This Town - The Go-Go's - MP3 instrumental karaoke

Seminal new wave band The Go-Go’s are famous for blending the sound of the punk genre with a poppier sensibility and radio-friendly hooks. Their debut album Beauty and the Beat (1981) served as a mission statement from the California band, putting their aesthetic and musical approach on full display. The album is remembered for hits such as “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat,” but it is side one closer “This Town” that most clearly distills the band’s approach to new wave. The song was written by The Go-Go’s guitarists Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey, and like the rest of the album, it was produced by Richard Gottehrer and Rob Freeman. On “This Town,” The Go-Go’s describe the Hollywood new wave scene of the early 1980s, showing both the glamor and the danger of Los Angeles, with the darker musical elements intermingling with the group’s trademark bright poppy sound to fully capture two contrasting (but co-existing) images of the group’s hometown.