CityLab Daily: How Go-Go Became Gentrification's Kryptonite

Power on: The showdown over go-go music and gentrification in D.C. is now local legend. In April, a resident tried to stop a neighboring store's longstanding practice of blasting go-go music, the city’s native blend of funk. Thousands of people flooded the streets to turn the music back on, using the hashtag #DontMuteDC as a statement that black people would not be erased from Chocolate City.

That was one event that helped activists to see the music genre’s political potential. They also used the music-led movement in protests to protect a hospital and a high school that historically served D.C.’s black communities. As the D.C. Council moves to recognize go-go as the official music of the city, CityLab’s Brentin Mock documents how go-go is becoming a power source for a modern movement: Go-Go Is the Sound of Anti-Gentrification in D.C.