The Go-Go’s on Being Brats and Fighting Rock ‘n’ Roll’s ‘Gender Boxes’ | Video

When the Los Angeles based band the Go-Go’s was at the top of the rock world in the 1980s, there were easy labels to describe the five young women who were the first all-female band to play their own instruments, write their own songs and hit No. 1 on the charts. “They would always describe us as cute, bubbly and effervescent,” lead singer Belinda Carlisle said at theWrap’s studio at the Sundance Film Festival, where director Alison Ellwood’s documentary “The Go-Go’s” premiered in January. “It was very superficial and it didn’t describe who we really are.” “It’s such a ready-made hook,” added bassist Kathy Valentine. “It fits into the general myth of Cinderella and Prince Charming. We were Cinderella and the public was Prince Charming, and they just embraced the myth of this scrappy little band. It fit with the archetypes – the gender boxes, I like to call them.” Ellwood’s film breaks the archetypes and describes who the Go-Go’s really were: a tough band of onetime punk-rock misfits whose cleaned-up music was a pop delight, but whose success ended prematurely with infighting and drug addiction. Watch the full video above.