Go-go
Go-go is a subgenre of funk music with an emphasis on specific rhythmic patterns, and live audience call and response.
[2] Performers associated with the development of the style include Rare Essence, EU, Trouble Funk, and singer-guitarist Chuck Brown.
They were introduced to Rare Essence by Tyrone "Jungle Boogie" Williams in the early days when they couldn't afford full-sized congas and are ubiquitous ever since.
Artists such as Marvin Gaye, Van McCoy, Billy Stewart, Peaches & Herb, Black Heat,[8] Experience Unlimited (E.U.
), Vernon Burch, Sir Joe Quarterman & the Free Soul, the Moments, Ray, Goodman & Brown, True Reflection, the Unifics, Terry Huff & Special Delivery,[9] Act 1, the Dynamic Superiors, Skip Mahoney & the Casuals, the Choice Four, and the Fuzz that played soul music during pre-go-go era.
[10] The term "gogo" (as it applies to a music venue) originated in France in the early 1960s, at the Whiskyagogo nightclub, named after the French title for the British comedy "Whisky Galore!".
At a go-go club, dancers could expect to hear the latest top 40 hits, performed by local bands and DJ's.
)[11] In Washington D.C., minor group the Young Senators were formed in 1965, beginning a fierce competition with Chuck Brown and Black Heat on the local club circuit.
By the mid-1970s, he had changed the group's name to The Soul Searchers, and developed a laid-back, rhythm-heavy style of funk performed with one song blending into the next (in order to keep people on the dance floor).
Kurtis Blow's "Party Time" subsequently put them on the map to be later tracked down by Grace Jones and to take the King of Go-Go Production, Maxx Kidd to an international music adventure with Island Records, to make E.U.
's greatest hit "Da Butt" for the soundtrack of the 1988 film School Daze, written, directed and produced by Spike Lee.
In 1984, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell heard Chuck Brown's "We Need Some Money" on the radio in New York, which ultimately led to him signing some of the brightest stars of the go-go scene.
Unable to afford instruments for their band, they fashioned drums out of empty buckets and traffic cones, tin cans substituted for timbales, and, in place of a brass section, they used plastic toy horns.
Adding real instruments to their gear a little at a time, by 1985 they had joined the ranks of D.C.'s finest; they were scooped up by Def Jam, who released a Rick Rubin-produced single "The Word" in 1986.
got its big break in 1986 when it was booked to play a party celebrating the release of Spike Lee's debut film, She's Gotta Have It.
King's Blues Club and Grill, DAR Constitution Hall, Black Family Reunion and D.C.'s Stone Soul Picnic and Unifest.
There was, however, a retro movement in the 2000s reverting to go-go's original style of marathon sessions covering popular R&B songs such as Northeast Groovers.
[28] Kevin Kato Hammond, former lead guitarist for Little Benny & the Masters and former rapper for the band Proper Utensils, started the online magazine Take Me Out to the Go-Go in 1996.
[citation needed] Additionally, musicians from other genres of music have incorporated elements of the go-go aesthetic into their compositions and stage acts.
[30] New go-go music is still being produced, but remains local to the area, depending on live shows to share its full effects.
[32] "In Washington, D.C., the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer of 2020 often included go-go bands performing on truck beds as a highly visible and aural political symbol that could only happen in the capital of the United States.
[34] On February 14, 2022, the book DC Go-Go: Ten Years Backstage by photographer Chip Py was published by The History Press.
