Funk

Funk is a distinct style of music originated by African-Americans, e.g., James Brown and his band members (especially Maceo and Melvin Parker), and groups like The Meters.

History

Origin of funk

The word "funk", once defined in dictionaries as body odor or the smell of sexual intercourse, commonly has been 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 the 1930s, jazz songs carried titles such as Mezz Mezzrow'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.

Related Topics:
Riff - Jazz - Mezz Mezzrow

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The distinctive characteristics of African-American musical expression are rooted in 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.

Related Topics:
West African - Soul music - Soul jazz - R&B

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James Brown and funk as a genre

Only with the innovations of James Brown in the late 1960s 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. Often cueing his band with the command, "On the one!" Brown changed the rhythmic emphasis from the two-four beat of traditional soul music to a one-three emphasis previously associated with white musical forms -- but with a hard-driving, brassy swing. This pumping, one-three beat became a signature of classic funk. While James Brown's 1965 Top 10 Mercury 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.

Related Topics:
1965 - Mercury Records - Papa's Got a Brand New Bag - 1966 - 1967 - 1968 - 1969 - 1970s

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Other musical groups picked up on the riffs, rhythms, and vocal style innovated by 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, 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 starting with their Top Ten R&B hits "Sophisticated Cissy" and "Cissy Strut" in 1969.

Related Topics:
Riffs - James Brown - Dyke & the Blazers - Phoenix, Arizona - 1967 - West Coast - Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - The Meters - New Orleans

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1970s and P-Funk

In the 1970s, a new group of musicians further developed the "funk rock" approach innovated by Jimi Hendrix. George Clinton, with his bands Parliament and, later, Funkadelic, produced a new kind of funk sound heavily influenced by jazz and psychedelic music. 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 both referred to the music by George Clinton's bands and defined a new subgenre.

Related Topics:
1970s - Jimi Hendrix - George Clinton - Parliament - Funkadelic - Jazz - Psychedelic music - P-Funk

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"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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::"I want the bomb. I want the P-Funk. I want my funk uncut."

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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 Bootsy's Rubber Band, The Meters, Ohio Players, The Commodores, War, Kool & the Gang, Confunkshun, Slave, Cameo, Midnight Star, the Bar-Kays, Betty Davis, Zapp, and many more.

Related Topics:
Bootsy's Rubber Band - The Meters - Ohio Players - The Commodores - War - Kool & the Gang - Confunkshun - Slave - Cameo - Midnight Star - Bar-Kays - Betty Davis - Zapp

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Already, in late 1960s, many jazz musicians — among them Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock (with his Headhunters band), Grover Washington, Jr., and Cannonball Adderly, Les McCann and Eddie Harris — 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 influnced funk.

Related Topics:
Horace Silver - Herbie Hancock - Headhunters - Grover Washington, Jr. - Cannonball Adderly - Les McCann - Eddie Harris - Jazz-funk - Miles Davis - Betty Davis - Tony Williams - Jazz fusion

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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".

Related Topics:
1960s - Afrobeat - Fela Kuti

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Disco music owed a great deal to funk. Many early disco songs and performers came directly from funk-oriented backgrounds.

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1980s and stripped-down funk

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 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 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 drummers" of the past, and the 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.

Related Topics:
Synths - Hammond B3 - Fender Rhodes piano - Yamaha DX7 - Drum machines - Funky drummers - Slap - Double entendre

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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 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. 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. 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, 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.

Related Topics:
Rick James - Street Songs - Super Freak - Prince - James Brown - The Beatles - The Time - Prince

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Bands that began during the 1970s P-Funk era incorporated some of the uninhibited sexuality of Prince and state-of-the-art technological developments to continue to craft funk hits. Cameo, 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.

Related Topics:
Prince - Cameo - Zapp - Gap Band - Bar-Kays - Dazz Band

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Afrika Bambaataa influenced by Kraftwerk created "Electro Funk", a minimalist machine-driven style of funk with his single "Planet Rock" in 1982. 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.

Related Topics:
Afrika Bambaataa - Kraftwerk - Electro Funk - TR-808

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Recent developments

While funk was all but driven from the radio by slick commercial R&B and New Jack Swing, it's 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, Primus, Fishbone, Faith No More and the Red Hot Chili Peppers spread the approach and styles garnered from funk pioneers to all new predominantly white audiences in the mid-to-late 1980s and the 1990s. These bands later inspired the underground mid-1990s funkcore movement.

Related Topics:
R&B - New Jack Swing - Funk metal - Jane's Addiction - Primus - Fishbone - Faith No More - Red Hot Chili Peppers - 1980s - 1990s - Funkcore

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Artists like The Brand New Heavies and Me'shell Ndegeocello carried on with strong elements of funk in the 1990s, but never came close to reaching the commercial success of funk in its heyday.

Related Topics:
Brand New Heavies - Me'shell Ndegeocello - 1990s

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Today, hip hop artists regularly sample old funk tunes. James Brown is said to be the most sampled artist in the history of hip hop. P-Funk also is sampled frequently—samples of old Parliament and Funkadelic songs formed the basis of West Coast G Funk.

Related Topics:
Hip hop - Sample - James Brown - Parliament - Funkadelic - West Coast - G Funk

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Funk is a major element of certain artists identified with the Jam band scene of the late 1990s and 2000s.

Related Topics:
Jam band - 1990s - 2000s

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Medeski Martin & Wood, Galactic, Soulive, and Karl Denson's Tiny Universe all drawing heavily from the funk tradition.

Related Topics:
Medeski Martin & Wood - Galactic - Soulive - Karl Denson's Tiny Universe

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In Brazil, the word "funk" is used to denote a distinct genre of music called baile funk (also known as rio funk), related to electro.

Related Topics:
Brazil - Baile funk - Electro

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Note: Despite its name, Grand Funk Railroad is not a funk band; it is a straight rock band. Also the word "funk" is often used widely to refer to African-American pop music of the 1970s in general. Artists such as Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye actually recorded few straight funk pieces.

Related Topics:
Grand Funk Railroad - Rock - 1970s - Stevie Wonder - Marvin Gaye

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