, 2004; Forman, 2002; Glasser, 1995; Grazian, 2003; Lewis, 2008; Macias, 2008). Researchers have examined such issues as how racial, ethnic and class divisions within cities have shaped musical production and reception; how the social meanings attributed to music are influenced by urban marketplaces, cultural hierarchies and political projects; and how particular communal or local identities may be enacted through musical �