Difference between revisions of "Funk" - New World Encyclopedia

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'''Funk''' is an [[African American]] [[Music genre|musical style]]. It originated in the [[1960s]] with performers such as [[James Brown (musician)|James Brown]], [[Sly and the Family Stone]], and [[The Meters]], and emerged as a distinct genre by the [[1970s]]. Funk music is characterized by intensely [[syncopation|syncopated]], danceable [[rhythm]]s with the emphasis falling heavily on the first [[Beat (music)|beat]] of every [[Bar (music)|measure]]; prominent [[bassline]]s; a distinctive, razor-sharp type of [[rhythm guitar]]; chanted or hollered [[vocals]] in the style of [[soul music]]; powerful, rhythm-oriented [[horn section]]s; a strong emphasis on [[Percussion instrument|percussion]], often including [[hand drum]]s and other instruments as well as a [[drum kit]]; and [[Music of Africa|African]] and [[jazz]] influences. Funk can be arguably said to greatly influence modern styles of music such as [[punk rock]] and [[hip-hop]].
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Funk music was a major influence on the development of [[disco]] and, later, [[hip hop music]].
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'''Funk''' is a [[music]]al style advanced primarily by [[African-American]] artists like [[James Brown (musician)|James Brown]] and [[Sly and the Family Stone]] in the late 1960s, and further developed in the 1970s by other notable performers such as [[Kool and the Gang]], [[Parliament/Funkadelic]] and [[Stevie Wonder]].
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Funk’s definitive musical traits include dynamic [[syncopation|syncopated]] [[rhythm]]s driven by sixteenth-note divisions of the [[Beat (music)|beat]]; crisp and active [[rhythm guitar]] playing; [[vocals]] which tend toward the spoken or shouted variety characteristic of earlier [[soul music]]; technically demanding, melodic bass lines; and [[brass instrument|horn]] sections employing [[jazz]]-based instruments for percussive effect. Funk’s influence may be readily observed in modern [[hip-hop]] in the form of direct sampling from funk riffs or through the employment of funk song structures.
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Lyrically, funk embraces everything from the personally vulgar to the politically significant, serving from its early days as one of the most powerful and direct musical affirmations of cultural “blackness” in America.
  
 
===Characteristics===
 
===Characteristics===
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Compared to funk's predecessor, the [[soul music]] of the 1960s, funk typically uses more complex [[rhythm]]s, while song structures are usually simpler. Often, the structure of a funk song consists of just one or two [[riffs]]. Sometimes the point at which one riff changes to another becomes the highlight of a song. The soul [[dance]] music of its day, the basic idea of funk was to create as intense a [[Groove (popular music)|groove]] as possible.
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The most prominent difference between funk and the [[soul music]] from which it most directly evolved is the complexity of funk [[rhythm]]s. Designed explicitly to provoke the audience to [[dance]], funk rhythms are usually presented in small, repeated ideas that through the repetition become quite danceable, despite their individual intricateness. To offset the active nature of its rhythms, many funk songs utilize simplified structures that are built around the primary [[riff]] or riffs of a song rather than the traditional, [[harmony|harmony-based]] model of song form.  
  
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One of the most distinctive features of funk music is the role played by [[bass guitar]]. Before soul music, bass was rarely prominent in [[popular music]]. Players like the legendary [[Motown]] bassist [[James Jamerson]] brought bass to the forefront, and funk built on that foundation, with melodic basslines often being the centerpiece of songs. Notable funk bassists include [[George Porter, Jr.]], [[Bootsy Collins]], [[Louis Johnson (bassist)|Louis Johnson]] and [[Larry Graham]] of [[Sly & the Family Stone]]. Graham is often credited with inventing the percussive "[[Slapping|slap bass technique]]," which became a distinctive element of funk.  
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Another defining element of funk is the use of the [[bass guitar]] as a source of both melodic and rhythmic interest. Traditionally, the bass had served to solidify the harmony in [[popular music]] and was overlooked as a musical contributor, but through the development of soul, the bass guitar became a stronger voice within a song. For example, the bass line alone is enough to identify some soul and funk songs, such as “My Girl,” “ABC,” and “Brick House.” [[Bootsy Collins]] (of Parliament/Funkadelic and James Brown’s band) and [[Larry Graham]] (of [[Sly and the Family Stone]]) are two of the most important bassists in funk music, with funk’s other bass innovation, “slap bass,” attributed to the work of Graham.  
  
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Some of the best known and most skillful soloists in funk have [[jazz]] backgrounds. Trombonist [[Fred Wesley]] and saxophonist [[Maceo Parker]] are among the most notable musicians in the funk music genre, both having worked with [[James Brown (musician)|James Brown]] and [[George Clinton (funk musician)|George Clinton]]. Many funk musicians were directly reacting to the increasingly complex structure of Bebop and Modern Jazz. Modern Jazz was becoming so complicated that there could be 4 chord changes per measure, creating a dizzying rapidfire movement through key centers and themes. Funk virtually abandoned chord changes, creating static single chord vamps with little harmonic movement, but with a complex and driving rhythmic feel. Jazz was, in turn, strongly influenced by funk in the [[1970]]s, beginning with [[Miles Davis]], the founder of the [[jazz fusion]] movement, and his former pianist [[Herbie Hancock]].  
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While the [[electric guitar]] may be the center of attention in [[rock and roll]], it takes a back seat to the bass in a funk setting. It is used as an extra percussion instrument, with guitarists playing heavily rhythmic parts, occasionally even muting the strings to eliminate all definite pitch to highlight the effect, turning to the use of a “wah-wah” pedal for variation of the sound.  
  
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In funk bands, guitarists typically play in a percussive style, often using the [[Wah-wah pedal|wah-wah]] sound effect. "Dead" or muted notes often are used in riffs to strengthen percussive elements. [[Jimi Hendrix]] was a pioneer of funk rock. Hendrix's improvised, other-worldly solos influenced [[Ernie Isley]] of [[The Isley Brothers]] and [[Eddie Hazel]] of [[Funkadelic]]. Eddie Hazel, who worked with George Clinton, is one of the most notable guitar soloists in funk. [[Jimmy Nolen]] and [[Phelps Collins]] are famous funk rhythm guitarists who both worked with James Brown.
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Though the [[brass instrument|horn]] section usually plays as a whole in funk, it is not uncommon for instrumental solos to become part of a song’s framework in the tradition begun in the early days of [[jazz]] and continued through the rhythm and blues of [[Louis Jordan]] and soul music of the 1960s. The preeminent funk soloist is undoubtedly [[saxophone|saxophonist]] [[Maceo Parker]], who has played with all the legendary acts in funk and continues to perform with funk-influenced bands today.  
  
 
==History==
 
==History==
 
===Origin of funk===
 
===Origin of funk===
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{{wiktionarypar|funk}}
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"Funk" is a quintessential example of a word whose essence was redefined by a collective choice to seize control over lexical meaning. Traditionally, “funk” had been used to refer to body odor or the scent associated with sexual relations, and as “jazz” before it, was considered an inappropriate word for polite conversation. The implication of the word was well suited to accommodate the suggestive nature of funk’s lyrics and repetitious rhythmic contortions and eventually its use in the new context supplanted the earlier definitions in common perception. Musically, funk combines elements from the African-American musical tradition, most notably those drawn from [[soul music|soul]], [[jazz]] and [[rhythm and blues]].
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The word "funk", once defined in dictionaries as body odor or the smell of sexual intercourse, commonly was regarded as coarse or indecent. African-American musicians originally applied "funk" to music with a slow, mellow groove, then later with a hard-driving, insistent rhythm because of the word's association with sexual intercourse.  This early form of the music set the pattern for later musicians. The music was slow, sexy, loose, [[riff]]-oriented and danceable. ''Funky'' typically described these qualities.  In jam sessions, musicians would encourage one another to "get down" by telling one another, "Now, put some ''stank'' ("stink"/funk) on it!"  At least as early as 1907, [[jazz]] songs carried titles such as [[Buddy Bolden]]'s "Funky Butt." As late as the 1950s and early 1960s, when "funk" and "funky" were used increasingly in the context of soul music, the terms still were considered indelicate and inappropriate for use in polite company.
 
  
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The distinctive characteristics of African-American musical expression are rooted in [[West Africa|West African]] musical traditions, and find their earliest expression in spirituals, work chants/songs, praise shouts, gospel and blues.  In more contemporary music, gospel, blues and blues extensions and jazz often flow together seamlessly.  Funky music is an amalgam of [[soul music]], [[soul jazz]] and [[R&B]].
 
  
 
===James Brown and funk as a genre===  
 
===James Brown and funk as a genre===  
  
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James Brown, who called [[Little Richard]] his idol, had credited Little Richard's saxophone-studded mid-1950's road band, [[The Upsetters]], with first putting the funk in the rock and roll beat.<ref>"Little Richard".  This assertion had been not only made by Brown but others, as well.<ref>"Little Richard". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved from http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=179</ref>  Little Richard continued to play a role in Brown's rise to the top. In 1957, when Little Richard bolted from pop music to become a preacher, Brown not only honored his remaining tour dates in his place.  Subsequently, some members of Little Richard's backup band become members of Brown's own band, the [[Famous Flames]]. A year later, the group released "Try Me," which would become Brown's first No. 1 hit, and the first in a feverous succession of classic R&B hits, some of which would come to personify funk.<ref>http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=56</ref>
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[[James Brown]] is generally considered the first artist to present funk in a complete form, and would not have done so, through his own admission, without the influence of [[Little Richard]]. Brown observed that Little Richard had introduced funk in rock and roll with his band, The Upsetters, in the 1950s, and when Little Richard’s group disbanded, some of those musicians found themselves in the Famous Flames, Brown’s band. It proved to be a fruitful union, with Brown’s first number-one song coming not long afterward, and marking only the beginning of his foray into funk. Although Brown began to produce records that had traces of what we would recognize as funk, the genre was not stylistically solidified in his work until the mid-1960s.  
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Only with the innovations of James Brown in the 1960's was funk regarded as a distinct genre. In the R&B tradition, these tightly rehearsed bands created an instantly recognizable style, overlaid with catchy, anthemic vocals. Brown changed the rhythmic emphasis from the two-four beat (or [[backbeat]]) of traditional soul music to a one-three emphasis — but with a hard-driving, brassy swing. This pumping, one-three beat became a signature of classic funk. Often cueing his band with the command, "On the one!"  previously associated with West African poly-rhythmic musical forms, diverse rhythms that all came together on one beat (which found its way through New Orleans during the slave era, was incorporated into military marching bands, picked up by pop/R&B artists, and thus diffused. In fact, James Brown hired a drummer from an R&B performer specifically for his intricate poly-rhythmic capability, which ultimately changed his music). While James Brown's [[1965]] Top 10 [[King Records (USA)|King Records]] hit "[[Papa's Got a Brand New Bag]]" is widely presumed to be the song that paved way for the funk genre, much of Brown's work in 1965 and [[1966]], though remarkable, still maintained the rhythms and approach found in earlier records. It was the #1 R&B hits "Cold Sweat" in [[1967]], "I Got The Feelin'" and "Say It Loud, I'm Black And I'm Proud" in [[1968]] that further defined the feel of funk. R&B #1's "Give It Up Or Turn It Loose" and "Mother Popcorn" in [[1969]] continued to solidify the tight rhythms, riffs and grooves for which funk music is known, setting the standard for James Brown's future work and the rising wave of funk to come in the [[1970s]].
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A string of records released from 1965 (“Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”) through 1968 (“Say It Loud, I’m Black and Proud) served to define the funk genre for the public and provided the groundwork for the explosion of funk which took place in the 1970s when other artists began to employ the sorts of riffs, rhythms and vocals that Brown and his band had struck upon. Notable early funk pioneers include Dyke and the Blazers, The Meters and The Isley Brothers. The Meters never garnered the amount of public attention that some other funk bands did, but many musicians consider them to be one of the finest and musically tightest bands of that era, and they cultivated a small and loyal fan base during the 1970s. The Isley Brothers, on the other hand, experienced a great deal of commercial success, most notably the hit, “It's Your Thing."
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Other musical groups picked up on the [[riff]]s, rhythms, and vocal style developed by [[James Brown (musician)|James Brown]] and his band, and the style began to grow. [[Dyke & the Blazers]] based in [[Phoenix, Arizona]], released "Funky Broadway" in [[1967]], perhaps the first record to have "funky" in the title. Meanwhile, on the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]], [[Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band]] were releasing funk tracks beginning with their first album in 1967, culminating in their classic single "Express Yourself" in 1970.  [[The Meters]] defined funk in [[New Orleans, Louisiana|New Orleans]], starting with their Top Ten R&B hits "Sophisticated Cissy" and "Cissy Strut" in 1969. Another group who would define funk in the decade to come 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 rock of [[Jimi Hendrix]] and the upbeat soul of [[Sly & the Family Stone]] and [[Mother's Finest]].
 
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===1970s and P-Funk===
 
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In the [[1970s]], a new group of musicians further developed the "funk rock" approach innovated by [[George Clinton (funk musician)|George Clinton]], with his main bands [[Parliament (band)|Parliament]] and, later, [[Funkadelic]]. Together, they produced a new kind of funk sound heavily influenced by [[jazz]] and [[psychedelic rock]].  The two groups had members in common and often are referred to singly 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.
 
  
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[[Image:george_clinton_funk.jpg|thumb|right|200 px|George Clinton with rainbow [[dreadlocks|dreads]] at the [[VH1]] Fashion Awards.]]"P-funk" also came to mean something in its quintessence, of superior quality, or ''sui generis'', as in the lyrics from "P-Funk," a hit single from Parliament's album "Mothership Connection":
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===The 1970s and P-Funk===
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::''"I want the bomb. I want the P-Funk. I want my funk uncut."''
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One could say that the successors to Brown’s funk legacy took the torch, and, in some cases, ran very far with it. The 1970s brought a slew of performers who were dedicated to exploring the musical idioms that Brown had concretized in his work. An iconic testament to the potential for absurdity, [[George Clinton]] and his bands (alternately Parliament and Funkadelic) explored the [[psychedelic rock|psychedelic]] fringes of funk, earning an ongoing stream of devoted fans through their entertaining live shows and unique funk voice. "P-Funk" serves as the abbreviation by which Clinton’s music is referred to, regardless of the source band.
  
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The 1970s was probably the era of highest mainstream visibility for funk music. Other prominent funk bands of the period included The [[Brothers Johnson]], [[Earth, Wind & Fire]], [[Bootsy's Rubber Band]], [[The Meters]], [[Tower of Power]], [[Ohio Players]], [[The Commodores]], [[War (band)|War]], [[Kool & the Gang]], [[Confunkshun]], [[Slave (band)|Slave]], [[Cameo (band)|Cameo]], the [[Bar-Kays]], [[Zapp (band)|Zapp]], and many more. George Clinton also played a masterminding role in Bootsy's Rubber Band and several other bands he put together, including [[Parlet]], the Horny Horns, and the Brides of Funkenstein, all part of the P-Funk conglomerate.
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Along with Parliament-Funkadelic, there were many other purveyors of funk in the 1970s, making it the genre’s most vibrant and culturally-relevant decade. Some of the most prominent groups were [[Earth, Wind & Fire]], [[Tower of Power]], [[Kool and the Gang]], [[Bootsy's Rubber Band]], the [[Bar-Kays]], [[The Meters]], [[War (band)|War], and [[The Commodores]]. It should be noted that Bootsy’s Rubber Band was a project of George Clinton bassist, Bootsy Collins, who is known as much for his outrageous clothing as he is for his playing.
  
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Two bands in particular, [[Earth, Wind & Fire]] and [[Tower of Power]], took the rhythmic power of funk and added to it more complex song forms, combined with large scale instrumentation — large horn sections, latin percussion, numerous capable soloists. These bands sold many records and brought the funk ethos to a larger audience.
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While [[Kool and the Gang]] achieved a great deal of commercial success, they did not expand on the existing notions of funk in any transparent fashion. The same cannot be said of [[Earth, Wind & Fire]] and [[Tower of Power]], both of which created bodies of work characterized by more sophisticated song forms and a greater variation in the way the horn sections are used. This further musical showmanship helped to cultivate a wider audience for these groups, beyond the typical funk listener.
  
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Already, in late 1960s, many jazz musicians &mdash; among them [[Horace Silver]], [[Herbie Hancock]] (with his [[The Headhunters|Headhunters]] band), [[Grover Washington, Jr.]], and [[Cannonball Adderley]], [[Les McCann]] and [[Eddie Harris]] &mdash; had begun to combine jazz and funk. Sometimes this approach is called "[[jazz-funk]]". Additionally, in the late 1960s work of [[Miles Davis]] (with girlfriend/wife [[Betty Davis]]) and [[Tony Williams]] helped to create [[Jazz fusion]] and influenced funk.
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As Earth, Wind & Fire and Tower of Power introduced elements of [[jazz]] into funk, many of jazz’s most important performers were attempting to work funk into their own genre. [[Horace Silver]], [[Herbie Hancock]] and [[Cannonball Adderley]] were interested in exploring the notion of "jazz-funk," particularly as a parallel to some of [[Miles Davis]]’s work combining rock and roll with jazz in what would come to be called [[jazz fusion]].
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The influence of funk spread through its incorporation into the newly developed African style of [[Afrobeat]] in the musical work of [[Fela Kuti]]. Funk also provided much of early [[Disco|disco’s]] musical foundation, and both genres were associated with the African-American populace, using, in many cases, funk musicians to make the disco records.
  
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Funk music was exported to Africa in the late [[1960s]], and melded with African singing and rhythms to form [[Afrobeat]]. [[Fela Kuti]] was a Nigerian musician who is credited with creating the music and terming it "Afrobeat".
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===The 1980s and stripped-down funk===
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The instrumentation that had been typical for funk bands through the 1970s fell out of favor in the 1980s as horn parts were played by [[synthesizer|synthesizers]] or the complexity of the parts was greatly reduced, eliminating one of the most consistent, enticing, and innovative elements for which funk had been known. The commercial aims of the time led to a fair amount of mechanization, which meant fewer musicians to pay, even if it required purchasing new equipment. [[Drum machine]]s became typical fixtures, and the unique “slap bass” technique began to disappear from the new songs and new performances.
  
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[[Disco]] music owed a great deal to funk. Many early disco songs and performers came directly from funk-oriented backgrounds. Some disco music hits, for example "Le Freak" by [[Chic]], included riffs or rhythms very similar to funk music.
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[[Rick James]] (“Super Freak” and “Give It To Me Baby”), [[Queen (band)|Queen]] (“Another One Bites the Dust”) and [[Prince (musician)|Prince]] (“Kiss”) were the most important practitioners of the style in the 1980s. All three eschewed horn sections in favor of a typical rock band setup, limited to guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. While the music that they produced was in its own way very effective and successful, their work evinced a severe departure from the richness of the funk sound that one finds in the 1970s. As the 1980s bore on, funk was replaced on the musical radar by [[heavy metal]] and [[new wave music]], which sought to find a musical setting that used the new synthesizers as the primary accompaniment.  
  
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===1980s and stripped-down funk===
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Through [[Afrika Bambaataa]], funk did make an attempt to use the new technologies to its own ends and as a result, the sub-genre Electro Funk (or simply, Electro) was born. The music in this sub-genre was created almost entirely by synthesizers and drum machines.
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In the [[1980s]], many of the core elements that formed the foundation of the P-Funk formula began to be usurped by machines.
 
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Horns were replaced by [[synthesizer|synths]], effectively phasing out horn sections, and the horns that remained were simplified from the patterns and hooks of the earlier funk sound. Horn solos were out. The classic keyboards of funk, like the [[Hammond B3]] organ and the [[Rhodes piano|Fender Rhodes piano]] began to be replaced by the brash sound of new digital synthesizers like the [[Yamaha DX7]]. [[Drum machines]] began to replace the "[[funky drummer]]s" of the past, and the [[slapping|slap]] and pop style of bass playing began to fall out of favor, often replaced by thinner sounding and rhythmically simpler keyboard bass. The lyrics and hooks of funk began to change from often suggestive and using [[double entendre]] to more graphic and sexually explicit.
 
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[[Rick James]] was the first funkateer of the 80s to assume the funk mantle dominated by P-Funk in the 70s. His 1981 album [[Street Songs (album)|Street Songs]] with the singles "Give It To Me Baby" and "[[Super Freak]]" resulted in James becoming a bit of a rock star, and paved the way for the future direction of explicitness in funk. [[Queen (band)|Queen]]'s first funk song, "[[Another One Bites The Dust]]", led the band in new direction from its [[hard rock]] roots. [[Prince (musician)|Prince]], using a stripped-down instrumentation similar to [[Rick James]], went on to have as much of an impact on the sound of funk as any one artist since [[James Brown (musician)|James Brown]]. [[Prince (musician)|Prince]] combined eroticism, technology,  an increasing musical complexity, and an outrageous image and stage show to ultimately create a musical world as ambitious and imaginative as P-Funk or [[The Beatles]].  [[The Time (band)|The Time]], originally conceived as an opening act for Prince and based on his "[[Minneapolis sound]]", went on to define their own style of stripped-down funk based on tight musicianship and sexual themes.
 
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Bands that began during the 1970s P-Funk era incorporated some of the uninhibited sexuality of [[Prince (musician)|Prince]] and state-of-the-art  technological developments to continue to craft funk hits. [[Cameo (band)|Cameo]], [[Zapp (band)|Zapp]], The [[Gap Band]], The [[Bar-Kays]], and The [[Dazz Band]] all found their biggest hits in the 80s, but by the latter half of the 80s, funk had lost its commercial impact.
 
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[[Afrika Bambaataa]], influenced by [[Kraftwerk]], created "[[Electro (music)|Electro Funk]]", a minimalist machine-driven style of funk  with his single "Planet Rock" in 1982. Also known simply as [[Electro (music)|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.
 
  
 
===Recent developments===
 
===Recent developments===
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While funk was all but driven from the radio by slick commercial [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]] and [[New Jack Swing]], its influence continued to spread. Rock bands began adding elements of Funk to their sound, creating new combinations of "[[funk rock]]" and [[funk metal]]. [[Jane's Addiction]], [[Living Colour]], [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]], [[Prince (musician)|Prince]], [[Primus (band)|Primus]], [[Fishbone]], [[Faith No More]] and [[Rage Against the Machine]] 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]], [[The Black Eyed Peas]], and [[Van Hunt]].
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Though funk had vanished from the airwaves by the end of the 1980s, a new generation of rock bands began to incorporate elements of funk into their style of playing and they termed the combination “funk rock” or “funk metal” depending on the appellation of their non-funk style. Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, [[Prince (musician)|Prince]], Primus, Faith No More and Rage Against the Machine drew upon the wellspring of the funk vernacular and propagated the style in varied ways.
  
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In the [[1990s]], artists like [[Me'shell Ndegeocello]] and the (predominantly UK-based) [[Acid jazz]] movement including artists and bands such The [[Brand New Heavies]], [[Incognito (band)|Incognito]], [[Omar Lye-Fook|Omar]] and [[Jamiroquai]] carried on with strong elements of funk. However, they never came close to reaching the commercial success of funk in its heyday, with the possible exception of Jamiroquai, whose rise to chart ubiquity arguably correlated to their shift of emphasis away from funk to pop.
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The influence of funk also extended to the [[United Kingdom]], weighing in on the musical minds of acid jazz performers. While many musicians found themselves drawn to the funk of their musical forebears, funk proper has yet to regain the foothold it had during the 1970s.  
  
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Today, [[hip hop music|hip hop]] artists regularly [[sampling (music)|sample]] old funk tunes.    [[James Brown (musician)|James Brown]] is said to be the most sampled artist in the history of hip hop.  P-Funk also is sampled frequently &mdash; samples of old [[Parliament (band)|Parliament]] and [[Funkadelic]] songs formed the basis of [[West Coast rap|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 psychedelic funk: "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".[http://www.musicstrands.com/artist/6599/biography]
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Funk still pierces the musical consciousness, however, particularly via the lens of [[hip-hop]], which regularly turns to funk for [[sampling (music)|samples]] and inspiration, primarily because the two genres share the goal of getting people to dance, and also because the quality of the older recordings makes the newer products sound “vintage.” [[James Brown]] and P-Funk are both regular sources for current artists ranging from Jay-Z to Outkast and beyond.
  
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Funk is a major element of certain artists identified with the [[Jam band]] scene of the late [[1990s]] and [[2000s]]. [[Medeski Martin & Wood]], [[Robert Randolph & The Family Band]], [[Galactic]], [[Soulive]], and [[Karl Denson's Tiny Universe]] all drawing heavily from the funk tradition. [[Karl Denson's Tiny Universe]] members have also pioneered a modernized version of the Funk sound with their "[[Funktronica]]" group [http://www.blusirkut.com BLUSIRKUT] that maintains the syncopated rhythms, thick bass line, rhythm-oriented horn sections, prominent percussion, danceability  of strong jazz influences - blending it with current technology to add electronic based elements and soundscapes (the instruments have become interchangeable - i.e. bass lines and percussion can now be performed by the [[trumpet]] and effects processing). On an added note, Vermont-based [[Phish]] went through a period of funky jams which fans refer to as their "cow funk" stage.
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Funk also plays a role in the world of the jam band, which peaked in the late 1990s but still continues to pop up from time to time. Medeski Martin & Wood, Robert Randolph and The Family Band and Galactic all employ now-traditional funk rhythms and place value on improvised solos as a throwback to the earlier days of funk, albeit they do so with different instrumentations than would likely have been found in the 1960s and 1970s.  
  
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Since the mid [[1990s]] the New Funk scene, centered around the [[Deep Funk]] collectors scene, is producing new material influenced by the sounds of rare funk 45's. Labels include Desco, Soul Fire, [[Daptone Records|Daptone]], Timmion, Neapolitan, Kay-Dee, and Tramp. Bands include [[Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings]], The Soul Destroyers, Speedometer, The Poets of Rhythm, The Neapolitans, Quantic Soul Orchestra, [[The New Mastersounds]] and Lefties Soul Connection. These labels often release on 45 rpm records. Although specializing in music for rare funk DJ's, there has been some crossover into the mainstream music industry, such as Sharon Jones' 2005 appearance on ''[[Late Night with Conan O'Brien]]''.
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==References==
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* Starr, Larry and Christopher Alan Waterman. ''American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MTV''. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 019510854X
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* Thompson, Dave. ''Funk''. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2001. ISBN 0879306297
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* Vincent, Rickey. ''Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996. ISBN 0312134991
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* Ward, Brian. ''Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race Relations''. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998. ISBN 0520212975
  
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In the early 2000s, some so-called [[Dance-punk|punk funk]] bands have achieved popularity in the [[indie (music)|indie music]] scene, such as [[!!!]] and [[Out Hud]].
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==External links==
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All links retrieved April 15, 2024.
  
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==See also==
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* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/craig_charles/ The Craig Charles Funk and Soul Show] &ndash; BBC 6
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* [[List of funk musicians]]
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* [http://www.wefunkradio.com WEFUNK] &ndash; CKUT in Montreal, Canada
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* [[African American music]]
 
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* [[Brazilian Funk]] (Baile Funk)
 
  
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==Further reading==
+
[[Category:Music]]
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* {{cite book
 
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| last = Vincent | first = Rickey
 
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| title=Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One
 
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| year=1996
 
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| publisher=St. Martin's Press
 
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| id=ISBN 0-312-13499-1
 
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}}
 
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* {{cite book
 
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| last = Thompson | first = Dave
 
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| title=Funk | year=2001
 
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| publisher=Backbeat Books
 
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| id=ISBN 0-87930-629-7
 
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}}
 
  
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==External links==
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{{Credit|132869487}}
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* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/craig_charles/ Craig Charles Funk Show] Latest funk music show
 
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* [http://www.wefunkradio.com WEFUNK] WEFUNK radio show on CKUT in Montreal, Canada, which showcases roots funk and recent funk-inspired music. Website contains shows available for streaming along with set lists.
 
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[[Category:Music]]
 
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[[Category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure]]
 

Latest revision as of 07:21, 15 April 2024


Funk is a musical style advanced primarily by African-American artists like James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone in the late 1960s, and further developed in the 1970s by other notable performers such as Kool and the Gang, Parliament/Funkadelic and Stevie Wonder.

Funk’s definitive musical traits include dynamic syncopated rhythms driven by sixteenth-note divisions of the beat; crisp and active rhythm guitar playing; vocals which tend toward the spoken or shouted variety characteristic of earlier soul music; technically demanding, melodic bass lines; and horn sections employing jazz-based instruments for percussive effect. Funk’s influence may be readily observed in modern hip-hop in the form of direct sampling from funk riffs or through the employment of funk song structures.

Lyrically, funk embraces everything from the personally vulgar to the politically significant, serving from its early days as one of the most powerful and direct musical affirmations of cultural “blackness” in America.

Characteristics

The most prominent difference between funk and the soul music from which it most directly evolved is the complexity of funk rhythms. Designed explicitly to provoke the audience to dance, funk rhythms are usually presented in small, repeated ideas that through the repetition become quite danceable, despite their individual intricateness. To offset the active nature of its rhythms, many funk songs utilize simplified structures that are built around the primary riff or riffs of a song rather than the traditional, harmony-based model of song form.

Another defining element of funk is the use of the bass guitar as a source of both melodic and rhythmic interest. Traditionally, the bass had served to solidify the harmony in popular music and was overlooked as a musical contributor, but through the development of soul, the bass guitar became a stronger voice within a song. For example, the bass line alone is enough to identify some soul and funk songs, such as “My Girl,” “ABC,” and “Brick House.” Bootsy Collins (of Parliament/Funkadelic and James Brown’s band) and Larry Graham (of Sly and the Family Stone) are two of the most important bassists in funk music, with funk’s other bass innovation, “slap bass,” attributed to the work of Graham.

While the electric guitar may be the center of attention in rock and roll, it takes a back seat to the bass in a funk setting. It is used as an extra percussion instrument, with guitarists playing heavily rhythmic parts, occasionally even muting the strings to eliminate all definite pitch to highlight the effect, turning to the use of a “wah-wah” pedal for variation of the sound.

Though the horn section usually plays as a whole in funk, it is not uncommon for instrumental solos to become part of a song’s framework in the tradition begun in the early days of jazz and continued through the rhythm and blues of Louis Jordan and soul music of the 1960s. The preeminent funk soloist is undoubtedly saxophonist Maceo Parker, who has played with all the legendary acts in funk and continues to perform with funk-influenced bands today.

History

Origin of funk

"Funk" is a quintessential example of a word whose essence was redefined by a collective choice to seize control over lexical meaning. Traditionally, “funk” had been used to refer to body odor or the scent associated with sexual relations, and as “jazz” before it, was considered an inappropriate word for polite conversation. The implication of the word was well suited to accommodate the suggestive nature of funk’s lyrics and repetitious rhythmic contortions and eventually its use in the new context supplanted the earlier definitions in common perception. Musically, funk combines elements from the African-American musical tradition, most notably those drawn from soul, jazz and rhythm and blues.


James Brown and funk as a genre

James Brown is generally considered the first artist to present funk in a complete form, and would not have done so, through his own admission, without the influence of Little Richard. Brown observed that Little Richard had introduced funk in rock and roll with his band, The Upsetters, in the 1950s, and when Little Richard’s group disbanded, some of those musicians found themselves in the Famous Flames, Brown’s band. It proved to be a fruitful union, with Brown’s first number-one song coming not long afterward, and marking only the beginning of his foray into funk. Although Brown began to produce records that had traces of what we would recognize as funk, the genre was not stylistically solidified in his work until the mid-1960s.

A string of records released from 1965 (“Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”) through 1968 (“Say It Loud, I’m Black and Proud) served to define the funk genre for the public and provided the groundwork for the explosion of funk which took place in the 1970s when other artists began to employ the sorts of riffs, rhythms and vocals that Brown and his band had struck upon. Notable early funk pioneers include Dyke and the Blazers, The Meters and The Isley Brothers. The Meters never garnered the amount of public attention that some other funk bands did, but many musicians consider them to be one of the finest and musically tightest bands of that era, and they cultivated a small and loyal fan base during the 1970s. The Isley Brothers, on the other hand, experienced a great deal of commercial success, most notably the hit, “It's Your Thing."

The 1970s and P-Funk

One could say that the successors to Brown’s funk legacy took the torch, and, in some cases, ran very far with it. The 1970s brought a slew of performers who were dedicated to exploring the musical idioms that Brown had concretized in his work. An iconic testament to the potential for absurdity, George Clinton and his bands (alternately Parliament and Funkadelic) explored the psychedelic fringes of funk, earning an ongoing stream of devoted fans through their entertaining live shows and unique funk voice. "P-Funk" serves as the abbreviation by which Clinton’s music is referred to, regardless of the source band.

Along with Parliament-Funkadelic, there were many other purveyors of funk in the 1970s, making it the genre’s most vibrant and culturally-relevant decade. Some of the most prominent groups were Earth, Wind & Fire, Tower of Power, Kool and the Gang, Bootsy's Rubber Band, the Bar-Kays, The Meters, [[War (band)|War], and The Commodores. It should be noted that Bootsy’s Rubber Band was a project of George Clinton bassist, Bootsy Collins, who is known as much for his outrageous clothing as he is for his playing.

While Kool and the Gang achieved a great deal of commercial success, they did not expand on the existing notions of funk in any transparent fashion. The same cannot be said of Earth, Wind & Fire and Tower of Power, both of which created bodies of work characterized by more sophisticated song forms and a greater variation in the way the horn sections are used. This further musical showmanship helped to cultivate a wider audience for these groups, beyond the typical funk listener.

As Earth, Wind & Fire and Tower of Power introduced elements of jazz into funk, many of jazz’s most important performers were attempting to work funk into their own genre. Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock and Cannonball Adderley were interested in exploring the notion of "jazz-funk," particularly as a parallel to some of Miles Davis’s work combining rock and roll with jazz in what would come to be called jazz fusion.

The influence of funk spread through its incorporation into the newly developed African style of Afrobeat in the musical work of Fela Kuti. Funk also provided much of early disco’s musical foundation, and both genres were associated with the African-American populace, using, in many cases, funk musicians to make the disco records.

The 1980s and stripped-down funk

The instrumentation that had been typical for funk bands through the 1970s fell out of favor in the 1980s as horn parts were played by synthesizers or the complexity of the parts was greatly reduced, eliminating one of the most consistent, enticing, and innovative elements for which funk had been known. The commercial aims of the time led to a fair amount of mechanization, which meant fewer musicians to pay, even if it required purchasing new equipment. Drum machines became typical fixtures, and the unique “slap bass” technique began to disappear from the new songs and new performances.

Rick James (“Super Freak” and “Give It To Me Baby”), Queen (“Another One Bites the Dust”) and Prince (“Kiss”) were the most important practitioners of the style in the 1980s. All three eschewed horn sections in favor of a typical rock band setup, limited to guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. While the music that they produced was in its own way very effective and successful, their work evinced a severe departure from the richness of the funk sound that one finds in the 1970s. As the 1980s bore on, funk was replaced on the musical radar by heavy metal and new wave music, which sought to find a musical setting that used the new synthesizers as the primary accompaniment.

Through Afrika Bambaataa, funk did make an attempt to use the new technologies to its own ends and as a result, the sub-genre Electro Funk (or simply, Electro) was born. The music in this sub-genre was created almost entirely by synthesizers and drum machines.

Recent developments

Though funk had vanished from the airwaves by the end of the 1980s, a new generation of rock bands began to incorporate elements of funk into their style of playing and they termed the combination “funk rock” or “funk metal” depending on the appellation of their non-funk style. Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Prince, Primus, Faith No More and Rage Against the Machine drew upon the wellspring of the funk vernacular and propagated the style in varied ways.

The influence of funk also extended to the United Kingdom, weighing in on the musical minds of acid jazz performers. While many musicians found themselves drawn to the funk of their musical forebears, funk proper has yet to regain the foothold it had during the 1970s.

Funk still pierces the musical consciousness, however, particularly via the lens of hip-hop, which regularly turns to funk for samples and inspiration, primarily because the two genres share the goal of getting people to dance, and also because the quality of the older recordings makes the newer products sound “vintage.” James Brown and P-Funk are both regular sources for current artists ranging from Jay-Z to Outkast and beyond.

Funk also plays a role in the world of the jam band, which peaked in the late 1990s but still continues to pop up from time to time. Medeski Martin & Wood, Robert Randolph and The Family Band and Galactic all employ now-traditional funk rhythms and place value on improvised solos as a throwback to the earlier days of funk, albeit they do so with different instrumentations than would likely have been found in the 1960s and 1970s.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Starr, Larry and Christopher Alan Waterman. American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MTV. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 019510854X
  • Thompson, Dave. Funk. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2001. ISBN 0879306297
  • Vincent, Rickey. Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996. ISBN 0312134991
  • Ward, Brian. Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race Relations. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998. ISBN 0520212975

External links

All links retrieved April 15, 2024.

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