Entry · catalog no. 2414
bounce beat
/ /baʊns bit/ /BOWNSS beet
noun · Washington, D.C. and Prince George's County, Maryland · 2000s
✓ Verified
1.
A subgenre of Washington, D.C. go-go in which the groove is carried by fast, repeated strikes on rototoms and timbales instead of the congas that drive traditional go-go, with electric keyboards supplying the melody and a lead talker working the crowd. Faster, heavier and more percussive than the older swing go-go, and named for the bouncing figure the drums lay down.
“The old heads wanted swing, but the young crowd was not moving until the band dropped into bounce beat.”
Origin & Attribution
Bounce beat was developed in the early 2000s by TCB out of Washington, D.C.: lead talker Reginald Polo Burwell, who grew up in Eckington, with percussionist Eddie Luv McCoy and drummer Neal Thomas. They had been experimenting with rototoms and timbales to drive the music rather than merely accent it, de-emphasizing go-go's congas, and McCoy has said the sound went public by accident at a 2003 show in Riverdale, Maryland when the power cut out and only the drums were left. Older go-go audiences dismissed it at first as noise; within a decade the D.C. and Prince George's County scene had filled with bounce bands, among them CCB, TOB, XIB, ABM, New Impressionz and Reaction, and Polo was universally credited as the originator. Burwell collapsed onstage in April 2010 and died in November 2013. The term is regularly confused with New Orleans bounce, which is an unrelated rap style, and with Baltimore club. Bounce beat is go-go, made by go-go bands, in a city whose clubs were closing under police pressure as it emerged.
2003
TCB debuts the sound at a Riverdale, Maryland show after a power outage
2010
Polo collapses onstage in April and falls into a coma
2013
Polo dies in November; the Washington City Paper and the Washington Post run retrospectives
2016
The Washington Post covers ABM carrying bounce beat into Charles County
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
Washington, D.C. and Prince George's County, Maryland · 2000s
Spoken by
Young Black Washingtonians and Prince George's County residents; go-go musicians and audiences
$BOUNCEThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady23 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
55/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2003
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
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Citations & Sources
■
The King of Bounce Beat: How Polo Brought Go-Go Into the 21st Century, Washington City Paper, December 2013
newspaper
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The go-go community bids farewell to Reggie Polo Burwell, the Bounce Beat King, The Washington Post, 5 December 2013
newspaper
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Reggie Polo Burwell, leader of bounce beat band TCB, is in a coma but not forgotten, The Washington Post, 30 April 2012
newspaper
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Go-go on the go: ABM brings the bounce beat to Charles County, The Washington Post, 24 March 2016
newspaper
■
+ Cite a sourceHistory of Go-Go, Timeline of African American Music, Carnegie Hall
glossary
See also