Is the history of Go Go culture divided between Black,White or green?
Staff Writer
2013-04-14
.bugnews.bloggieblog.com .
Recently, there was some drama on the internet and, the drama took place on Facebook. The blow by blow details will not occur but, the cause of the drama is centered around two articles that were written in the Examiner. source and source
The key focal points of the drama were exploitation, race and offense. As you know, each area is a key element in American culture.
Exploitation is apart of capitalism no matter the sugar coat. One dictionary meaning is "The act of employing to the greatest possible advantage: ".
When one applies exploitation to the entertainment industry, the world would say move with caution depending on which side of the card table that you are sitting. If you are the record company, management or promoter, you maybe putting out some capital to fund the talent. If you are the talent, you are producing the product and have to draw in a fan base.
If one applies this to the community music activist way of thinking, you will get a mindset with a summary statement. I want top dollar for my talents and efforts up to this point and don't continually cheat me as we do business.
In the article about the "Pump Me Up", it was pointed out that posters from the past were being sold with the original band's name, logo and likeness for a nice amount of money per poster but, no one knows if the bands are receiving any money for the poster sells. Many people may remember the street culture of Go Go in relationship to the posters. The posters were taken down off the street light post, event locations and taken home by the teenagers or young adults at that time. To the best of my knowledge, the only people that paid for the posters were the promoters and bands. Once the event was over, the fans of the bands in some cases took posters and posted on their walls at their homes. This is a common practice with any fan of anything.
The question of exploitation comes into play with the facebook drama because allegedly, a member of the curator team brought all the old posters from the former printer. Legally, a person or company can do this with no problem. The problem comes into play with the reselling of the poster and the likeness issues. Although no lawyers have been involved at this point, music activist feel this is another example of artist of any form being exploited by a bigger machine or in this cause any entity with more resources then the artist.
Another issue in the Facebook drama is race. In this case, the race of most of the artist are of African American descent and, the people that are promoting the "Pump Me Up" art show are mostly white or apart of a large institution. Some people have stated that because the term exploitation is used. They have been labeled racist because most of the artist, the culture and the city that the topic is based is of African American descent. Others feel that race has nothing to do with the facebook drama and the article and because the "Pump it UP " event was held in a very very mainstream venue. This gave creditability to the culture of Go GO music.
If we take a history lesson briefly along with a comparison, one can give insight to this situation. Although many White artist have been beaten out of their money in the past, Black artist have been too. In the case of GO GO music "Pump it up", the person that put on the show has been involved in the GO GO music culture and is from the DC metro area. This person's background gives them a little credit as a source to put on the "Pump it UP event" but not as an official historian.
If we make a comparison to any famous person or entity today in which their likelness is used and sold on a mass level but not a individual auction level. There would be a mass out cry for justice. For example, go use the MLK name on stuff along with an event and see what happens.
The offense problem comes into light because some feel the article did not have any facts or named sources. The article really dose not have to name sources and ,the articles was used to point out or bring forth information about the "Pump Me UP" event.
One mainstream GO Go culture person had this to say about the "Pump Me UP" event.
Kato of Tmottgogo.com
Hey. Yes I read it. I thought it was very good piece of information that many actually didn't know about in regards to the exhibit.
And believe me... I'm not tripping whether you quote me or not. I personally didn't get a chance to visit the exhibit. Therefore, I can only go by the things that I have read and the things that I have been told and shown. Personally me... with the exception of the crime scene display, No I'm not upset about the exhibit. As I told someone the other day, the people who did that exhibit discovered that they have a market audience, gathered whatever materials, items and money that they could gather, and put the exhibit on. And they did so with the addition of film, a printed book, and open panel discussions (of which I was actually invited to sit on the panel of one of the discussions).
As far as go-go being exploited, I don't know if I can personally agree 100% on that. In fact, what they have done, the go-go culture should have being reaching out to that same market and done a long time ago. Because apparently there IS an audience and market for it.
facebook drama post
oh cmon heady. no disrespect to you, but this show is legit. and built on hard work and love for the culture. no one else has done anything to further this culture. this is 10 years of sweat from just a few years culminating into one art show which makes no money for anyone. it's also why i donated my time to anything they needed help with. (also, those Globe posters for the show are not "replicas". Bob from Globe made them. and the other ones are vintage. no different then selling old records for profit.) it's all legit in my eyes. have u seen the book? it's cool. and reasonbly priced. no way anyone is making money on this.
facebook drama post
I agree with the point about selling vintage vinyl for a profit - kinda. With records, there is a known, established market value for them. Such guidelines don't exist - that I'm aware of...if I'm wrong, please forgive me - for Globe posters. Slapping $500 prices on posters seems, to me, like an over-inflated, manufactured market "value" (what hip-hop vinyl collectors refer to as "fabricated rare"). In other words - a quick cash grab.
facebook drama post
**On the money - I just want to know where this groundswell of money is located so I can get my share. Honestly guys, I know how much a lot of this exhibit, movie and book cost and I know when the project breaks even, it hasn't yet. I understand being fixated with the money, it sure does look slick. I don't know that Pump Me Up will ever break even, so its just difficult to see people so upset about this non existent cloud of money.. I have responded to the facts of this article. Personally, I'm happy to hear anything people are critical of, i agree with some of the comments. But we all need to start with the undisputed facts of the show first. Unfortunately this article was poorly researched and Sidney didn't get a lot of responses from folks as he didn't identify himself as press in his initial emails. **On to the crews - I know some people were upset by the tape outline in the entry. But if you saw the movie, it should give you an idea as to why its in the exhibition. if you didn't, I believe it was placed in the entry to kinda remind you of the 80's, did you guys see the lists of deaths from 3 years? It was a whole newspaper page unfolded, so sad. Makes me tear up just remembering how many people we lost. I think Roger was trying to evoke that feeling we had when we saw the news in the AM and we heard 6 people were shot the night before. Maybe that wasn't what you wanted to see. I totally understand that. I didn't agree with Roger 100%. But I did watch what he was doing and ask a lot of questions. I wanted to be sure that people were being taken care of and from what i witnessed they were. I don't think there is any shame in Roger profiting from the show, he bought those posters from Globe legally and resold them. I don't find that morally or ethically wrong. Also, why aren't you guys defending or even mentioning HarDCore or were they somehow less exploited in your view? Badbrains happen to be of color.
facebook drama post
it seems to me youve have taken to be rogers lawyer in every single "bad" post about the exhibit. we´ve talked and i understand everything hes done for you and even for dan, but you have to understand that the people that dont know roger and have been around this scene for years have questions, mostly because he is doing an exhibit about a something he knows nothing about since last i checked he had never been to a go-go, and never really been anywhere other than some parts of nw , so i myself ask how can he realistically portray something he wasnt a part of? i personally had him banned from dc for talking shit and being a bitch and until i went to jail he not dared step into the city, so i ask again how can somebody like that 15 years later have any sort of credibility to do an exhibit and tell the truth? its really a shame that "our" story, and yes i include myself without really being active in go-go but definetly in dans life, is told by somebody that wasnt there, didnt participate and wasnt involved AT ALL. even in hardcore he stopped going to shows as soon as they got a little rough and people wanted to beat his ass for "being purple" as he claimed to be. my angle is a bit different, since im no artist, im more concerned about a leech using the history we made to tell his story.
pictures from event