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Wikipedia

Funk

April 08, 2023

For other uses, see Funk (disambiguation).
For technical reasons, "Funk #49" redirects here. For the song, see Funk 49.

Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid-20th century. It de-emphasizes melody and chord progressions and focuses on a strong rhythmic groove of a bassline played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a percussionist, often at slower tempos than other popular music. Funk typically consists of a complex percussive groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves that create a "hypnotic" and "danceable" feel.[3] Funk uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths and thirteenths.

Funk originated in the mid-1960s, with James Brown's development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with a heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure ("The One"), and the application of swung 16th notes and syncopation on all basslines, drum patterns, and guitar riffs[4]—and rock and psychedelia-influenced musicians Sly and the Family Stone and Jimi Hendrix, fostering improvisation in funk.[5] Other musical groups, including Kool and the Gang,[6] Parliament-Funkadelic, Ohio Players, Fatback Band, Jimmy Castor Bunch, Earth, Wind & Fire, B.T. Express, Hamilton Bohannon,[7] One Way, Lakeside, Dazz Band, The Gap Band, Slave, Aurra, Roger Troutman & Zapp, Con Funk Shun, Cameo, Bar-Kays and Chic began to adopt and develop Brown's innovations during the 1970s and the 1980s.

Funk derivatives include avant-funk, an avant-garde strain of funk; boogie, a hybrid of electronic music and funk; funk metal, a mix of funk and metal; G-funk, a mix of gangsta rap and funk; Timba, a form of funky Cuban dance music; and funk jam. It is also the main influence of Washington go-go, a funk sub-genre.[8] Funk samples and breakbeats have been used extensively in hip hop and electronic dance music.

Etymology

 
Look up funk in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The word funk initially referred (and still refers) to a strong odor. It is originally derived from Latin "fumigare" (which means "to smoke") via Old French "fungiere" and, in this sense, it was first documented in English in 1620. In 1784 "funky" meaning "musty" was first documented, which, in turn, led to a sense of "earthy" that was taken up around 1900 in early jazz slang for something "deeply or strongly felt".[9][10] Even though in white culture, the term "funk" can have negative connotations of odor or being in a bad mood ("in a funk"), in African communities, the term "funk", while still linked to body odor, had the positive sense that a musician's hard-working, honest effort led to sweat, and from their "physical exertion" came an "exquisite" and "superlative" performance.[11]

In early jam sessions, musicians would encourage one another to "get down" by telling one another, "Now, put some stank on it!". At least as early as 1907, jazz songs carried titles such as Funky. The first example is an unrecorded number by Buddy Bolden, remembered as either "Funky Butt" or "Buddy Bolden's Blues" with improvised lyrics that were, according to Donald M. Marquis, either "comical and light" or "crude and downright obscene" but, in one way or another, referring to the sweaty atmosphere at dances where Bolden's band played.[12][13] As late as the 1950s and early 1960s, when "funk" and "funky" were used increasingly in the context of jazz music, the terms still were considered indelicate and inappropriate for use in polite company. According to one source, New Orleans-born drummer Earl Palmer "was the first to use the word 'funky' to explain to other musicians that their music should be made more syncopated and danceable."[14] The style later evolved into a rather hard-driving, insistent rhythm, implying a more carnal quality. This early form of the music set the pattern for later musicians.[15] The music was identified as slow, sexy, loose, riff-oriented and danceable.[citation needed]

The meaning of "funk" continues to captivate the genre of black music, feeling, and knowledge. Recent scholarship in black studies has taken the term "funk" in its many iterations to consider the range of black movement and culture. In particular, L.H. Stallings's Funk the Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures explores these multiple meanings of "funk" as a way to theorize sexuality, culture, and western hegemony within the many locations of "funk": "street parties, drama/theater, strippers and strip clubs, pornography, and self-published fiction."[16]

Characteristics

Rhythm and tempo

 
The rhythm section of a funk band—the electric bass, drums, electric guitar and keyboards--is the heartbeat of the funk sound. Pictured here is the Meters.

Like soul, funk is based on dance music, so it has a strong "rhythmic role".[17] The sound of funk is as much based on the "spaces between the notes" as the notes that are played; as such, rests between notes are important.[18] While there are rhythmic similarities between funk and disco, funk has a "central dance beat that's slower, sexier and more syncopated than disco", and funk rhythm section musicians add more "subtextures", complexity and "personality" onto the main beat than a programmed synth-based disco ensemble.[19]

Before funk, most pop music was based on sequences of eighth notes, because the fast tempos made further subdivisions of the beat infeasible.[3] The innovation of funk was that by using slower tempos (surely influenced by the revival of blues at early 60s), funk "created space for further rhythmic subdivision, so a bar of 4/4 could now accommodate possible 16 note placements."[3] Specifically, by having the guitar and drums play in "motoring" sixteenth-note rhythms, it created the opportunity for the other instruments to play "more syncopated, broken-up style", which facilitated a move to more "liberated" basslines. Together, these "interlocking parts" created a "hypnotic" and "danceable feel".[3]

A great deal of funk is rhythmically based on a two-celled onbeat/offbeat structure, which originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions. New Orleans appropriated the bifurcated structure from the Afro-Cuban mambo and conga in the late 1940s, and made it its own.[20] New Orleans funk, as it was called, gained international acclaim largely because James Brown's rhythm section used it to great effect.[21]

 
Simple kick and snare funk motif. The kick first sounds two onbeats, which are then answered by two offbeats. The snare sounds the backbeat.

Harmony

 
A thirteenth chord (E 13, which also contains a flat 7th and a 9th)  Play (help·info)

Funk uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths. Some examples of chords used in funk are minor eleventh chords (e.g., F minor 11th); dominant seventh with added sharp ninth and a suspended fourth (e.g., C7 (#9) sus 4); dominant ninth chords (e.g., F9); and minor sixth chords (e.g., C minor 6).[18] The six-ninth chord is used in funk (e.g., F 6/9); it is a major chord with an added sixth and ninth.[18] In funk, minor seventh chords are more common than minor triads because minor triads were found to be too thin-sounding.[22] Some of the best known and most skillful soloists in funk have jazz backgrounds. Trombonist Fred Wesley and saxophonists Pee Wee Ellis and Maceo Parker are among the most notable musicians in the funk music genre, having worked with James Brown, George Clinton and Prince.

Unlike bebop jazz, with its complex, rapid-fire chord changes, funk virtually abandoned chord changes, creating static single chord vamps (often alternating a minor seventh chord and a related dominant seventh chord, such as A minor to D7) with melodo-harmonic movement and a complex, driving rhythmic feel. Even though some funk songs are mainly one-chord vamps, the rhythm section musicians may embellish this chord by moving it up or down a semitone or a tone to create chromatic passing chords. For example, "Play that funky music" (by Wild Cherry) mainly uses an E ninth chord, but it also uses F#9 and F9.[23]

The chords used in funk songs typically imply a Dorian or Mixolydian mode, as opposed to the major or natural minor tonalities of most popular music. Melodic content was derived by mixing these modes with the blues scale. In the 1970s, jazz music drew upon funk to create a new subgenre of jazz-funk, which can be heard in recordings by Miles Davis (Live-Evil, On the Corner), and Herbie Hancock (Head Hunters).

Improvisation

Funk continues the African musical tradition of improvisation, in that in a funk band, the group would typically "feel" when to change, by "jamming" and "grooving", even in the studio recording stage, which might only be based on the skeleton framework for each song.[24] Funk uses "collective improvisation", in which musicians at rehearsals would have what was metaphorically a musical "conversation", an approach which extended to the onstage performances.[25]

Instruments

Bass

 
Bootsy Collins performing in 1996 with a star-shaped bass

Funk creates an intense groove by using strong guitar riffs and basslines played on electric bass. Like Motown recordings, funk songs use basslines as the centerpiece of songs. Indeed, funk has been called the style in which the bassline is most prominent in the songs,[26] with the bass playing the "hook" of the song.[27] Early funk basslines used syncopation (typically syncopated eighth notes), but with the addition of more of a "driving feel" than in New Orleans funk, and they used blues scale notes along with the major third above the root.[28] Later funk basslines use sixteenth note syncopation, blues scales, and repetitive patterns, often with leaps of an octave or a larger interval.[27]

This funky bassline includes percussive slapping, rhythmic ghost notes, and glissando effects.

Funk basslines emphasize repetitive patterns, locked-in grooves, continuous playing, and slap and popping bass. Slapping and popping uses a mixture of thumb-slapped low notes (also called "thumped") and finger "popped" (or plucked) high notes, allowing the bass to have a drum-like rhythmic role, which became a distinctive element of funk. Notable slap and funky players include Bernard Edwards (Chic), Robert "Kool" Bell, Mark Adams (Slave), Johnny Flippin (Fatback)[29] and Bootsy Collins.[30] While slap and funky is important, some influential bassists who play funk, such as Rocco Prestia (from Tower of Power), did not use the approach, and instead used a typical fingerstyle method based on James Jamerson's Motown playing style.[30] Larry Graham from Sly and the Family Stone is an influential bassist.[31]

Funk bass has an "earthy, percussive kind of feel", in part due to the use of muted, rhythmic ghost notes[31] (also called "dead notes").[30] Some funk bass players use electronic effects units to alter the tone of their instrument, such as "envelope filters" (an auto-wah effect that creates a "gooey, slurpy, quacky, and syrupy" sound)[32] and imitate keyboard synthesizer bass tones[33] (e.g., the Mutron envelope filter)[27] and overdriven fuzz bass effects, which are used to create the "classic fuzz tone that sounds like old school Funk records".[34] Other effects that are used include the flanger and bass chorus.[27] Collins also used a Mu-Tron Octave Divider, an octave pedal that, like the Octavia pedal popularized by Hendrix, can double a note an octave above and below to create a "futuristic and fat low-end sound".[35]

Drums

Funk drumming creates a groove by emphasizing the drummer's "feel and emotion", which including "occasional tempo fluctuations", the use of swing feel in some songs (e.g., "Cissy Strut" by The Meters and "I'll Take You There" by The Staple Singers, which have a half-swung feel), and less use of fills (as they can lessen the groove).[36] Drum fills are "few and economical", to ensure that the drumming stays "in the pocket", with a steady tempo and groove.[37] These playing techniques are supplemented by a set-up for the drum kit that often includes muffled bass drums and toms and tightly tuned snare drums.[36] Double bass drumming sounds are often done by funk drummers with a single pedal, an approach which "accents the second note... [and] deadens the drumhead's resonance", which gives a short, muffled bass drum sound.[36]

 
The drum groove from "Cissy Strut"

James Brown used two drummers such as Clyde Stubblefield and John 'Jabo' Starks in recording and soul show[38] By using two drummers, the JB band was able to maintain a "solid syncopated" rhythmic sound, which contributed to the band's distinctive "Funky Drummer" rhythm.[38]

In Tower of Power drummer David Garibaldi's playing, there are many "ghost notes" and rim shots.[36] A key part of the funk drumming style is using the hi-hat, with opening and closing the hi-hats during playing (to create "splash" accent effects) being an important approach.[39] Two-handed sixteenth notes on the hi-hats, sometimes with a degree of swing feel, is used in funk.[36]

Jim Payne states that funk drumming uses a "wide-open" approach to improvisation around rhythmic ideas from Latin music, ostinatos, that are repeated "with only slight variations", an approach which he says causes the "mesmerizing" nature of funk.[40] Payne states that funk can be thought of as "rock played in a more syncopated manner", particularly with the bass drum, which plays syncopated "eighth note" and "sixteenth note" patterns that were innovated by drummer Clive Williams (with Joe Tex); George Brown (with Kool & the Gang) and James "Diamond" Williams (with The Ohio Players).[41] As with rock, the snare backbeats on beats two and four are still used in most funk (albeit with additional soft ghost notes).[40]

Electric guitar

In funk, guitarists often mix playing chords of a short duration (nicknamed "stabs") with faster rhythms and riffs.[17] Guitarists playing rhythmic parts often play sixteenth notes, including with percussive "ghost notes".[17] Chord extensions are favored, such as ninth chords.[17] Typically, funk uses "two interlocking [electric] guitar parts", with a rhythm guitarist and a "tenor guitarist" who plays single notes. The two guitarists trade off their lines to create a "call-and-response, intertwined pocket."[42] If a band only has one guitarist, this effect may be recreated by overdubbing in the studio, or, in a live show, by having a single guitarist play both parts, to the degree that this is possible.[42]

In funk bands, guitarists typically play in a percussive style, using a style of picking called the "chank" or "chicken scratch", in which the guitar strings are pressed lightly against the fingerboard and then quickly released just enough to get a muted "scratching" sound that is produced by rapid rhythmic strumming of the opposite hand near the bridge.[43] Earliest examples of that technic used on rhythm and blues is listened on Johnny Otis song "Willie and the Hand Jive" in 1957, with the future James Brown band guitar player Jimmy Nolen. The technique can be broken down into three approaches: the "chika", the "chank" and the "choke". With the "chika" comes a muted sound of strings being hit against the fingerboard; "chank" is a staccato attack done by releasing the chord with the fretting hand after strumming it; and "choking" generally uses all the strings being strummed and heavily muted.[18]

 
Guitarist Nile Rodgers is best known for his performances with Chic.

The result of these factors was a rhythm guitar sound that seemed to float somewhere between the low-end thump of the electric bass and the cutting tone of the snare and hi-hats, with a rhythmically melodic feel that fell deep in the pocket. Guitarist Jimmy Nolen, longtime guitarist for James Brown, developed this technique. On Brown's "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose" (1969), however, Jimmy Nolen's guitar part has a bare bones tonal structure. The pattern of attack-points is the emphasis, not the pattern of pitches. The guitar is used the way that an African drum, or idiophone would be used. Nolen created a "clean, trebly tone" by using "hollow-body jazz guitars with single-coil P-90 pickups" plugged into a Fender Twin Reverb amp with the mid turned down low and the treble turned up high.[44]

Funk guitarists playing rhythm guitar generally avoid distortion effects and amp overdrive to get a clean sound, and given the importance of a crisp, high sound, Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters were widely used for their cutting treble tone.[44] The mids are often cut by guitarists to help the guitar sound different from the horn section, keyboards and other instruments.[44] Given the focus on providing a rhythmic groove, and the lack of emphasis on instrumental guitar melodies and guitar solos, sustain is not sought out by funk rhythm guitarists.[44] Funk rhythm guitarists use compressor volume-control effects to enhance the sound of muted notes, which boosts the "clucking" sound and adds "percussive excitement to funk rhythms" (an approach used by Nile Rodgers).[45]

Guitarist Eddie Hazel from Funkadelic is notable for his solo improvisation (particularly for the solo on "Maggot Brain") and guitar riffs, the tone of which was shaped by a Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone pedal.[35] Hazel, along with guitarist Ernie Isley of the Isley Brothers, was influenced by Jimi Hendrix's improvised, wah-wah infused solos. Ernie Isley was tutored at an early age by Hendrix, when Hendrix was a part of the Isley Brothers backing band and temporarily lived in the Isleys' household. Funk guitarists use the wah-wah sound effect along with muting the notes to create a percussive sound for their guitar riffs. The phaser effect is often used in funk and R&B guitar playing for its filter sweeping sound effect, an example being the Isley Brothers' song "Who's That Lady".[46] Michael Hampton, another P-Funk guitarist, was able to play Hazel's virtuosic solo on "Maggot Brain", using a solo approach that added in string bends and Hendrix-style feedback.[35]

Keyboards

 
Isaac Hayes playing keyboards in 1973

A range of keyboard instruments are used in funk. Acoustic piano is used in funk, including in "September" by Earth Wind & Fire and "Will It Go Round in Circles" by Billy Preston. The electric piano is used on songs such as Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon" (a Fender Rhodes) and "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" by Joe Zawinul (a Wurlitzer). The clavinet is used for its percussive tone, and it can be heard in songs such as Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" and "Higher Ground" and Bill Withers' "Use Me". The Hammond B-3 organ is used in funk, in songs such as "Cissy Strut" by The Meters and "Love the One You're With" (with Aretha Franklin singing and Billy Preston on keyboards).

Bernie Worrell's range of keyboards from his recordings with Parliament Funkadelic demonstrate the wide range of keyboards used in funk, as they include the Hammond organ ("Funky Woman", "Hit It and Quit It", "Wars of Armageddon"); RMI electric piano ("I Wanna Know If It's Good to You?", "Free Your Mind", "Loose Booty"); acoustic piano ("Funky Dollar Bill", "Jimmy's Got a Little Bit of Bitch in Him"); clavinet ("Joyful Process", "Up for the Down Stroke", "Red Hot Mama"); Minimoog synthesizer ("Atmosphere", "Flash Light", "Aqua Boogie", "Knee Deep", "Let's Take It to the Stage"); and ARP string ensemble synth ("Chocolate City", "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)", "Undisco Kidd").

Synthesizers were used in funk both to add to the deep sound of the electric bass, or even to replace the electric bass altogether in some songs.[47] Funk synthesizer bass, most often a Minimoog, was used because it could create layered sounds and new electronic tones that were not feasible on electric bass.[47]

Vocals and lyrics

In the 1970s, funk used many of the same vocal styles that were used in African-American music in the 1960s, including singing influences from blues, gospel, jazz and doo-wop.[38] Like these other African-American styles, funk used "[y]ells, shouts, hollers, moans, humming, and melodic riffs", along with styles such as Call and Response and narration of stories (like the African oral tradition approach).[48] The call and response in funk can be between the lead singer and the band members who act as backup vocalists.[49]

As funk emerged from soul, the vocals in funk share soul's approach; however, funk vocals tend to be "more punctuated, energetic, rhythmically percussive[,] and less embellished" with ornaments, and the vocal lines tend to resemble horn parts and have "pushed" rhythms.[50] Funk bands such as Earth, Wind & Fire have harmony vocal parts.[19] Songs like "Super Bad" by James Brown included "double-voice" along with "yells, shouts and screams".[51] Funk singers used a "black aesthetic" to perform that made use of "colorful and lively exchange of gestures, facial expressions, body posture, and vocal phrases" to create an engaging performance.[52]

 
Singer Charlie Wilson

The lyrics in funk music addressed issues faced by the African American community in the United States during the 1970s, which arose due to the move away from an industrial, working-class economy to an information economy, which harmed the Black working class.[53] Funk songs by The Ohio Players, Earth, Wind & Fire, and James Brown raised issues faced by lower-income Blacks in their song lyrics, such as poor "economic conditions and themes of poor inner-city life in the black communities".[54]

The Funkadelic song "One Nation Under A Groove" (1978) is about the challenges that Blacks overcame during the 1960s civil rights movement, and it includes an exhortation for Blacks in the 1970s to capitalize on the new "social and political opportunities" that had become available in the 1970s.[55] The Isley Brothers song "Fight the Power" (1975) has a political message.[56] Parliament's song "Chocolate City" (1975) metaphorically refers to Washington D.C. and other US cities that have a mainly Black population, and it draws attention to the potential power that Black voters wield and suggests that a Black President be considered in the future.[57]

The political themes of funk songs and the aiming of the messages to a Black audience echoed the new image of Blacks that was created in Blaxploitation films, which depicted "African-American men and women standing their ground and fighting for what was right".[58] Both funk and Blaxploitation films addressed issues faced by Blacks and told stories from a Black perspective.[58] Another link between 1970s funk and Blaxploitation films is that many of these films used funk soundtracks (e.g., Curtis Mayfield for Superfly; James Brown and Fred Wesley for Black Caesar and War for Youngblood).[59]

Funk songs included metaphorical language that was understood best by listeners who were "familiar with the black aesthetic and [black] vernacular".[60] For example, funk songs included expressions such as "shake your money maker", "funk yourself right out" and "move your boogie body".[61] Another example is the use of "bad" in the song "Super Bad" (1970), which black listeners knew meant "good" or "great".[49]

In the 1970s, to get around radio obscenity restrictions, funk artists would use words that sounded like non-allowed words and double entendres to get around these restrictions.[62] For example, The Ohio Players had a song entitled "Fopp" which referred to "Fopp me right, don't you fopp me wrong/We'll be foppin' all night long...".[62] Some funk songs used made-up words which suggested that they were "writing lyrics in a constant haze of marijuana smoke", such as Parliament's "Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)", which includes words such as "bioaquadooloop".[62] The mainstream white listener base was often not able to understand funk's lyrical messages, which contributed to funk's lack of popular music chart success with white audiences during the 1970s.[63]

Other instruments

Horn section arrangements with groups of brass instruments are often used in funk songs.[19] Funk horn sections could include saxophone (often tenor sax), trumpet, trombone, and for larger horn sections, such as quintets and sextets, a baritone sax.[3] Horn sections played "rhythmic and syncopated" parts, often with "offbeat phrases" that emphasize "rhythmic displacement".[3] Funk song introductions are an important place for horn arrangements.[3]

 
Funk horn sections typically include saxophones and trumpets. Larger horn sections often add a second instrument for one of the saxes or trumpets, and a trombone or bari sax may also be used. Pictured is the Earth, Wind and Fire horn section.

Funk horn sections performed in a "rhythmic percussive style" that mimicked the approach used by funk rhythm guitarists.[64] Horn sections would "punctuate" the lyrics by playing in the spaces between vocals, using "short staccato rhythmic blast[s]".[64] Notable funk horn players included Alfred "PeeWee" Ellis, trombonist Fred Wesley, and alto sax player Maceo Parker.[64] Notable funk horn sections including the "Phoenix Horns" (with Earth, Wind & Fire), the "Horny Horns" (with Parliament), the "Memphis Horns" (with Isaac Hayes), and "MFSB" (with Curtis Mayfield).[64]

The instruments in funk horn sections varied. If there were two horn players, it could be trumpet and sax, trumpet and trombone, or two saxes.[3] A standard horn trio would consist of trumpet, sax, and trombone, but trios of one trumpet with two saxes, or two trumpets with one sax were also fairly common.[3] A quartet would be the set up the same as a standard horn trio, but with an extra trumpet, sax, or (less frequently) trombone player. Quintets would either be a trio of saxes (typically alto/tenor/baritone, or tenor/tenor/baritone) with a trumpet and a trombone, or a pair each of trumpets and saxes with one trombone. With six instruments, the horn section would usually be two trumpets, three saxes, and a trombone.[3]

Notable songs with funk horn sections include:

In bands or shows where hiring a horn section is not feasible, a keyboardist can play the horn section parts on a synthesizer with "keyboard brass patches", however, choosing an authentic-sounding synthesizer and brass patch is important.[3] In the 2010s, with micro-MIDI synths, it may even be possible to have another instrumentalist play the keyboard brass parts, thus enabling the keyboardist to continue to comp throughout the song.[3]

Costumes and style

Funk bands in the 1970s adopted Afro-American fashion and style, including "Bell-bottom pants, platform shoes, hoop earring[s], Afros [hairstyles], leather vests,... beaded necklaces",[65] dashiki shirts, jumpsuits and boots.[66] In contrast to earlier bands such as The Temptations, which wore "matching suits" and "neat haircuts" to appeal to white mainstream audiences, funk bands adopted an "African spirit" in their outfits and style.[60] George Clinton and Parliament are known for their imaginative costumes and "freedom of dress", which included bedsheets acting as robes and capes.[67]

History

Funk was formed through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid-20th century. Musicologist Anne Danielsen wrote that funk might be placed in the lineage of rhythm and blues, jazz, and soul.[68] Sociologist Darby E. Southgate wrote that funk is "an amalgam of gospel, soul, jazz fusion, rhythm and blues, and black rock."[1]

The distinctive characteristics of African-American musical expression are rooted in sub-Saharan African music traditions, and find their earliest expression in spirituals, work chants/songs, praise shouts, gospel, blues, and "body rhythms" (hambone, patting juba, and ring shout clapping and stomping patterns).

Like other styles of African-American musical expression including jazz, soul music and R&B, funk music accompanied many protest movements during and after the Civil Rights Movement. Funk allowed everyday experiences to be expressed to challenge daily struggles and hardships fought by lower and working class communities.

New Orleans

Gerhard Kubik notes that with the exception of New Orleans, early blues lacked complex polyrhythms, and there was a "very specific absence of asymmetric time-line patterns (key patterns) in virtually all early twentieth century African-American music ... only in some New Orleans genres does a hint of simple time line patterns occasionally appear in the form of transient so-called 'stomp' patterns or stop-time chorus. These do not function in the same way as African time lines."[69]

In the late 1940s this changed somewhat when the two-celled time line structure was brought into New Orleans blues. New Orleans musicians were especially receptive to Afro-Cuban influences precisely at the time when R&B was first forming.[70] Dave Bartholomew and Professor Longhair (Henry Roeland Byrd) incorporated Afro-Cuban instruments, as well as the clave pattern and related two-celled figures in songs such as "Carnival Day" (Bartholomew 1949) and "Mardi Gras In New Orleans" (Longhair 1949). Robert Palmer reports that, in the 1940s, Professor Longhair listened to and played with musicians from the islands and "fell under the spell of Perez Prado's mambo records."[20] Professor Longhair's particular style was known locally as rumba-boogie.[71]

One of Longhair's great contributions was his particular approach of adopting two-celled, clave-based patterns into New Orleans rhythm and blues (R&B). Longhair's rhythmic approach became a basic template of funk. According to Dr. John (Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack Jr.), the Professor "put funk into music ... Longhair's thing had a direct bearing I'd say on a large portion of the funk music that evolved in New Orleans."[72] In his "Mardi Gras in New Orleans", the pianist employs the 2-3 clave onbeat/offbeat motif in a rumba-boogie "guajeo".[73]

The syncopated, but straight subdivision feel of Cuban music (as opposed to swung subdivisions) took root in New Orleans R&B during this time. Alexander Stewart states: "Eventually, musicians from outside of New Orleans began to learn some of the rhythmic practices [of the Crescent City]. Most important of these were James Brown and the drummers and arrangers he employed. Brown's early repertoire had used mostly shuffle rhythms, and some of his most successful songs were 12/8 ballads (e.g. 'Please, Please, Please' (1956), 'Bewildered' (1961), 'I Don't Mind' (1961)). Brown's change to a funkier brand of soul required 4/4 metre and a different style of drumming."[74] Stewart makes the point: "The singular style of rhythm & blues that emerged from New Orleans in the years after World War II played an important role in the development of funk. In a related development, the underlying rhythms of American popular music underwent a basic, yet generally unacknowledged transition from triplet or shuffle feel to even or straight eighth notes."[75]

1960s

James Brown

 
James Brown, a progenitor of funk music

James Brown credited Little Richard's 1950s R&B road band, The Upsetters from New Orleans, as "the first to put the funk into the rhythm" of rock and roll.[76] Following his temporary exit from secular music to become an evangelist in 1957, some of Little Richard's band members joined Brown and the Famous Flames, beginning a long string of hits for them in 1958. By the mid-1960s, James Brown had developed his signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure to etch his distinctive sound, rather than the backbeat that typified African-American music.[77] Brown often cued his band with the command "On the one!," changing the percussion emphasis/accent from the one-two-three-four backbeat of traditional soul music to the one-two-three-four downbeat – but with an even-note syncopated guitar rhythm (on quarter notes two and four) featuring a hard-driving, repetitive brassy swing. This one-three beat launched the shift in Brown's signature music style, starting with his 1964 hit single, "Out of Sight" and his 1965 hits, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)".

Brown's style of funk was based on interlocking, contrapuntal parts: syncopated basslines, 16th beat drum patterns, and syncopated guitar riffs.[4] The main guitar ostinatos for "Ain't it Funky" (c. late 1960s) are an example of Brown's refinement of New Orleans funk— an irresistibly danceable riff, stripped down to its rhythmic essence. On "Ain't it Funky" the tonal structure is barebones. Brown's innovations led to him and his band becoming the seminal funk act; they also pushed the funk music style further to the forefront with releases such as "Cold Sweat" (1967), "Mother Popcorn" (1969) and "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine" (1970), discarding even the twelve-bar blues featured in his earlier music. Instead, Brown's music was overlaid with "catchy, anthemic vocals" based on "extensive vamps" in which he also used his voice as "a percussive instrument with frequent rhythmic grunts and with rhythm-section patterns ... [resembling] West African polyrhythms" – a tradition evident in African-American work songs and chants.[78] Throughout his career, Brown's frenzied vocals, frequently punctuated with screams and grunts, channeled the "ecstatic ambiance of the black church" in a secular context.[78]

External video
  Watch: "Clyde Stubblefield/ Funky Drummer" on YouTube

After 1965, Brown's bandleader and arranger was Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis. Ellis credits Clyde Stubblefield's adoption of New Orleans drumming techniques, as the basis of modern funk: "If, in a studio, you said 'play it funky' that could imply almost anything. But 'give me a New Orleans beat' – you got exactly what you wanted. And Clyde Stubblefield was just the epitome of this funky drumming."[79] Stewart states that the popular feel was passed along from "New Orleans—through James Brown's music, to the popular music of the 1970s."[75] Concerning the various funk motifs, Stewart states that this model "...is different from a time line (such as clave and tresillo) in that it is not an exact pattern, but more of a loose organizing principle."[80]

In a 1990 interview, Brown offered his reason for switching the rhythm of his music: "I changed from the upbeat to the downbeat ... Simple as that, really."[81] According to Maceo Parker, Brown's former saxophonist, playing on the downbeat was at first hard for him and took some getting used to. Reflecting back to his early days with Brown's band, Parker reported that he had difficulty playing "on the one" during solo performances, since he was used to hearing and playing with the accent on the second beat.[82]

Parliament-Funkadelic

Main article: P-Funk

A new group of musicians began to further develop the "funk rock" approach. Innovations were prominently made by George Clinton, with his bands Parliament and Funkadelic. Together, they produced a new kind of funk sound heavily influenced by jazz and psychedelic rock. The two groups shared members and are often referred to collectively as "Parliament-Funkadelic". The breakout popularity of Parliament-Funkadelic gave rise to the term "P-Funk", which referred to the music by George Clinton's bands, and defined a new subgenre. Clinton played a principal role in several other bands, including Parlet, the Horny Horns, and the Brides of Funkenstein, all part of the P-Funk conglomerate. "P-funk" also came to mean something in its quintessence, of superior quality, or sui generis.

Following the work of Jimi Hendrix in the late 1960s, artists such as Sly and the Family Stone combined the psychedelic rock of Hendrix with funk, borrowing wah pedals, fuzz boxes, echo chambers, and vocal distorters from the former, as well as blues rock and jazz.[83] In the following years, groups such as Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic continued this sensibility, employing synthesizers and rock-oriented guitar work.[83]

Late 1960s – early 1970s

Other musical groups picked up on the rhythms and vocal style developed by James Brown and his band, and the funk style began to grow. Dyke and the Blazers, based in Phoenix, Arizona, released "Funky Broadway" in 1967, perhaps the first record of the soul music era to have the word "funky" in the title. In 1969 Jimmy McGriff released Electric Funk, featuring his distinctive organ over a blazing horn section. Meanwhile, on the West Coast, Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band was releasing funk tracks beginning with its first album in 1967, culminating in the classic single "Express Yourself" in 1971. Also from the West Coast area, more specifically Oakland, California, came the band Tower of Power (TOP), which formed in 1968. Their debut album East Bay Grease, released 1970, is considered an important milestone in funk. Throughout the 1970s, TOP had many hits, and the band helped to make funk music a successful genre, with a broader audience.

In 1970, Sly & the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" reached #1 on the charts, as did "Family Affair" in 1971. Notably, these afforded the group and the genre crossover success and greater recognition, yet such success escaped comparatively talented and moderately popular funk band peers. The Meters defined funk in New Orleans, starting with their top ten R&B hits "Sophisticated Cissy" and "Cissy Strut" in 1969. Another group who defined funk around this time were the Isley Brothers, whose funky 1969 #1 R&B hit, "It's Your Thing", signaled a breakthrough in African-American music, bridging the gaps of the jazzy sounds of Brown, the psychedelic rock of Jimi Hendrix, and the upbeat soul of Sly & the Family Stone and Mother's Finest. The Temptations, who had previously helped to define the "Motown Sound" – a distinct blend of pop-soul – adopted this new psychedelic sound towards the end of the 1960s as well. Their producer, Norman Whitfield, became an innovator in the field of psychedelic soul, creating hits with a newer, funkier sound for many Motown acts, including "War" by Edwin Starr, "Smiling Faces Sometimes" by the Undisputed Truth and "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" by the Temptations. Motown producers Frank Wilson ("Keep On Truckin'") and Hal Davis ("Dancing Machine") followed suit. Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye also adopted funk beats for some of their biggest hits in the 1970s, such as "Superstition" and "You Haven't Done Nothin'", and "I Want You" and "Got To Give It Up", respectively.

1970s

See also: Progressive soul and disco
 
The Original Family Stone live, 2006. Jerry Martini, Rose Stone, and Cynthia Robinson

The 1970s were the era of highest mainstream visibility for funk music. In addition to Parliament Funkadelic, artists like Sly and the Family Stone, Rufus & Chaka Khan, Bootsy's Rubber Band, the Isley Brothers, Ohio Players, Con Funk Shun, Kool and the Gang, the Bar-Kays, Commodores, Roy Ayers, Curtis Mayfield, and Stevie Wonder, among others, were successful in getting radio play. Disco music owed a great deal to funk. Many early disco songs and performers came directly from funk-oriented backgrounds. Some disco music hits, such as all of Barry White's hits, "Kung Fu Fighting" by Biddu and Carl Douglas, Donna Summer's "Love To Love You Baby", Diana Ross' "Love Hangover", KC and the Sunshine Band's "I'm Your Boogie Man", "I'm Every Woman" by Chaka Khan (also known as the Queen of Funk), and Chic's "Le Freak" conspicuously include riffs and rhythms derived from funk. In 1976, Rose Royce scored a number-one hit with a purely dance-funk record, "Car Wash". Even with the arrival of disco, funk became increasingly popular well into the early 1980s.

Funk music was also exported to Africa, and it melded with African singing and rhythms to form Afrobeat. Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, who was heavily influenced by James Brown's music, is credited with creating the style and terming it "Afrobeat".

Jazz funk

Main article: Jazz-funk

Jazz-funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat (groove), electrified sounds[84] and an early prevalence of analog synthesizers. The integration of funk, soul, and R&B music and styles into jazz resulted in the creation of a genre whose spectrum is quite wide and ranges from strong jazz improvisation to soul, funk or disco with jazz arrangements, jazz riffs, and jazz solos, and sometimes soul vocals.[85] Jazz-funk is primarily an American genre, where it was popular throughout the 1970s and the early 1980s, but it also achieved noted appeal on the club-circuit in England during the mid-1970s. Similar genres include soul jazz and jazz fusion, but neither entirely overlap with jazz-funk. Notably jazz-funk is less vocal, more arranged and featured more improvisation than soul jazz, and retains a strong feel of groove and R&B versus some of the jazz fusion production.

1980s synth-funk

See also: Electro music

In the 1980s, largely as a reaction against what was seen as the over-indulgence of disco, many of the core elements that formed the foundation of the P-Funk formula began to be usurped by electronic instruments, drum machines and synthesizers. Horn sections of saxophones and trumpets were replaced by synth keyboards, and the horns that remained were given simplified lines, and few horn solos were given to soloists. The classic electric keyboards of funk, like the Hammond B3 organ, the Hohner Clavinet and/or the Fender Rhodes piano began to be replaced by the new digital synthesizers such as the Prophet-5, Oberheim OB-X, and Yamaha DX7. Electronic drum machines such as the Roland TR-808, Linn LM-1, and Oberheim DMX began to replace the "funky drummers" of the past, and the slap and pop style of bass playing were often replaced by synth keyboard basslines. Lyrics of funk songs began to change from suggestive double entendres to more graphic and sexually explicit content.

Influenced by Kraftwerk, the Afroamerican rap DJ Afrika Bambaataa developed electro-funk, a minimalist machine-driven style of funk with his single "Planet Rock" in 1982.[86] Also known simply as electro, this style of funk was driven by synthesizers and the electronic rhythm of the TR-808 drum machine. The single "Renegades of Funk" followed in 1983.[86] Michael Jackson was also influenced by electro-funk.[87] In 1980, techno-funk music used the TR-808 programmable drum machine,[88] while Kraftwerk's sound influenced [89] later electro-funk artists such as Mantronix.[90]

Rick James was the first funk musician of the 1980s to assume the funk mantle dominated by P-Funk in the 1970s. His 1981 album Street Songs, with the singles "Give It to Me Baby" and "Super Freak", resulted in James becoming a star, and paved the way for the future direction of explicitness in funk.

 
Prince was an influential multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, singer and songwriter.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Prince used a stripped-down, dynamic instrumentation similar to James. However, Prince went on to have as much of an impact on the sound of funk as any one artist since Brown; he combined eroticism, technology, an increasing musical complexity, and an outrageous image and stage show to ultimately create music as ambitious and imaginative as P-Funk.[citation needed] Prince formed the Time, originally conceived as an opening act for him and based on his "Minneapolis sound", a hybrid mixture of funk, R&B, rock, pop & new wave. Eventually, the band went on to define their own style of stripped-down funk based on tight musicianship and sexual themes.

Similar to Prince, other bands emerged during the P-Funk era and began to incorporate uninhibited sexuality, dance-oriented themes, synthesizers and other electronic technologies to continue to craft funk hits. These included Cameo, Zapp, the Gap Band, the Bar-Kays, and the Dazz Band, who all found their biggest hits in the early 1980s. By the latter half of the 1980s, pure funk had lost its commercial impact; however, pop artists from Michael Jackson to Culture Club often used funk beats.

Late 1980s to 2000s nu-funk

While funk was driven away from radio by slick commercial hip hop, contemporary R&B and new jack swing, its influence continued to spread. Artists like Steve Arrington and Cameo still received major airplay and had huge global followings. Rock bands began adopting elements of funk into their sound, creating new combinations of "funk rock" and "funk metal". Extreme, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Living Colour, Jane's Addiction, Prince, Primus, Urban Dance Squad, Fishbone, Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, Infectious Grooves, and Incubus spread the approach and styles garnered from funk pioneers to new audiences in the mid-to-late 1980s and the 1990s. These bands later inspired the underground mid-1990s funkcore movement and current funk-inspired artists like Outkast, Malina Moye, Van Hunt, and Gnarls Barkley.

In the 1990s, artists like Me'shell Ndegeocello, Brooklyn Funk Essentials and the (predominantly UK-based) acid jazz movement including artists and bands such as Jamiroquai, Incognito, Galliano, Omar, Los Tetas and the Brand New Heavies carried on with strong elements of funk. However, they never came close to reaching the commercial success of funk in its heyday—with the exception of Jamiroquai, whose album Travelling Without Moving sold about 11.5 million units worldwide and remains the best-selling funk album in history.[91] Meanwhile, in Australia and New Zealand, bands playing the pub circuit, such as Supergroove, Skunkhour and the Truth, preserved a more instrumental form of funk.

 
Me'shell Ndegeocello playing electric bass

Since the late 1980s hip hop artists have regularly sampled old funk tunes. James Brown is said to be the most sampled artist in the history of hip hop, while P-Funk is the second most sampled artist; samples of old Parliament and Funkadelic songs formed the basis of West Coast G-funk.

Original beats that feature funk-styled bass or rhythm guitar riffs are also not uncommon. Dr. Dre (considered the progenitor of the G-funk genre) has freely acknowledged to being heavily influenced by George Clinton's psychedelia: "Back in the 70s that's all people were doing: getting high, wearing Afros, bell-bottoms and listening to Parliament-Funkadelic. That's why I called my album The Chronic and based my music and the concepts like I did: because his shit was a big influence on my music. Very big".[92] Digital Underground was a large contributor to the rebirth of funk in the 1990s by educating their listeners with knowledge about the history of funk and its artists. George Clinton branded Digital Underground as "Sons of the P", as their second full-length release is also titled. DU's first release, Sex Packets, was full of funk samples, with the most widely known "The Humpty Dance" sampling Parliament's "Let's Play House". A very strong funk album of DU's was their 1996 release Future Rhythm. Much of contemporary club dance music, drum and bass in particular has heavily sampled funk drum breaks.

Funk is a major element of certain artists identified with the jam band scene of the late 1990s and 2000s. In the late 1990s, the band Phish developed a live sound called "cow funk" (aka "space funk"), which consisted of extended danceable deep bass grooves, and often emphasized heavy "wah" pedal and other psychedelic effects from the guitar player and layered Clavinet from the keyboard player.[93] Phish began playing funkier jams in their sets around 1996, and 1998's The Story of the Ghost was heavily influenced by funk. While Phish's funk was traditional in the sense that it often accented beat 1 of the 4/4 time signature, it was also highly exploratory and involved building jams towards energetic peaks before transitioning into highly composed progressive rock and roll.

Medeski Martin & Wood, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Galactic, Jam Underground, Soulive, and Karl Denson's Tiny Universe all drew heavily from the funk tradition. Dumpstaphunk builds upon the New Orleans tradition of funk, with their gritty, low-ended grooves and soulful four-part vocals.

Since the mid-1990s the nu-funk or funk revivalist scene, centered on the deep funk collectors scene, is producing new material influenced by the sounds of rare funk 45s. Labels include Desco, Soul Fire, Daptone, Timmion, Neapolitan, Bananarama, Kay-Dee, and Tramp. These labels often release on 45 rpm records. Although specializing in music for rare funk DJs, there has been some crossover into the mainstream music industry, such as Sharon Jones' 2005 appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Those who mix acid jazz, acid house, trip hop, and other genres with funk include Tom Tom Club,[94] Brainticket,[95] Groove Armada, et al.[96][97]

2010s funktronica

During the 2000s and early 2010s, some punk funk bands such as Out Hud and Mongolian MonkFish performed in the indie rock scene. Indie band Rilo Kiley, in keeping with their tendency to explore a variety of rockish styles, incorporated funk into their song "The Moneymaker" on the album Under the Blacklight. Prince, with his later albums, gave a rebirth to the funk sound with songs like "The Everlasting Now", "Musicology", "Ol' Skool Company", and "Black Sweat". Particle,[98] for instance, is part of a scene which combined the elements of digital music made with computers, synthesizers, and samples with analog instruments, sounds, and improvisational and compositional elements of funk.[99][100]

Derivatives

From the early 1970s onwards, funk has developed various subgenres. While George Clinton and the Parliament were making a harder variation of funk, bands such as Kool and the Gang, Ohio Players and Earth, Wind and Fire were making disco-influenced funk music.[101]

Funk rock

Main article: Funk rock

Funk rock (also written as funk-rock or funk/rock) fuses funk and rock elements.[102] Its earliest incarnation was heard in the late '60s through the mid-'70s by musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Gary Wright, David Bowie, Mother's Finest, and Funkadelic on their earlier albums.

Many instruments may be incorporated into funk rock, but the overall sound is defined by a definitive bass or drum beat and electric guitars. The bass and drum rhythms are influenced by funk music but with more intensity, while the guitar can be funk- or rock-influenced, usually with distortion. Prince, Jesse Johnson, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone are major artists in funk rock.

Avant-funk

Main article: Avant-funk

The term "avant-funk" has been used to describe acts who combined funk with art rock's concerns.[103] Simon Frith described the style as an application of progressive rock mentality to rhythm rather than melody and harmony.[103] Simon Reynolds characterized avant-funk as a kind of psychedelia in which "oblivion was to be attained not through rising above the body, rather through immersion in the physical, self loss through animalism."[103]

 
Talking Heads combined funk with elements of art rock.

Acts in the genre include German krautrock band Can,[104] American funk artists Sly Stone and George Clinton,[105] and a wave of early 1980s UK and US artists (including Public Image Ltd, Talking Heads, the Pop Group, Gang of Four, Bauhaus, Cabaret Voltaire, Defunkt, A Certain Ratio, and 23 Skidoo)[106] who embraced black dance music styles such as disco and funk.[107] The artists of the late 1970s New York no wave scene also explored avant-funk, influenced by figures such as Ornette Coleman.[108] Reynolds noted these artists' preoccupations with issues such as alienation, repression and technocracy of Western modernity.[103]

Go-go

Main article: Go-go

Go-go originated in the Washington, D.C. area with which it remains associated, along with other spots in the Mid-Atlantic. Inspired by singers such as Chuck Brown, the "Godfather of Go-go", it is a blend of funk, rhythm and blues, and early hip hop, with a focus on lo-fi percussion instruments and in-person jamming in place of dance tracks. As such, it is primarily a dance music with an emphasis on live audience call and response. Go-go rhythms are also incorporated into street percussion.

Boogie

Main article: Boogie (genre)

Boogie is an electronic music mainly influenced by funk and post-disco. The minimalist approach of boogie, consisting of synthesizers and keyboards, helped to establish electro and house music. Boogie, unlike electro, emphasizes the slapping techniques of bass guitar but also bass synthesizers. Artists include Vicky "D", Komiko, Peech Boys, Kashif, and later Evelyn King.

Electro funk

Main article: Electro funk

Electro funk is a hybrid of electronic music and funk. It essentially follows the same form as funk, and retains funk's characteristics, but is made entirely (or partially) with a use of electronic instruments such as the TR-808. Vocoders or talkboxes were commonly implemented to transform the vocals. The pioneering electro band Zapp commonly used such instruments in their music. Bootsy Collins also began to incorporate a more electronic sound on later solo albums. Other artists include Herbie Hancock, Afrika Bambaataa, Egyptian Lover, Vaughan Mason & Crew, Midnight Star and Cybotron.

Funk metal

Main article: Funk metal

Funk metal (sometimes typeset differently such as funk-metal) is a fusion genre of music which emerged in the 1980s, as part of the alternative metal movement. It typically incorporates elements of funk and heavy metal (often thrash metal), and in some cases other styles, such as punk and experimental music. It features hard-driving heavy metal guitar riffs, the pounding bass rhythms characteristic of funk, and sometimes hip hop-style rhymes into an alternative rock approach to songwriting. A primary example is the all-African-American rock band Living Colour, who have been said to be "funk-metal pioneers" by Rolling Stone.[109] During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the style was most prevalent in California – particularly Los Angeles and San Francisco.[110][111]

G-funk

Main article: G-funk
 
Dr. Dre (pictured in 2011) was one of the influential creators of G-funk.

G-funk is a fusion genre of music which combines gangsta rap and funk. It is generally considered to have been invented by West Coast rappers and made famous by Dr. Dre. It incorporates multi-layered and melodic synthesizers, slow hypnotic grooves, a deep bass, background female vocals, the extensive sampling of P-Funk tunes, and a high-pitched portamento saw wave synthesizer lead. Unlike other earlier rap acts that also utilized funk samples (such as EPMD and the Bomb Squad), G-funk often used fewer, unaltered samples per song.

Timba funk

Main article: Timba

Timba is a form of funky Cuban popular dance music. By 1990, several Cuban bands had incorporated elements of funk and hip-hop into their arrangements, and expanded upon the instrumentation of the traditional conjunto with an American drum set, saxophones and a two-keyboard format. Timba bands like La Charanga Habanera or Bamboleo often have horns or other instruments playing short parts of tunes by Earth, Wind and Fire, Kool and the Gang or other U.S. funk bands. While many funk motifs exhibit a clave-based structure, they are created intuitively, without a conscious intent of aligning the various parts to a guide-pattern. Timba incorporates funk motifs into an overt and intentional clave structure.

Social impact

Women and funk

 
Chaka Khan (born 1953) has been called the "Queen of Funk".

Despite funk's popularity in modern music, few people have examined the work of funk women. Notable funk women include Chaka Khan, Labelle, Brides of Funkenstein, Klymaxx, Mother's Finest, Lyn Collins, Betty Davis and Teena Marie. As cultural critic Cheryl Keyes explains in her essay "She Was Too Black for Rock and Too Hard for Soul: (Re)discovering the Musical Career of Betty Mabry Davis," most of the scholarship around funk has focused on the cultural work of men. She states that "Betty Davis is an artist whose name has gone unheralded as a pioneer in the annals of funk and rock. Most writing on these musical genres has traditionally placed male artists like Jimi Hendrix, George Clinton (of Parliament-Funkadelic), and bassist Larry Graham as trendsetters in the shaping of a rock music sensibility."[112]

In The Feminist Funk Power of Betty Davis and Renée Stout, Nikki A. Greene[113] notes that Davis' provocative and controversial style helped her rise to popularity in the 1970s as she focused on sexually motivated, self-empowered subject matter. Furthermore, this affected the young artist's ability to draw large audiences and commercial success. Greene also notes that Davis was never made an official spokesperson or champion for the civil rights and feminist movements of the time, although more recently[when?] her work has become a symbol of sexual liberation for women of color. Davis' song "If I'm In Luck I Just Might Get Picked Up", on her self-titled debut album, sparked controversy, and was banned by the Detroit NAACP.[114] Maureen Mahan, a musicologist and anthropologist, examines Davis' impact on the music industry and the American public in her article "They Say She's Different: Race, Gender, Genre, and the Liberated Black Femininity of Betty Davis".

Laina Dawes, the author of What Are You Doing Here: A Black Woman's Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal, believes respectability politics is the reason artists like Davis do not get the same recognition as their male counterparts: "I blame what I call respectability politics as part of the reason the funk-rock some of the women from the '70s aren't better known. Despite the importance of their music and presence, many of the funk-rock females represented the aggressive behavior and sexuality that many people were not comfortable with."[115]

 
Janelle Monáe (born 1985) is part of a new wave of female funk artists.

According to Francesca T. Royster, in Rickey Vincent's book Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One, he analyzes the impact of Labelle but only in limited sections. Royster criticizes Vincent's analysis of the group, stating: "It is a shame, then, that Vincent gives such minimal attention to Labelle's performances in his study. This reflects, unfortunately, a still consistent sexism that shapes the evaluation of funk music. In Funk, Vincent's analysis of Labelle is brief—sharing a single paragraph with the Pointer Sisters in his three-page sub chapter, 'Funky Women.' He writes that while 'Lady Marmalade' 'blew the lid off of the standards of sexual innuendo and skyrocketed the group's star status,' the band's 'glittery image slipped into the disco undertow and was ultimately wasted as the trio broke up in search of solo status" (Vincent, 1996, 192).[116] Many female artists who are considered to be in the genre of funk, also share songs in the disco, soul, and R&B genres; Labelle falls into this category of women who are split among genres due to a critical view of music theory and the history of sexism in the United States.[117]

In recent years,[when?] artists like Janelle Monáe have opened the doors for more scholarship and analysis on the female impact on the funk music genre.[dubious – discuss] Monáe's style bends concepts of gender, sexuality, and self-expression in a manner similar to the way some male pioneers in funk broke boundaries.[118] Her albums center around Afro-futuristic concepts, centering on elements of female and black empowerment and visions of a dystopian future.[119] In his article, "Janelle Monáe and Afro-sonic Feminist Funk", Matthew Valnes writes that Monae's involvement in the funk genre is juxtaposed with the traditional view of funk as a male-centered genre. Valnes acknowledges that funk is male-dominated, but provides insight to the societal circumstances that led to this situation.[118][clarification needed]

Monáe's influences include her mentor Prince, Funkadelic, Lauryn Hill, and other funk and R&B artists, but according to Emily Lordi, "[Betty] Davis is seldom listed among Janelle Monáe's many influences, and certainly the younger singer's high-tech concepts, virtuosic performances, and meticulously produced songs are far removed from Davis's proto-punk aesthetic. But... like Davis, she also is closely linked with a visionary male mentor (Prince). The title of Monáe's 2013 album, The Electric Lady, alludes to Hendrix's Electric Ladyland, but it also implicitly cites the coterie of women that inspired Hendrix himself: that group, called the Cosmic Ladies or Electric Ladies, was together led by Hendrix's lover Devon Wilson and Betty Davis."[120]

See also

References

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Further reading

  • Danielsen, Anne (2006). Presence and pleasure: The funk grooves of James Brown and Parliament. Wesleyan University Press.
  • Vincent, Rickey (1996). Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-13499-1.
  • Thompson, Dave (2001). Funk. Backbeat Books. ISBN 0-87930-629-7.
  • Wermelinger, Peter (2005). Funky & Groovy Music Records Lexicon. -. ISBN 3-9522773-1-2.

April 08, 2023
funk, other, uses, disambiguation, technical, reasons, redirects, here, song, music, genre, that, originated, african, american, communities, 1960s, when, musicians, created, rhythmic, danceable, form, music, through, mixture, various, music, genres, that, wer. For other uses see Funk disambiguation For technical reasons Funk 49 redirects here For the song see Funk 49 Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid 1960s when musicians created a rhythmic danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid 20th century It de emphasizes melody and chord progressions and focuses on a strong rhythmic groove of a bassline played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a percussionist often at slower tempos than other popular music Funk typically consists of a complex percussive groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves that create a hypnotic and danceable feel 3 Funk uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths and thirteenths FunkJames Brown a pioneer of funk in 1973Stylistic originsSoulrhythm and bluesjazzgospelCultural originsMid 1960s 1 United StatesDerivative formsDiscohip hoppost punkdance punkboogiecontemporary R amp Belectrobreakbeatnew jack swingoldschool jungleneurofunkliquid funkkrautrockfunkstepSubgenresDeep funkgo goFusion genresAcid jazzafrobeatavant funkBrit funkfree funkfunk metalfunk rockfunky houseG funkjazz funkpsychedelic funkskweeeswamp rock 2 UK funkyOther topicsMusicianspsychedelic soulFunk originated in the mid 1960s with James Brown s development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat with a heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure The One and the application of swung 16th notes and syncopation on all basslines drum patterns and guitar riffs 4 and rock and psychedelia influenced musicians Sly and the Family Stone and Jimi Hendrix fostering improvisation in funk 5 Other musical groups including Kool and the Gang 6 Parliament Funkadelic Ohio Players Fatback Band Jimmy Castor Bunch Earth Wind amp Fire B T Express Hamilton Bohannon 7 One Way Lakeside Dazz Band The Gap Band Slave Aurra Roger Troutman amp Zapp Con Funk Shun Cameo Bar Kays and Chic began to adopt and develop Brown s innovations during the 1970s and the 1980s Funk derivatives include avant funk an avant garde strain of funk boogie a hybrid of electronic music and funk funk metal a mix of funk and metal G funk a mix of gangsta rap and funk Timba a form of funky Cuban dance music and funk jam It is also the main influence of Washington go go a funk sub genre 8 Funk samples and breakbeats have been used extensively in hip hop and electronic dance music Contents 1 Etymology 2 Characteristics 2 1 Rhythm and tempo 2 2 Harmony 2 3 Improvisation 2 4 Instruments 2 4 1 Bass 2 4 2 Drums 2 4 3 Electric guitar 2 4 4 Keyboards 2 5 Vocals and lyrics 2 6 Other instruments 2 7 Costumes and style 3 History 3 1 New Orleans 3 2 1960s 3 2 1 James Brown 3 2 2 Parliament Funkadelic 3 3 Late 1960s early 1970s 3 4 1970s 3 5 Jazz funk 3 6 1980s synth funk 3 7 Late 1980s to 2000s nu funk 3 8 2010s funktronica 4 Derivatives 4 1 Funk rock 4 2 Avant funk 4 3 Go go 4 4 Boogie 4 5 Electro funk 4 6 Funk metal 4 7 G funk 4 8 Timba funk 5 Social impact 5 1 Women and funk 6 See also 7 References 8 Further readingEtymology Edit Look up funk in Wiktionary the free dictionary The word funk initially referred and still refers to a strong odor It is originally derived from Latin fumigare which means to smoke via Old French fungiere and in this sense it was first documented in English in 1620 In 1784 funky meaning musty was first documented which in turn led to a sense of earthy that was taken up around 1900 in early jazz slang for something deeply or strongly felt 9 10 Even though in white culture the term funk can have negative connotations of odor or being in a bad mood in a funk in African communities the term funk while still linked to body odor had the positive sense that a musician s hard working honest effort led to sweat and from their physical exertion came an exquisite and superlative performance 11 In early jam sessions musicians would encourage one another to get down by telling one another Now put some stank on it At least as early as 1907 jazz songs carried titles such as Funky The first example is an unrecorded number by Buddy Bolden remembered as either Funky Butt or Buddy Bolden s Blues with improvised lyrics that were according to Donald M Marquis either comical and light or crude and downright obscene but in one way or another referring to the sweaty atmosphere at dances where Bolden s band played 12 13 As late as the 1950s and early 1960s when funk and funky were used increasingly in the context of jazz music the terms still were considered indelicate and inappropriate for use in polite company According to one source New Orleans born drummer Earl Palmer was the first to use the word funky to explain to other musicians that their music should be made more syncopated and danceable 14 The style later evolved into a rather hard driving insistent rhythm implying a more carnal quality This early form of the music set the pattern for later musicians 15 The music was identified as slow sexy loose riff oriented and danceable citation needed The meaning of funk continues to captivate the genre of black music feeling and knowledge Recent scholarship in black studies has taken the term funk in its many iterations to consider the range of black movement and culture In particular L H Stallings s Funk the Erotic Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures explores these multiple meanings of funk as a way to theorize sexuality culture and western hegemony within the many locations of funk street parties drama theater strippers and strip clubs pornography and self published fiction 16 Characteristics EditRhythm and tempo Edit The rhythm section of a funk band the electric bass drums electric guitar and keyboards is the heartbeat of the funk sound Pictured here is the Meters Like soul funk is based on dance music so it has a strong rhythmic role 17 The sound of funk is as much based on the spaces between the notes as the notes that are played as such rests between notes are important 18 While there are rhythmic similarities between funk and disco funk has a central dance beat that s slower sexier and more syncopated than disco and funk rhythm section musicians add more subtextures complexity and personality onto the main beat than a programmed synth based disco ensemble 19 Before funk most pop music was based on sequences of eighth notes because the fast tempos made further subdivisions of the beat infeasible 3 The innovation of funk was that by using slower tempos surely influenced by the revival of blues at early 60s funk created space for further rhythmic subdivision so a bar of 4 4 could now accommodate possible 16 note placements 3 Specifically by having the guitar and drums play in motoring sixteenth note rhythms it created the opportunity for the other instruments to play more syncopated broken up style which facilitated a move to more liberated basslines Together these interlocking parts created a hypnotic and danceable feel 3 A great deal of funk is rhythmically based on a two celled onbeat offbeat structure which originated in sub Saharan African music traditions New Orleans appropriated the bifurcated structure from the Afro Cuban mambo and conga in the late 1940s and made it its own 20 New Orleans funk as it was called gained international acclaim largely because James Brown s rhythm section used it to great effect 21 Simple kick and snare funk motif The kick first sounds two onbeats which are then answered by two offbeats The snare sounds the backbeat Harmony Edit A thirteenth chord E 13 which also contains a flat 7th and a 9th Play help info Funk uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths Some examples of chords used in funk are minor eleventh chords e g F minor 11th dominant seventh with added sharp ninth and a suspended fourth e g C7 9 sus 4 dominant ninth chords e g F9 and minor sixth chords e g C minor 6 18 The six ninth chord is used in funk e g F 6 9 it is a major chord with an added sixth and ninth 18 In funk minor seventh chords are more common than minor triads because minor triads were found to be too thin sounding 22 Some of the best known and most skillful soloists in funk have jazz backgrounds Trombonist Fred Wesley and saxophonists Pee Wee Ellis and Maceo Parker are among the most notable musicians in the funk music genre having worked with James Brown George Clinton and Prince Unlike bebop jazz with its complex rapid fire chord changes funk virtually abandoned chord changes creating static single chord vamps often alternating a minor seventh chord and a related dominant seventh chord such as A minor to D7 with melodo harmonic movement and a complex driving rhythmic feel Even though some funk songs are mainly one chord vamps the rhythm section musicians may embellish this chord by moving it up or down a semitone or a tone to create chromatic passing chords For example Play that funky music by Wild Cherry mainly uses an E ninth chord but it also uses F 9 and F9 23 The chords used in funk songs typically imply a Dorian or Mixolydian mode as opposed to the major or natural minor tonalities of most popular music Melodic content was derived by mixing these modes with the blues scale In the 1970s jazz music drew upon funk to create a new subgenre of jazz funk which can be heard in recordings by Miles Davis Live Evil On the Corner and Herbie Hancock Head Hunters Improvisation Edit Funk continues the African musical tradition of improvisation in that in a funk band the group would typically feel when to change by jamming and grooving even in the studio recording stage which might only be based on the skeleton framework for each song 24 Funk uses collective improvisation in which musicians at rehearsals would have what was metaphorically a musical conversation an approach which extended to the onstage performances 25 Instruments Edit Bass Edit Bootsy Collins performing in 1996 with a star shaped bass Funk creates an intense groove by using strong guitar riffs and basslines played on electric bass Like Motown recordings funk songs use basslines as the centerpiece of songs Indeed funk has been called the style in which the bassline is most prominent in the songs 26 with the bass playing the hook of the song 27 Early funk basslines used syncopation typically syncopated eighth notes but with the addition of more of a driving feel than in New Orleans funk and they used blues scale notes along with the major third above the root 28 Later funk basslines use sixteenth note syncopation blues scales and repetitive patterns often with leaps of an octave or a larger interval 27 source source This funky bassline includes percussive slapping rhythmic ghost notes and glissando effects Funk basslines emphasize repetitive patterns locked in grooves continuous playing and slap and popping bass Slapping and popping uses a mixture of thumb slapped low notes also called thumped and finger popped or plucked high notes allowing the bass to have a drum like rhythmic role which became a distinctive element of funk Notable slap and funky players include Bernard Edwards Chic Robert Kool Bell Mark Adams Slave Johnny Flippin Fatback 29 and Bootsy Collins 30 While slap and funky is important some influential bassists who play funk such as Rocco Prestia from Tower of Power did not use the approach and instead used a typical fingerstyle method based on James Jamerson s Motown playing style 30 Larry Graham from Sly and the Family Stone is an influential bassist 31 Funk bass has an earthy percussive kind of feel in part due to the use of muted rhythmic ghost notes 31 also called dead notes 30 Some funk bass players use electronic effects units to alter the tone of their instrument such as envelope filters an auto wah effect that creates a gooey slurpy quacky and syrupy sound 32 and imitate keyboard synthesizer bass tones 33 e g the Mutron envelope filter 27 and overdriven fuzz bass effects which are used to create the classic fuzz tone that sounds like old school Funk records 34 Other effects that are used include the flanger and bass chorus 27 Collins also used a Mu Tron Octave Divider an octave pedal that like the Octavia pedal popularized by Hendrix can double a note an octave above and below to create a futuristic and fat low end sound 35 Drums Edit Funk drumming creates a groove by emphasizing the drummer s feel and emotion which including occasional tempo fluctuations the use of swing feel in some songs e g Cissy Strut by The Meters and I ll Take You There by The Staple Singers which have a half swung feel and less use of fills as they can lessen the groove 36 Drum fills are few and economical to ensure that the drumming stays in the pocket with a steady tempo and groove 37 These playing techniques are supplemented by a set up for the drum kit that often includes muffled bass drums and toms and tightly tuned snare drums 36 Double bass drumming sounds are often done by funk drummers with a single pedal an approach which accents the second note and deadens the drumhead s resonance which gives a short muffled bass drum sound 36 The drum groove from Cissy Strut James Brown used two drummers such as Clyde Stubblefield and John Jabo Starks in recording and soul show 38 By using two drummers the JB band was able to maintain a solid syncopated rhythmic sound which contributed to the band s distinctive Funky Drummer rhythm 38 In Tower of Power drummer David Garibaldi s playing there are many ghost notes and rim shots 36 A key part of the funk drumming style is using the hi hat with opening and closing the hi hats during playing to create splash accent effects being an important approach 39 Two handed sixteenth notes on the hi hats sometimes with a degree of swing feel is used in funk 36 Jim Payne states that funk drumming uses a wide open approach to improvisation around rhythmic ideas from Latin music ostinatos that are repeated with only slight variations an approach which he says causes the mesmerizing nature of funk 40 Payne states that funk can be thought of as rock played in a more syncopated manner particularly with the bass drum which plays syncopated eighth note and sixteenth note patterns that were innovated by drummer Clive Williams with Joe Tex George Brown with Kool amp the Gang and James Diamond Williams with The Ohio Players 41 As with rock the snare backbeats on beats two and four are still used in most funk albeit with additional soft ghost notes 40 Electric guitar Edit In funk guitarists often mix playing chords of a short duration nicknamed stabs with faster rhythms and riffs 17 Guitarists playing rhythmic parts often play sixteenth notes including with percussive ghost notes 17 Chord extensions are favored such as ninth chords 17 Typically funk uses two interlocking electric guitar parts with a rhythm guitarist and a tenor guitarist who plays single notes The two guitarists trade off their lines to create a call and response intertwined pocket 42 If a band only has one guitarist this effect may be recreated by overdubbing in the studio or in a live show by having a single guitarist play both parts to the degree that this is possible 42 In funk bands guitarists typically play in a percussive style using a style of picking called the chank or chicken scratch in which the guitar strings are pressed lightly against the fingerboard and then quickly released just enough to get a muted scratching sound that is produced by rapid rhythmic strumming of the opposite hand near the bridge 43 Earliest examples of that technic used on rhythm and blues is listened on Johnny Otis song Willie and the Hand Jive in 1957 with the future James Brown band guitar player Jimmy Nolen The technique can be broken down into three approaches the chika the chank and the choke With the chika comes a muted sound of strings being hit against the fingerboard chank is a staccato attack done by releasing the chord with the fretting hand after strumming it and choking generally uses all the strings being strummed and heavily muted 18 Guitarist Nile Rodgers is best known for his performances with Chic The result of these factors was a rhythm guitar sound that seemed to float somewhere between the low end thump of the electric bass and the cutting tone of the snare and hi hats with a rhythmically melodic feel that fell deep in the pocket Guitarist Jimmy Nolen longtime guitarist for James Brown developed this technique On Brown s Give It Up or Turnit a Loose 1969 however Jimmy Nolen s guitar part has a bare bones tonal structure The pattern of attack points is the emphasis not the pattern of pitches The guitar is used the way that an African drum or idiophone would be used Nolen created a clean trebly tone by using hollow body jazz guitars with single coil P 90 pickups plugged into a Fender Twin Reverb amp with the mid turned down low and the treble turned up high 44 Funk guitarists playing rhythm guitar generally avoid distortion effects and amp overdrive to get a clean sound and given the importance of a crisp high sound Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters were widely used for their cutting treble tone 44 The mids are often cut by guitarists to help the guitar sound different from the horn section keyboards and other instruments 44 Given the focus on providing a rhythmic groove and the lack of emphasis on instrumental guitar melodies and guitar solos sustain is not sought out by funk rhythm guitarists 44 Funk rhythm guitarists use compressor volume control effects to enhance the sound of muted notes which boosts the clucking sound and adds percussive excitement to funk rhythms an approach used by Nile Rodgers 45 Guitarist Eddie Hazel from Funkadelic is notable for his solo improvisation particularly for the solo on Maggot Brain and guitar riffs the tone of which was shaped by a Maestro FZ 1 Fuzz Tone pedal 35 Hazel along with guitarist Ernie Isley of the Isley Brothers was influenced by Jimi Hendrix s improvised wah wah infused solos Ernie Isley was tutored at an early age by Hendrix when Hendrix was a part of the Isley Brothers backing band and temporarily lived in the Isleys household Funk guitarists use the wah wah sound effect along with muting the notes to create a percussive sound for their guitar riffs The phaser effect is often used in funk and R amp B guitar playing for its filter sweeping sound effect an example being the Isley Brothers song Who s That Lady 46 Michael Hampton another P Funk guitarist was able to play Hazel s virtuosic solo on Maggot Brain using a solo approach that added in string bends and Hendrix style feedback 35 Keyboards Edit Isaac Hayes playing keyboards in 1973 A range of keyboard instruments are used in funk Acoustic piano is used in funk including in September by Earth Wind amp Fire and Will It Go Round in Circles by Billy Preston The electric piano is used on songs such as Herbie Hancock s Chameleon a Fender Rhodes and Mercy Mercy Mercy by Joe Zawinul a Wurlitzer The clavinet is used for its percussive tone and it can be heard in songs such as Stevie Wonder s Superstition and Higher Ground and Bill Withers Use Me The Hammond B 3 organ is used in funk in songs such as Cissy Strut by The Meters and Love the One You re With with Aretha Franklin singing and Billy Preston on keyboards Bernie Worrell s range of keyboards from his recordings with Parliament Funkadelic demonstrate the wide range of keyboards used in funk as they include the Hammond organ Funky Woman Hit It and Quit It Wars of Armageddon RMI electric piano I Wanna Know If It s Good to You Free Your Mind Loose Booty acoustic piano Funky Dollar Bill Jimmy s Got a Little Bit of Bitch in Him clavinet Joyful Process Up for the Down Stroke Red Hot Mama Minimoog synthesizer Atmosphere Flash Light Aqua Boogie Knee Deep Let s Take It to the Stage and ARP string ensemble synth Chocolate City Give Up the Funk Tear the Roof off the Sucker Undisco Kidd Synthesizers were used in funk both to add to the deep sound of the electric bass or even to replace the electric bass altogether in some songs 47 Funk synthesizer bass most often a Minimoog was used because it could create layered sounds and new electronic tones that were not feasible on electric bass 47 Vocals and lyrics Edit In the 1970s funk used many of the same vocal styles that were used in African American music in the 1960s including singing influences from blues gospel jazz and doo wop 38 Like these other African American styles funk used y ells shouts hollers moans humming and melodic riffs along with styles such as Call and Response and narration of stories like the African oral tradition approach 48 The call and response in funk can be between the lead singer and the band members who act as backup vocalists 49 As funk emerged from soul the vocals in funk share soul s approach however funk vocals tend to be more punctuated energetic rhythmically percussive and less embellished with ornaments and the vocal lines tend to resemble horn parts and have pushed rhythms 50 Funk bands such as Earth Wind amp Fire have harmony vocal parts 19 Songs like Super Bad by James Brown included double voice along with yells shouts and screams 51 Funk singers used a black aesthetic to perform that made use of colorful and lively exchange of gestures facial expressions body posture and vocal phrases to create an engaging performance 52 Singer Charlie Wilson The lyrics in funk music addressed issues faced by the African American community in the United States during the 1970s which arose due to the move away from an industrial working class economy to an information economy which harmed the Black working class 53 Funk songs by The Ohio Players Earth Wind amp Fire and James Brown raised issues faced by lower income Blacks in their song lyrics such as poor economic conditions and themes of poor inner city life in the black communities 54 The Funkadelic song One Nation Under A Groove 1978 is about the challenges that Blacks overcame during the 1960s civil rights movement and it includes an exhortation for Blacks in the 1970s to capitalize on the new social and political opportunities that had become available in the 1970s 55 The Isley Brothers song Fight the Power 1975 has a political message 56 Parliament s song Chocolate City 1975 metaphorically refers to Washington D C and other US cities that have a mainly Black population and it draws attention to the potential power that Black voters wield and suggests that a Black President be considered in the future 57 The political themes of funk songs and the aiming of the messages to a Black audience echoed the new image of Blacks that was created in Blaxploitation films which depicted African American men and women standing their ground and fighting for what was right 58 Both funk and Blaxploitation films addressed issues faced by Blacks and told stories from a Black perspective 58 Another link between 1970s funk and Blaxploitation films is that many of these films used funk soundtracks e g Curtis Mayfield for Superfly James Brown and Fred Wesley for Black Caesar and War for Youngblood 59 Funk songs included metaphorical language that was understood best by listeners who were familiar with the black aesthetic and black vernacular 60 For example funk songs included expressions such as shake your money maker funk yourself right out and move your boogie body 61 Another example is the use of bad in the song Super Bad 1970 which black listeners knew meant good or great 49 In the 1970s to get around radio obscenity restrictions funk artists would use words that sounded like non allowed words and double entendres to get around these restrictions 62 For example The Ohio Players had a song entitled Fopp which referred to Fopp me right don t you fopp me wrong We ll be foppin all night long 62 Some funk songs used made up words which suggested that they were writing lyrics in a constant haze of marijuana smoke such as Parliament s Aqua Boogie A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop which includes words such as bioaquadooloop 62 The mainstream white listener base was often not able to understand funk s lyrical messages which contributed to funk s lack of popular music chart success with white audiences during the 1970s 63 Other instruments Edit Horn section arrangements with groups of brass instruments are often used in funk songs 19 Funk horn sections could include saxophone often tenor sax trumpet trombone and for larger horn sections such as quintets and sextets a baritone sax 3 Horn sections played rhythmic and syncopated parts often with offbeat phrases that emphasize rhythmic displacement 3 Funk song introductions are an important place for horn arrangements 3 Funk horn sections typically include saxophones and trumpets Larger horn sections often add a second instrument for one of the saxes or trumpets and a trombone or bari sax may also be used Pictured is the Earth Wind and Fire horn section Funk horn sections performed in a rhythmic percussive style that mimicked the approach used by funk rhythm guitarists 64 Horn sections would punctuate the lyrics by playing in the spaces between vocals using short staccato rhythmic blast s 64 Notable funk horn players included Alfred PeeWee Ellis trombonist Fred Wesley and alto sax player Maceo Parker 64 Notable funk horn sections including the Phoenix Horns with Earth Wind amp Fire the Horny Horns with Parliament the Memphis Horns with Isaac Hayes and MFSB with Curtis Mayfield 64 The instruments in funk horn sections varied If there were two horn players it could be trumpet and sax trumpet and trombone or two saxes 3 A standard horn trio would consist of trumpet sax and trombone but trios of one trumpet with two saxes or two trumpets with one sax were also fairly common 3 A quartet would be the set up the same as a standard horn trio but with an extra trumpet sax or less frequently trombone player Quintets would either be a trio of saxes typically alto tenor baritone or tenor tenor baritone with a trumpet and a trombone or a pair each of trumpets and saxes with one trombone With six instruments the horn section would usually be two trumpets three saxes and a trombone 3 Notable songs with funk horn sections include Cold Sweat James Brown amp the Famous Flames 1967 Superstition Stevie Wonder 1972 Funky Stuff Kool amp The Gang 1973 What Is Hip Tower of Power 1973 Pick Up the Pieces Average White Band Up For The Down Stroke Parliament 1974 Hair Graham Central Station 1974 Too Hot to Stop The Bar Kays 1976 Getaway Earth Wind amp Fire 1976In bands or shows where hiring a horn section is not feasible a keyboardist can play the horn section parts on a synthesizer with keyboard brass patches however choosing an authentic sounding synthesizer and brass patch is important 3 In the 2010s with micro MIDI synths it may even be possible to have another instrumentalist play the keyboard brass parts thus enabling the keyboardist to continue to comp throughout the song 3 Costumes and style Edit Funk bands in the 1970s adopted Afro American fashion and style including Bell bottom pants platform shoes hoop earring s Afros hairstyles leather vests beaded necklaces 65 dashiki shirts jumpsuits and boots 66 In contrast to earlier bands such as The Temptations which wore matching suits and neat haircuts to appeal to white mainstream audiences funk bands adopted an African spirit in their outfits and style 60 George Clinton and Parliament are known for their imaginative costumes and freedom of dress which included bedsheets acting as robes and capes 67 History EditFunk was formed through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid 20th century Musicologist Anne Danielsen wrote that funk might be placed in the lineage of rhythm and blues jazz and soul 68 Sociologist Darby E Southgate wrote that funk is an amalgam of gospel soul jazz fusion rhythm and blues and black rock 1 The distinctive characteristics of African American musical expression are rooted in sub Saharan African music traditions and find their earliest expression in spirituals work chants songs praise shouts gospel blues and body rhythms hambone patting juba and ring shout clapping and stomping patterns Like other styles of African American musical expression including jazz soul music and R amp B funk music accompanied many protest movements during and after the Civil Rights Movement Funk allowed everyday experiences to be expressed to challenge daily struggles and hardships fought by lower and working class communities New Orleans Edit Gerhard Kubik notes that with the exception of New Orleans early blues lacked complex polyrhythms and there was a very specific absence of asymmetric time line patterns key patterns in virtually all early twentieth century African American music only in some New Orleans genres does a hint of simple time line patterns occasionally appear in the form of transient so called stomp patterns or stop time chorus These do not function in the same way as African time lines 69 In the late 1940s this changed somewhat when the two celled time line structure was brought into New Orleans blues New Orleans musicians were especially receptive to Afro Cuban influences precisely at the time when R amp B was first forming 70 Dave Bartholomew and Professor Longhair Henry Roeland Byrd incorporated Afro Cuban instruments as well as the clave pattern and related two celled figures in songs such as Carnival Day Bartholomew 1949 and Mardi Gras In New Orleans Longhair 1949 Robert Palmer reports that in the 1940s Professor Longhair listened to and played with musicians from the islands and fell under the spell of Perez Prado s mambo records 20 Professor Longhair s particular style was known locally as rumba boogie 71 One of Longhair s great contributions was his particular approach of adopting two celled clave based patterns into New Orleans rhythm and blues R amp B Longhair s rhythmic approach became a basic template of funk According to Dr John Malcolm John Mac Rebennack Jr the Professor put funk into music Longhair s thing had a direct bearing I d say on a large portion of the funk music that evolved in New Orleans 72 In his Mardi Gras in New Orleans the pianist employs the 2 3 clave onbeat offbeat motif in a rumba boogie guajeo 73 The syncopated but straight subdivision feel of Cuban music as opposed to swung subdivisions took root in New Orleans R amp B during this time Alexander Stewart states Eventually musicians from outside of New Orleans began to learn some of the rhythmic practices of the Crescent City Most important of these were James Brown and the drummers and arrangers he employed Brown s early repertoire had used mostly shuffle rhythms and some of his most successful songs were 12 8 ballads e g Please Please Please 1956 Bewildered 1961 I Don t Mind 1961 Brown s change to a funkier brand of soul required 4 4 metre and a different style of drumming 74 Stewart makes the point The singular style of rhythm amp blues that emerged from New Orleans in the years after World War II played an important role in the development of funk In a related development the underlying rhythms of American popular music underwent a basic yet generally unacknowledged transition from triplet or shuffle feel to even or straight eighth notes 75 1960s Edit James Brown Edit James Brown a progenitor of funk music James Brown credited Little Richard s 1950s R amp B road band The Upsetters from New Orleans as the first to put the funk into the rhythm of rock and roll 76 Following his temporary exit from secular music to become an evangelist in 1957 some of Little Richard s band members joined Brown and the Famous Flames beginning a long string of hits for them in 1958 By the mid 1960s James Brown had developed his signature groove that emphasized the downbeat with heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure to etch his distinctive sound rather than the backbeat that typified African American music 77 Brown often cued his band with the command On the one changing the percussion emphasis accent from the one two three four backbeat of traditional soul music to the one two three four downbeat but with an even note syncopated guitar rhythm on quarter notes two and four featuring a hard driving repetitive brassy swing This one three beat launched the shift in Brown s signature music style starting with his 1964 hit single Out of Sight and his 1965 hits Papa s Got a Brand New Bag and I Got You I Feel Good Brown s style of funk was based on interlocking contrapuntal parts syncopated basslines 16th beat drum patterns and syncopated guitar riffs 4 The main guitar ostinatos for Ain t it Funky c late 1960s are an example of Brown s refinement of New Orleans funk an irresistibly danceable riff stripped down to its rhythmic essence On Ain t it Funky the tonal structure is barebones Brown s innovations led to him and his band becoming the seminal funk act they also pushed the funk music style further to the forefront with releases such as Cold Sweat 1967 Mother Popcorn 1969 and Get Up I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine 1970 discarding even the twelve bar blues featured in his earlier music Instead Brown s music was overlaid with catchy anthemic vocals based on extensive vamps in which he also used his voice as a percussive instrument with frequent rhythmic grunts and with rhythm section patterns resembling West African polyrhythms a tradition evident in African American work songs and chants 78 Throughout his career Brown s frenzied vocals frequently punctuated with screams and grunts channeled the ecstatic ambiance of the black church in a secular context 78 External video Watch Clyde Stubblefield Funky Drummer on YouTubeAfter 1965 Brown s bandleader and arranger was Alfred Pee Wee Ellis Ellis credits Clyde Stubblefield s adoption of New Orleans drumming techniques as the basis of modern funk If in a studio you said play it funky that could imply almost anything But give me a New Orleans beat you got exactly what you wanted And Clyde Stubblefield was just the epitome of this funky drumming 79 Stewart states that the popular feel was passed along from New Orleans through James Brown s music to the popular music of the 1970s 75 Concerning the various funk motifs Stewart states that this model is different from a time line such as clave and tresillo in that it is not an exact pattern but more of a loose organizing principle 80 In a 1990 interview Brown offered his reason for switching the rhythm of his music I changed from the upbeat to the downbeat Simple as that really 81 According to Maceo Parker Brown s former saxophonist playing on the downbeat was at first hard for him and took some getting used to Reflecting back to his early days with Brown s band Parker reported that he had difficulty playing on the one during solo performances since he was used to hearing and playing with the accent on the second beat 82 Parliament Funkadelic Edit Main article P Funk George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic in 2006 A new group of musicians began to further develop the funk rock approach Innovations were prominently made by George Clinton with his bands Parliament and Funkadelic Together they produced a new kind of funk sound heavily influenced by jazz and psychedelic rock The two groups shared members and are often referred to collectively as Parliament Funkadelic The breakout popularity of Parliament Funkadelic gave rise to the term P Funk which referred to the music by George Clinton s bands and defined a new subgenre Clinton played a principal role in several other bands including Parlet the Horny Horns and the Brides of Funkenstein all part of the P Funk conglomerate P funk also came to mean something in its quintessence of superior quality or sui generis Following the work of Jimi Hendrix in the late 1960s artists such as Sly and the Family Stone combined the psychedelic rock of Hendrix with funk borrowing wah pedals fuzz boxes echo chambers and vocal distorters from the former as well as blues rock and jazz 83 In the following years groups such as Clinton s Parliament Funkadelic continued this sensibility employing synthesizers and rock oriented guitar work 83 Late 1960s early 1970s Edit Other musical groups picked up on the rhythms and vocal style developed by James Brown and his band and the funk style began to grow Dyke and the Blazers based in Phoenix Arizona released Funky Broadway in 1967 perhaps the first record of the soul music era to have the word funky in the title In 1969 Jimmy McGriff released Electric Funk featuring his distinctive organ over a blazing horn section Meanwhile on the West Coast Charles Wright amp the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band was releasing funk tracks beginning with its first album in 1967 culminating in the classic single Express Yourself in 1971 Also from the West Coast area more specifically Oakland California came the band Tower of Power TOP which formed in 1968 Their debut album East Bay Grease released 1970 is considered an important milestone in funk Throughout the 1970s TOP had many hits and the band helped to make funk music a successful genre with a broader audience In 1970 Sly amp the Family Stone s Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin reached 1 on the charts as did Family Affair in 1971 Notably these afforded the group and the genre crossover success and greater recognition yet such success escaped comparatively talented and moderately popular funk band peers The Meters defined funk in New Orleans starting with their top ten R amp B hits Sophisticated Cissy and Cissy Strut in 1969 Another group who defined funk around this time were the Isley Brothers whose funky 1969 1 R amp B hit It s Your Thing signaled a breakthrough in African American music bridging the gaps of the jazzy sounds of Brown the psychedelic rock of Jimi Hendrix and the upbeat soul of Sly amp the Family Stone and Mother s Finest The Temptations who had previously helped to define the Motown Sound a distinct blend of pop soul adopted this new psychedelic sound towards the end of the 1960s as well Their producer Norman Whitfield became an innovator in the field of psychedelic soul creating hits with a newer funkier sound for many Motown acts including War by Edwin Starr Smiling Faces Sometimes by the Undisputed Truth and Papa Was A Rollin Stone by the Temptations Motown producers Frank Wilson Keep On Truckin and Hal Davis Dancing Machine followed suit Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye also adopted funk beats for some of their biggest hits in the 1970s such as Superstition and You Haven t Done Nothin and I Want You and Got To Give It Up respectively 1970s Edit See also Progressive soul and disco The Original Family Stone live 2006 Jerry Martini Rose Stone and Cynthia Robinson The 1970s were the era of highest mainstream visibility for funk music In addition to Parliament Funkadelic artists like Sly and the Family Stone Rufus amp Chaka Khan Bootsy s Rubber Band the Isley Brothers Ohio Players Con Funk Shun Kool and the Gang the Bar Kays Commodores Roy Ayers Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder among others were successful in getting radio play Disco music owed a great deal to funk Many early disco songs and performers came directly from funk oriented backgrounds Some disco music hits such as all of Barry White s hits Kung Fu Fighting by Biddu and Carl Douglas Donna Summer s Love To Love You Baby Diana Ross Love Hangover KC and the Sunshine Band s I m Your Boogie Man I m Every Woman by Chaka Khan also known as the Queen of Funk and Chic s Le Freak conspicuously include riffs and rhythms derived from funk In 1976 Rose Royce scored a number one hit with a purely dance funk record Car Wash Even with the arrival of disco funk became increasingly popular well into the early 1980s Funk music was also exported to Africa and it melded with African singing and rhythms to form Afrobeat Nigerian musician Fela Kuti who was heavily influenced by James Brown s music is credited with creating the style and terming it Afrobeat Jazz funk Edit Main article Jazz funk Jazz funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat groove electrified sounds 84 and an early prevalence of analog synthesizers The integration of funk soul and R amp B music and styles into jazz resulted in the creation of a genre whose spectrum is quite wide and ranges from strong jazz improvisation to soul funk or disco with jazz arrangements jazz riffs and jazz solos and sometimes soul vocals 85 Jazz funk is primarily an American genre where it was popular throughout the 1970s and the early 1980s but it also achieved noted appeal on the club circuit in England during the mid 1970s Similar genres include soul jazz and jazz fusion but neither entirely overlap with jazz funk Notably jazz funk is less vocal more arranged and featured more improvisation than soul jazz and retains a strong feel of groove and R amp B versus some of the jazz fusion production 1980s synth funk Edit See also Electro music In the 1980s largely as a reaction against what was seen as the over indulgence of disco many of the core elements that formed the foundation of the P Funk formula began to be usurped by electronic instruments drum machines and synthesizers Horn sections of saxophones and trumpets were replaced by synth keyboards and the horns that remained were given simplified lines and few horn solos were given to soloists The classic electric keyboards of funk like the Hammond B3 organ the Hohner Clavinet and or the Fender Rhodes piano began to be replaced by the new digital synthesizers such as the Prophet 5 Oberheim OB X and Yamaha DX7 Electronic drum machines such as the Roland TR 808 Linn LM 1 and Oberheim DMX began to replace the funky drummers of the past and the slap and pop style of bass playing were often replaced by synth keyboard basslines Lyrics of funk songs began to change from suggestive double entendres to more graphic and sexually explicit content Influenced by Kraftwerk the Afroamerican rap DJ Afrika Bambaataa developed electro funk a minimalist machine driven style of funk with his single Planet Rock in 1982 86 Also known simply as electro this style of funk was driven by synthesizers and the electronic rhythm of the TR 808 drum machine The single Renegades of Funk followed in 1983 86 Michael Jackson was also influenced by electro funk 87 In 1980 techno funk music used the TR 808 programmable drum machine 88 while Kraftwerk s sound influenced 89 later electro funk artists such as Mantronix 90 Rick James was the first funk musician of the 1980s to assume the funk mantle dominated by P Funk in the 1970s His 1981 album Street Songs with the singles Give It to Me Baby and Super Freak resulted in James becoming a star and paved the way for the future direction of explicitness in funk Prince was an influential multi instrumentalist bandleader singer and songwriter Beginning in the late 1970s Prince used a stripped down dynamic instrumentation similar to James However Prince went on to have as much of an impact on the sound of funk as any one artist since Brown he combined eroticism technology an increasing musical complexity and an outrageous image and stage show to ultimately create music as ambitious and imaginative as P Funk citation needed Prince formed the Time originally conceived as an opening act for him and based on his Minneapolis sound a hybrid mixture of funk R amp B rock pop amp new wave Eventually the band went on to define their own style of stripped down funk based on tight musicianship and sexual themes Similar to Prince other bands emerged during the P Funk era and began to incorporate uninhibited sexuality dance oriented themes synthesizers and other electronic technologies to continue to craft funk hits These included Cameo Zapp the Gap Band the Bar Kays and the Dazz Band who all found their biggest hits in the early 1980s By the latter half of the 1980s pure funk had lost its commercial impact however pop artists from Michael Jackson to Culture Club often used funk beats Late 1980s to 2000s nu funk Edit While funk was driven away from radio by slick commercial hip hop contemporary R amp B and new jack swing its influence continued to spread Artists like Steve Arrington and Cameo still received major airplay and had huge global followings Rock bands began adopting elements of funk into their sound creating new combinations of funk rock and funk metal Extreme Red Hot Chili Peppers Living Colour Jane s Addiction Prince Primus Urban Dance Squad Fishbone Faith No More Rage Against the Machine Infectious Grooves and Incubus spread the approach and styles garnered from funk pioneers to new audiences in the mid to late 1980s and the 1990s These bands later inspired the underground mid 1990s funkcore movement and current funk inspired artists like Outkast Malina Moye Van Hunt and Gnarls Barkley In the 1990s artists like Me shell Ndegeocello Brooklyn Funk Essentials and the predominantly UK based acid jazz movement including artists and bands such as Jamiroquai Incognito Galliano Omar Los Tetas and the Brand New Heavies carried on with strong elements of funk However they never came close to reaching the commercial success of funk in its heyday with the exception of Jamiroquai whose album Travelling Without Moving sold about 11 5 million units worldwide and remains the best selling funk album in history 91 Meanwhile in Australia and New Zealand bands playing the pub circuit such as Supergroove Skunkhour and the Truth preserved a more instrumental form of funk Me shell Ndegeocello playing electric bass Since the late 1980s hip hop artists have regularly sampled old funk tunes James Brown is said to be the most sampled artist in the history of hip hop while P Funk is the second most sampled artist samples of old Parliament and Funkadelic songs formed the basis of West Coast G funk Original beats that feature funk styled bass or rhythm guitar riffs are also not uncommon Dr Dre considered the progenitor of the G funk genre has freely acknowledged to being heavily influenced by George Clinton s psychedelia Back in the 70s that s all people were doing getting high wearing Afros bell bottoms and listening to Parliament Funkadelic That s why I called my album The Chronic and based my music and the concepts like I did because his shit was a big influence on my music Very big 92 Digital Underground was a large contributor to the rebirth of funk in the 1990s by educating their listeners with knowledge about the history of funk and its artists George Clinton branded Digital Underground as Sons of the P as their second full length release is also titled DU s first release Sex Packets was full of funk samples with the most widely known The Humpty Dance sampling Parliament s Let s Play House A very strong funk album of DU s was their 1996 release Future Rhythm Much of contemporary club dance music drum and bass in particular has heavily sampled funk drum breaks Funk is a major element of certain artists identified with the jam band scene of the late 1990s and 2000s In the late 1990s the band Phish developed a live sound called cow funk aka space funk which consisted of extended danceable deep bass grooves and often emphasized heavy wah pedal and other psychedelic effects from the guitar player and layered Clavinet from the keyboard player 93 Phish began playing funkier jams in their sets around 1996 and 1998 s The Story of the Ghost was heavily influenced by funk While Phish s funk was traditional in the sense that it often accented beat 1 of the 4 4 time signature it was also highly exploratory and involved building jams towards energetic peaks before transitioning into highly composed progressive rock and roll Medeski Martin amp Wood Robert Randolph amp the Family Band Galactic Jam Underground Soulive and Karl Denson s Tiny Universe all drew heavily from the funk tradition Dumpstaphunk builds upon the New Orleans tradition of funk with their gritty low ended grooves and soulful four part vocals Since the mid 1990s the nu funk or funk revivalist scene centered on the deep funk collectors scene is producing new material influenced by the sounds of rare funk 45s Labels include Desco Soul Fire Daptone Timmion Neapolitan Bananarama Kay Dee and Tramp These labels often release on 45 rpm records Although specializing in music for rare funk DJs there has been some crossover into the mainstream music industry such as Sharon Jones 2005 appearance on Late Night with Conan O Brien Those who mix acid jazz acid house trip hop and other genres with funk include Tom Tom Club 94 Brainticket 95 Groove Armada et al 96 97 2010s funktronica Edit During the 2000s and early 2010s some punk funk bands such as Out Hud and Mongolian MonkFish performed in the indie rock scene Indie band Rilo Kiley in keeping with their tendency to explore a variety of rockish styles incorporated funk into their song The Moneymaker on the album Under the Blacklight Prince with his later albums gave a rebirth to the funk sound with songs like The Everlasting Now Musicology Ol Skool Company and Black Sweat Particle 98 for instance is part of a scene which combined the elements of digital music made with computers synthesizers and samples with analog instruments sounds and improvisational and compositional elements of funk 99 100 Derivatives EditFrom the early 1970s onwards funk has developed various subgenres While George Clinton and the Parliament were making a harder variation of funk bands such as Kool and the Gang Ohio Players and Earth Wind and Fire were making disco influenced funk music 101 Funk rock Edit Main article Funk rock Funk rock also written as funk rock or funk rock fuses funk and rock elements 102 Its earliest incarnation was heard in the late 60s through the mid 70s by musicians such as Jimi Hendrix Frank Zappa Gary Wright David Bowie Mother s Finest and Funkadelic on their earlier albums Many instruments may be incorporated into funk rock but the overall sound is defined by a definitive bass or drum beat and electric guitars The bass and drum rhythms are influenced by funk music but with more intensity while the guitar can be funk or rock influenced usually with distortion Prince Jesse Johnson Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone are major artists in funk rock Avant funk Edit Main article Avant funk The term avant funk has been used to describe acts who combined funk with art rock s concerns 103 Simon Frith described the style as an application of progressive rock mentality to rhythm rather than melody and harmony 103 Simon Reynolds characterized avant funk as a kind of psychedelia in which oblivion was to be attained not through rising above the body rather through immersion in the physical self loss through animalism 103 Talking Heads combined funk with elements of art rock Acts in the genre include German krautrock band Can 104 American funk artists Sly Stone and George Clinton 105 and a wave of early 1980s UK and US artists including Public Image Ltd Talking Heads the Pop Group Gang of Four Bauhaus Cabaret Voltaire Defunkt A Certain Ratio and 23 Skidoo 106 who embraced black dance music styles such as disco and funk 107 The artists of the late 1970s New York no wave scene also explored avant funk influenced by figures such as Ornette Coleman 108 Reynolds noted these artists preoccupations with issues such as alienation repression and technocracy of Western modernity 103 Go go Edit Main article Go go Go go originated in the Washington D C area with which it remains associated along with other spots in the Mid Atlantic Inspired by singers such as Chuck Brown the Godfather of Go go it is a blend of funk rhythm and blues and early hip hop with a focus on lo fi percussion instruments and in person jamming in place of dance tracks As such it is primarily a dance music with an emphasis on live audience call and response Go go rhythms are also incorporated into street percussion Boogie Edit Main article Boogie genre Boogie is an electronic music mainly influenced by funk and post disco The minimalist approach of boogie consisting of synthesizers and keyboards helped to establish electro and house music Boogie unlike electro emphasizes the slapping techniques of bass guitar but also bass synthesizers Artists include Vicky D Komiko Peech Boys Kashif and later Evelyn King Electro funk Edit Main article Electro funk Electro funk is a hybrid of electronic music and funk It essentially follows the same form as funk and retains funk s characteristics but is made entirely or partially with a use of electronic instruments such as the TR 808 Vocoders or talkboxes were commonly implemented to transform the vocals The pioneering electro band Zapp commonly used such instruments in their music Bootsy Collins also began to incorporate a more electronic sound on later solo albums Other artists include Herbie Hancock Afrika Bambaataa Egyptian Lover Vaughan Mason amp Crew Midnight Star and Cybotron Funk metal Edit Main article Funk metal Funk metal sometimes typeset differently such as funk metal is a fusion genre of music which emerged in the 1980s as part of the alternative metal movement It typically incorporates elements of funk and heavy metal often thrash metal and in some cases other styles such as punk and experimental music It features hard driving heavy metal guitar riffs the pounding bass rhythms characteristic of funk and sometimes hip hop style rhymes into an alternative rock approach to songwriting A primary example is the all African American rock band Living Colour who have been said to be funk metal pioneers by Rolling Stone 109 During the late 1980s and early 1990s the style was most prevalent in California particularly Los Angeles and San Francisco 110 111 G funk Edit Main article G funk Dr Dre pictured in 2011 was one of the influential creators of G funk G funk is a fusion genre of music which combines gangsta rap and funk It is generally considered to have been invented by West Coast rappers and made famous by Dr Dre It incorporates multi layered and melodic synthesizers slow hypnotic grooves a deep bass background female vocals the extensive sampling of P Funk tunes and a high pitched portamento saw wave synthesizer lead Unlike other earlier rap acts that also utilized funk samples such as EPMD and the Bomb Squad G funk often used fewer unaltered samples per song Timba funk Edit Main article Timba Timba is a form of funky Cuban popular dance music By 1990 several Cuban bands had incorporated elements of funk and hip hop into their arrangements and expanded upon the instrumentation of the traditional conjunto with an American drum set saxophones and a two keyboard format Timba bands like La Charanga Habanera or Bamboleo often have horns or other instruments playing short parts of tunes by Earth Wind and Fire Kool and the Gang or other U S funk bands While many funk motifs exhibit a clave based structure they are created intuitively without a conscious intent of aligning the various parts to a guide pattern Timba incorporates funk motifs into an overt and intentional clave structure Social impact EditWomen and funk Edit Chaka Khan born 1953 has been called the Queen of Funk Despite funk s popularity in modern music few people have examined the work of funk women Notable funk women include Chaka Khan Labelle Brides of Funkenstein Klymaxx Mother s Finest Lyn Collins Betty Davis and Teena Marie As cultural critic Cheryl Keyes explains in her essay She Was Too Black for Rock and Too Hard for Soul Re discovering the Musical Career of Betty Mabry Davis most of the scholarship around funk has focused on the cultural work of men She states that Betty Davis is an artist whose name has gone unheralded as a pioneer in the annals of funk and rock Most writing on these musical genres has traditionally placed male artists like Jimi Hendrix George Clinton of Parliament Funkadelic and bassist Larry Graham as trendsetters in the shaping of a rock music sensibility 112 In The Feminist Funk Power of Betty Davis and Renee Stout Nikki A Greene 113 notes that Davis provocative and controversial style helped her rise to popularity in the 1970s as she focused on sexually motivated self empowered subject matter Furthermore this affected the young artist s ability to draw large audiences and commercial success Greene also notes that Davis was never made an official spokesperson or champion for the civil rights and feminist movements of the time although more recently when her work has become a symbol of sexual liberation for women of color Davis song If I m In Luck I Just Might Get Picked Up on her self titled debut album sparked controversy and was banned by the Detroit NAACP 114 Maureen Mahan a musicologist and anthropologist examines Davis impact on the music industry and the American public in her article They Say She s Different Race Gender Genre and the Liberated Black Femininity of Betty Davis Laina Dawes the author of What Are You Doing Here A Black Woman s Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal believes respectability politics is the reason artists like Davis do not get the same recognition as their male counterparts I blame what I call respectability politics as part of the reason the funk rock some of the women from the 70s aren t better known Despite the importance of their music and presence many of the funk rock females represented the aggressive behavior and sexuality that many people were not comfortable with 115 Janelle Monae born 1985 is part of a new wave of female funk artists According to Francesca T Royster in Rickey Vincent s book Funk The Music The People and The Rhythm of The One he analyzes the impact of Labelle but only in limited sections Royster criticizes Vincent s analysis of the group stating It is a shame then that Vincent gives such minimal attention to Labelle s performances in his study This reflects unfortunately a still consistent sexism that shapes the evaluation of funk music In Funk Vincent s analysis of Labelle is brief sharing a single paragraph with the Pointer Sisters in his three page sub chapter Funky Women He writes that while Lady Marmalade blew the lid off of the standards of sexual innuendo and skyrocketed the group s star status the band s glittery image slipped into the disco undertow and was ultimately wasted as the trio broke up in search of solo status Vincent 1996 192 116 Many female artists who are considered to be in the genre of funk also share songs in the disco soul and R amp B genres Labelle falls into this category of women who are split among genres due to a critical view of music theory and the history of sexism in the United States 117 In recent years when artists like Janelle Monae have opened the doors for more scholarship and analysis on the female impact on the funk music genre dubious discuss Monae s style bends concepts of gender sexuality and self expression in a manner similar to the way some male pioneers in funk broke boundaries 118 Her albums center around Afro futuristic concepts centering on elements of female and black empowerment and visions of a dystopian future 119 In his article Janelle Monae and Afro sonic Feminist Funk Matthew Valnes writes that Monae s involvement in the funk genre is juxtaposed with the traditional view of funk as a male centered genre Valnes acknowledges that funk is male dominated but provides insight to the societal circumstances that led to this situation 118 clarification needed Monae s influences include her mentor Prince Funkadelic Lauryn Hill and other funk and R amp B artists but according to Emily Lordi Betty Davis is seldom listed among Janelle Monae s many influences and certainly the younger singer s high tech concepts virtuosic performances and meticulously produced songs are far removed from Davis s proto punk aesthetic But like Davis she also is closely linked with a visionary male mentor Prince The title of Monae s 2013 album The Electric Lady alludes to Hendrix s Electric Ladyland but it also implicitly cites the coterie of women that inspired Hendrix himself that group called the Cosmic Ladies or Electric Ladies was together led by Hendrix s lover Devon Wilson and Betty Davis 120 See also EditChankingReferences Edit a b Tammy L Kernodle Horace Maxile Emmett G Price III 2010 Encyclopedia of African American Music Greenwood p 337 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Fontenot Robert February 24 2019 What Is Swamp Rock A look at this Southern mix of country funk and soul Liveabout Retrieved November 9 2022 a b c d e f g h i j k l Stewart Dave July 2015 Top Brass Part 2 Arranging For Brass soundonsound com Sound on Sound Retrieved April 18 2019 a b Slutsky Allan Chuck Silverman 1997 The Funkmasters the Great James Brown Rhythm Sections ISBN 1 57623 443 6 Explore Funk Rhythmne Retrieved 2020 09 16 KOOL amp THE GANG njhalloffame org New Jersey Hall of Fame June 26 2015 Bohannon Biography AllMusic Retrieved 14 March 2023 Vincent Rickey 1996 Funk The Music the People and the Rhythm of the One New York St Martin s Press pp 293 297 ISBN 978 0 312 13499 0 Online Etymology Dictionary Funk Etymonline com Retrieved January 20 2017 Quinion Michael October 27 2001 World Wide Words Funk World Wide Words Retrieved January 20 2017 Thompson Gordon E Black Music Black Poetry Blues and Jazz s Impact on African American Versification Routledge Apr 15 2016 p 80 Donald M Marquis In Search of Buddy Bolden Louisiana State University Press 2005 pp 108 111 ISBN 978 0 8071 3093 3 Who Started Funk Music Archived October 9 2009 at the Wayback Machine Real Music Forum Obituary The Guardian Merriam Webster Inc The Merriam Webster New Book of Word Histories Merriam Webster 1991 ISBN 0 87779 603 3 p 175 Stallings L H Funk the Erotic Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures U Of Illinois Press 2015 pp 1 29 a b c d Learn Guitar From Beginner to Pro Book Sales 2017 p 254 a b c d Gress Jesse April 21 2016 10 Ways to Play Guitar Like Prince guitarplayer com Guitar Player Retrieved April 13 2019 a b c Himes Geoffrey August 1 1979 On the Difference Between Funk and Disco The Washington Post Retrieved April 13 2019 a b Palmer Robert 1979 14 A Tale of Two Cities Memphis Rock and New Orleans Roll Brooklyn Stewart Alexander 2000 293 Funky Drummer New Orleans James Brown and the Rhythmic Transformation of American Popular Music Popular Music v 19 n 3 October 2000 pp 293 318 Studley Greg Essentials of Rhythm Guitar Complete Guide Jun 21 2016 Serna Desi Guitar Theory For Dummies Book Online Video amp Audio Instruction John Wiley amp Sons Sep 24 2013 p 156 Vincent Rickey Funk The Music The People and The Rhythm of The One St Martin s Press Nov 4 2014 p 18 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 pp 51 52 Archard Chuck Building Bass Lines Alfred Music Publishing 1998 a b c d Boomer Tim Berry Mick The Bassist s Bible How to Play Every Bass Style from Afro Cuban to Zydeco See Sharp Press Jul 1 2009 p 25 Boomer Tim Berry Mick The Bassist s Bible How to Play Every Bass Style from Afro Cuban to Zydeco See Sharp Press Jul 1 2009 p 22 Johnny Flippin Credits AllMusic Retrieved February 25 2021 a b c Overthrow David Complete Electric Bass Method Mastering Electric Bass Alfred Music a b Dickens Bill the Buddha Rock Bobby Funk Bass and Beyond Alfred Music Publishing 2003 Berkowitz Dan January 14 2008 How to Funk Up Your Bass premierguitar com Premier Guitar Retrieved April 9 2019 Pfeiffer Patrick Effects Pedals for Your Bass Guitar dummies com Dummies Retrieved April 9 2019 Veall Dan Electro Harmonix Bass Blogger Bass Metaphors and Bass Micro Synthesizer Guitar Interactive Magazine Archived from the original on August 1 2020 Retrieved April 9 2019 a b c DeArcangelis Christopher January 6 2017 The Essential Gear of Parliament Funkadelic reverb com Reverb Retrieved May 4 2019 a b c d e Schlueter Brad May 13 2016 10 Old School Funk Grooves Every Drummer Should Know reverb com Reverb Retrieved April 9 2019 Burns Roy Farris Joey Studio Funk Drumming A Professional Workbook Alfred Music 1981 p 6 a b c Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 53 Burns Roy Farris Joey Studio Funk Drumming A Professional Workbook Alfred Music 1981 pp 5 6 a b Payne Jim Complete Funk Drumming Book Mel Bay Publications Feb 9 2011 p 7 8 Payne Jim Complete Funk Drumming Book Mel Bay Publications Feb 9 2011 p 8 a b Bortnick Avi March 12 2013 Rhythm Rules Call and Response Funk Guitar premierguitar com Premier Guitar Retrieved April 13 2019 The Funky Ones What Makes Funk Guitar What It Is Musical U Musical U August 15 2016 Retrieved October 24 2018 a b c d Bogdal John July 20 2017 Funk Guitar The History Techniques and Gear Behind the Groove stringjoy com StringJoy Retrieved April 19 2019 Kolb Tom March 20 2019 Licks Tricks and Riffs for a Variety of Effects guitarplayer com Guitar Player Archived from the original on April 19 2019 Retrieved April 19 2019 Anbar Elyadeen October 10 2015 Finding Your Ideal Guitar Tone Guitar Pedals flypaper soundfly com Flypaper Retrieved April 19 2015 a b Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 51 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 48 a b Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 75 Harrison Scott D O Bryan Jessica Teaching Singing in the 21st Century Springer May 14 2014 p 49 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 21 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 65 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 5 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 6 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 26 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 57 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 29 a b Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 36 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 pp 55 56 a b Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 66 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 72 a b c Funk s five most ridiculous lyrics citypages com City Pages Retrieved April 20 2019 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 56 57 a b c d Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 48 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 62 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 68 Lacy Travis K Funk is its own reward an analysis of selected lyrics in popular funk music of the 1970s 2008 ETD Collection for AUC Robert W Woodruff Library Paper 22 p 69 Danielsen Anne 2006 Presence and pleasure the funk grooves of James Brown and Parliament Wesleyan University Press pp 3 4 Kubik 1999 51 Africa and the Blues Jackson MS University Press of Mississippi Rhythm and blues influenced by Afro Cuban music first surfaced in New Orleans Campbell Michael and James Brody 2007 83 Rock and Roll An Introduction Schirmer ISBN 0 534 64295 0 Stewart Alexander 2000 Funky Drummer New Orleans James Brown and the Rhythmic Transformation of American Popular Music Popular Music v 19 n 3 Oct 2000 pp 293 318 Dr John quoted by Stewart 2000 297 Kevin Moore There are two common ways that the three side of clave is expressed in Cuban popular music The first to come into regular use which David Penalosa calls clave motif is based on the decorated version of the three side of the clave rhythm By the 1940s there was a trend toward the use of what Penalosa calls the offbeat onbeat motif Today the offbeat onbeat motif method is much more common Moore 2011 Understanding Clave and Clave Changes p 32 Santa Cruz CA Moore Music Timba com ISBN 1466462302 Stewart 2000 302 a b Stewart 2000 293 Harris Stephen Thomas Erlewine Keith Erlewine Stephen Thomas Harris Keith May 9 2020 Little Richard 20 Essential Songs Rolling Stone Retrieved May 15 2020 Lessons in listening Concepts section Fantasy Earth Wind amp Fire The Best of Earth Wind amp Fire Volume I Freddie White January 1998 Modern Drummer Magazine pp 146 152 Retrieved January 21 2007 a b Collins W January 29 2002 James Brown St James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture Retrieved January 12 2007 Alfred Pee Wee Ellis quoted by Stewart 2000 303 Stewart 2000 306 Pareles J December 26 2006 James Brown the Godfather of Soul dies at 73 The New York Times Retrieved January 31 2007 Gross T 1989 Musician Maceo Parker Fresh Air WHYY FM audio interview National Public Radio Retrieved January 22 2007 a b Scott Derek B 2009 Dayton Street Funk The Layering of Musical Identities The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Musicology p 275 ISBN 9780754664765 Retrieved November 25 2016 Rhapsody Jazz Funk Us napster com Archived from the original on September 29 2007 Retrieved February 25 2021 Jazz Significant Albums Artists and Songs AllMusic November 24 2013 Retrieved June 3 2015 a b Planet Rock The Album Liner notes Afrika Bambaataa amp the Soul Sonic Force Tommy Boy Records 1986 TBLP 1007 Dayal Gheeta July 7 2006 Yellow Magic Orchestra Groove The Original Soundtrack Archived from the original on October 2 2011 Retrieved June 17 2011 Anderson Jason November 28 2008 Slaves to the rhythm Kanye West is the latest to pay tribute to a classic drum machine CBC News Retrieved May 29 2011 Toop David March 1996 A Z Of Electro The Wire no 145 retrieved May 29 2011 Kurtis Mantronik Interview Hip Hop Storage July 2002 archived from the original on May 24 2011 retrieved May 25 2011 Best selling album of funk music Guinness World Records Retrieved February 9 2022 MusicStrands Musicstrands com Archived from the original on February 20 2006 Retrieved February 25 2021 Whitman Marc March 2 2007 Phish Friday Fall 97 Not Just the Cow Funk Era LIVE music blog Retrieved December 23 2020 Walters Barry Tom Tom Club The Good The Bad amp The Funky Rolling Stone 28 September 2000 Davis Lindsay Chicken Lips DJ Kicks The Dominion Post 5 December 2003 p B13 Gold Kerry Groove Armada The Vancouver Sun 17 February 2000 p C15 Brown Jonathan Everything you ever wanted to know about pop but were too old to ask Archived December 24 2007 at the Wayback Machine The Independent 6 September 2007 Waddell Ray Particle To Fuel Beats of Peace Tour Billboard Archived from the original on August 25 2015 Retrieved May 16 2014 Seymour Jane Jansen November 30 2010 Funktronica Jams An Interview with Freekbass of Headtronics PopMatters Retrieved May 16 2014 Thomson Rex July 11 2016 The Floozies Talk Improvisation In Funktronica Red Rocks amp Karl Denson s Avocados Live For Live Music Retrieved July 11 2016 Presence and pleasure the funk grooves of James Brown and Parliament p 4 Vincent Rickey 2004 Hip Hop and Black Noise Raising Hell That s the Joint The Hip hop Studies Reader pp 489 490 ISBN 0 415 96919 0 a b c d Reynolds Simon End of the Track New Statesman Retrieved March 5 2017 Reynolds Simon 1995 Krautrock Reissues Melody Maker Retrieved March 5 2017 Passings Billboard No 116 Nielsen December 25 2004 Retrieved March 5 2017 Reynolds Simon 2012 Energy Flash A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture Soft Skull Press pp 20 202 ISBN 9781593764777 Retrieved March 5 2017 Reynolds Simon 2006 Rip It Up and Start Again Postpunk 1978 1984 Penguin ISBN 9780143036722 avant funk sly stone Murray Charles Shaar October 1991 Crosstown Traffic Jimi Hendrix amp The Post War Rock N Roll Revolution Macmillan p 205 ISBN 9780312063245 Retrieved March 6 2017 Fricke David November 13 2003 Living Colour Collideoscope Rolling Stone Archived from the original on April 12 2009 Retrieved December 11 2011 Black funk metal pioneers return in righteous form when black rock warriors Living Colour broke up in 1995 Potter Valerie July 1991 Primus Nice and Cheesy Hot Metal Sydney Australia 29 Darzin Daina Spencer Lauren January 1991 The Thrash Funk scene proudly presents Primus Spin 6 10 39 Keyes Cheryl 2013 She Was too Black for Rock and too hard for Soul Re discovering the Musical Career of Betty Mabry Davis American Studies 52 4 35 doi 10 1353 ams 2013 0107 S2CID 159486276 Greene Nikki A 2013 The Feminist Funk Power of Betty Davis and Renee Stout American Studies 52 4 57 76 doi 10 1353 ams 2013 0117 JSTOR 24589269 S2CID 143460406 The Feminist Funk Power of Betty Davis and Renee Stout webcache googleusercontent com Retrieved October 31 2019 Gonzales Michael A July 22 2016 Rise of the Funky Divas EBONY Retrieved October 31 2019 Royster Francesca T 2013 Labelle Funk Feminism and the Politics of Flight and Fight American Studies 52 4 77 98 doi 10 1353 ams 2013 0120 ISSN 2153 6856 S2CID 143971031 On the Difference Between Funk and Disco The Washington Post August 1 1979 Retrieved October 23 2018 a b Valnes Matthew September 2017 Janelle Monae and Afro Sonic Feminist Funk Journal of Popular Music Studies 29 3 e12224 doi 10 1111 jpms 12224 ISSN 1524 2226 Janelle Monae s body of work is a masterpiece of modern science fiction Vox Retrieved October 23 2018 Lordi Emily May 2 2018 The Artful Erotic and Still Misunderstood Funk of Betty Davis The New Yorker Retrieved October 23 2018 Further reading EditDanielsen Anne 2006 Presence and pleasure The funk grooves of James Brown and Parliament Wesleyan University Press Vincent Rickey 1996 Funk The Music The People and The Rhythm of The One St Martin s Press ISBN 0 312 13499 1 Thompson Dave 2001 Funk Backbeat Books ISBN 0 87930 629 7 Wermelinger Peter 2005 Funky amp Groovy Music Records Lexicon ISBN 3 9522773 1 2 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Funk amp oldid 1148307521, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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