Go-Go Live: Washington, D.C.'s Cultural Information Network, Drumming the News, Knitting Communities, and Guarding a Black Public Sphere

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dc.contributor.advisorNewhagen, John E.en_US
dc.contributor.advisorSteiner, Lindaen_US
dc.contributor.authorHopkinson, Natalie Adeleen_US
dc.contributor.departmentJournalismen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2008-04-22T16:03:09Z
dc.date.available2008-04-22T16:03:09Z
dc.date.issued2007-11-14en_US
dc.description.abstractThrough the frame of Habermas's theory of the public sphere, this study argues that go-go, Washington, D.C.'s funk-based live music genre, functions as a unique public sphere in the majority-black United States capital city also known as the "Chocolate City." Go-go is a powerful counter-discourse to hip-hop, another urban culture with origins in the 1970s post-industrial American landscape. Both hip-hop and go-go originally functioned as a news and cultural medium for geographically-specific African American communities, or what rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy described as a "black CNN." While hip-hop moved into the global mainstream of popular culture, the go-go community guarded the borders of its sphere from encroachment, commercialization, and cooptation from political, cultural, and economic forces. Live concerts employ centuries-old rituals, scripts, and codes in dance, music and clothing to deliver the news in a call-and-response with African-derived traditions. The study of go-go provides insights useful to both the music and news media industries under assault by the decentralization and democratization of production and fragmentation of audiences. This study demonstrates how through a network of roving independent entrepreneurs and storefront businesses, go-go has protected the sanctity of this sphere and continues to build community across several decades and a variety of media platforms. This study combines ethnography, life history research, ethnomusicology, and cultural geography to "read" the news go-go tells, stories, communities and people overlooked or misunderstood by corporate news media.en_US
dc.format.extent30153313 bytes
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/7642
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledJournalismen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledMusicen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledAnthropology, Culturalen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledurban ethnographyen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledChocolate Cityen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledgentrificationen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledblack migrationen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledmedia studiesen_US
dc.titleGo-Go Live: Washington, D.C.'s Cultural Information Network, Drumming the News, Knitting Communities, and Guarding a Black Public Sphereen_US
dc.typeDissertationen_US

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