What the F is "go go" and who the hell is Chuck Brown?

[Anonymous]

Chuck Brown and Whitney Houston go into the same bucket for me. Nothing special.

The Bodyguard was good fun though. Was Chuck ever in a movie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the Jerz girl PP, I grew up in Jersey too and never heard of GoGo as related to pole dancing or strip clubs. NJ is not all Soprano-land, PP, I'm from horse country, the land of moderate Republicans and good government -- remember Gov. Tom Keane "New Jehzy and You . . . Pehfect Together."

Oh, back to Chuck Brown -- I moved here with DH after law school. We're white, but got to know and love gogo music. Hey, our kids are DC natives, so we feel that we owe it to them to know the local culture.

yeah ... Jersey guy (white boy) here too, (Passaic Co.) longtime NoVA/DC'er now ... hard to believe anyone who's been here for some time doesn't know about Chuck or go-go ... the closing show of the outdoor lunchtime concerts near my downtown office has been Chuck Brown every year. It won't be the same without that spirit and feeling "bustin' loose" to say goodbye to summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lol, it's a DC music genre thing. Google it.

Funny story...when I moved here from another state I thought Go Go meant pole dancers at strip clubs. That's what we call "Go Go" where I'm originally from (think Bada Bing Club and the Sopranos)!

op again -- yes! This is what I think of too! I moved here from PA about 10 years ago.

You are an idiot. Your post is disrespectful. Go go is to Dc what Jazz is to the US. I hope you live in Va or MD.

Nah, didn't you read in today's post how the white boy from Bethesda taught the black girl from Pennsylvania/Ohio how yo dance to go-go music.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's very possible to have grown up here and not know who Chuck Brown is. But only if you're white (or more accurately, not black) and were never around local black people growing up. And you didn't listen to any of the black music stations. And you hardly ever went into the more "urban" parts of the city (sorry, cleveland park doesn't count).

True, growing up in Bethesda or CCDC you wouldnt have met many Chuck Brown fans, or black people either.

So not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, so I can Google. And it isn't too kind to the genre. But the local news is all over it so maybe I'm missing something, so I thought I'd ask here. Wiki says that Go Go is a genre that wasn't popular enough to expand beyond the DMV, and only remains popular in the area essentially because it's the only musical genre to start here so therefore it is revered here. So I am back to my original question. What is the draw to Go Go beyond the fact that it originated here? The Op Ed that someone linked to earlier basically made reference that Go Go is a lasting remnant of the Chocolate City - which doesn't seem like something to revere if we're looking for a post-racial kind of harmony. So again...my question stands.

This was my understanding, too. Frankly, I don't hear anything distinctive about it, and the Chocolate City era is on its way out for good or for ill. As the city becomes less parochial, this GoGo thing is going to be less and less relevant. You might say this funeral marks the passing of the era.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chuck Brown and Whitney Houston go into the same bucket for me. Nothing special.

The Bodyguard was good fun though. Was Chuck ever in a movie?

OMG. You are hopeless.

[Anonymous]

another white girl, who grew up surburban here in the 80s
but go go was always some part of the sound track of my life
troublefunk, parliament, chuck brown
and even those kids banging on trashcans since at least the early 1990s
i mourn the passing of a legend!

[Anonymous]

op --- I've listened to Galactic a lot. Would you say they're a "gogo" inspired band? Or too jazzy? Thoughts?

Google it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, so have you ever heard of Fugazi?

Or Shudder to Think?

[Anonymous]

Galactic grew up here - I (white kid, CCMD) went to elementary school with two of them. They definitely are inspired by Chuck Brown. And the last time I saw Chuck Brown live it was at the wedding of another friend from elementary school.

[Anonymous]

<feeling like an idiot> Op --- I now see one of their songs is titled " Go Go"....duh....</idiot>

[Anonymous]

To all the people who think it's not possible for a local to not know who Chuck Brown was, is there the same lack of belief if you grew up here but don't know who Fugazi was? I grew up here - DC native, black, went to DCPS, didn't have too many white friends, and I never heard of Fugazi until I was an adult and heard it mentioned on NPR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to go to go-go's....a pretty crazy place for this white girl.

Same!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To all the people who think it's not possible for a local to not know who Chuck Brown was, is there the same lack of belief if you grew up here but don't know who Fugazi was? I grew up here - DC native, black, went to DCPS, didn't have too many white friends, and I never heard of Fugazi until I was an adult and heard it mentioned on NPR.

I think the double standard applies here - in the 90s, go-go was on the radio ALL THE TIME. But not Fugazi - maybe one Waiting Room song made the radio on 99.1, and while lots of white people used to listen to 95.5 and 93.9, I doubt the converse was true about 99.1 (I didn't even really listen to 99.1 and I'm white). I did both though - went to go-go's (early 90s), and went to see Fugazi (circa 88-89).

[Anonymous]

So what is characteristic of "go go? Lived here for about 15 yrs and never heard of chuck brown. I know EU and WORSHIPED Salt N Pepa as a teen in Ohio.

What makes go go, go go?