Origins

Funk is a style of music developed by African American musicians in the late 60s/early 70s. Just as Rock and Roll was blues music with the volume turned up, funk was basically R&B turned up and stoned out of its mind. Funk continued and amplified the tradition of polyphonic rhythms found in black music worldwide but emphasized the Bass and drums. Funk songs are often centered on an extended vamp layed down in the bass line though complex horn and vocal arrangements are also a prominent part of many funk songs as well as slower tempos. Funk is influenced by jazz, blues and soul and many great funk groups come from these traditions.

This is how we do it

Funk has had a lasting influence on popular American music. The emphasis on the downbeat (as opposed to the backbeat) which was pioneered by James Brown is so ubiquitous in today’s popular music that it can’t be separated anymore. The funk sensability is the basis of hip-hop and hundreds of funk songs from the 1960s and 70s and eighties are sampled in modern hip-hop tracks. Though funk has certain characteristics that are used to classify it, ANY music can be funky if the musicians are willing break from the Western scale by adding the “blue” notes and reaching into their soul rather than slavishly imitating what’s considered proper. It’s difficult to describe what this sounds like (I’ll know it when I hear it), but usually the tuned up expression on the listeners face is a dead give away.

Funk songs are often based on an extended vamp on a single chord, distinguishing it from R&B and soul songs centered around chord progressions. This allowed extended playtime coinciding with the move from 45s to long playing LPs. The longer playing time allowed for longer dancing and informed the disco movement (a bastardization of funk and soul) as well as creating breakbeats that MCs could string together and rap over. Complex horn and vocal arrangements are also a prominent part of many funk songs as well as slower tempos. Don’t let anyone fool you, the ability to be funky at ballad tempos is what separates the men from the boys.

Funkateers

George Clinton credits James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone as the pillars that funk was built on. While Brown and Stone usually get their Ps when funk is spoken of, Jimi’s contribution is less well known. It should be remembered that screaming guitars by the likes of Eddie Hazel, Drac (of Slave), Jesse Johnson, and Ernie Isley are as important as bass in early funk music. A listen to Hendrix’s Band of Gypsy’s album with Billy Cox and Buddy Miles goes a long way in proving Jimi’s funky bonifides as well as showing where he was heading before his death.

Influential African American funk performers include James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, Curtis Mayfield, Pleasure, Slave, Rick James, and Prince. Notable funk bands of the 1970s and 1980s included Lakeside, Earth, Wind & Fire, Zapp, Tower of Power, The Time, The Ohio Players, and Cameo.

Clones of Dr. Funkenstien

While funk’s heyday was in the 1970s, its influence remains strong in popular music. Dr. Dre’s The Chronic lifted the sounds of Mothership Connection extensively. James Brown and George Clinton’s compositions have been sampled like crazy and have informed Rap music for decades.