The person who was seen to be the main pioneer and creator of funk was James Brown, with his “Papas got a brand new bag” (1965 with “King” records), being one of the first major funk hits. Towards the later 1960s, early 1970s, Brown went on to push the funk music style further with his later releases such as “Mother Popcorn” and the more well-known “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine”. In these later hits he began to change some of the musical aspects and features of his earlier music, even discarding the twelve bar blues sequence which he regularly used. Instead he began to use his voice more dominantly, with grunts and more rhythmic speaking.
Funk music was associated heavily with the political sides of the black conflicts at the time. There was uproar of riots leading up to, and after the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, at which time James Brown performed a concert in Boston, where he spoke about the riots. This concert was a peacemaker; the music he played was a way out to all the destruction and racism that surrounded them.
Features of Funk
Funk is all about the groove and pulse. It contains not so much melody or harmonies, but instead really brings out the bass and drums. Aswell as being the backbone to most genres of music, drums and bass play a vital part in funk. Typical instrumentation consists of heavily rhythm based instruments such as electric guitar, Hammond organ, Bass Guitar and drums. Some funk band line ups also include small brass sections and saxophones, which would accent the grooves “hits”. There is often a great emphasise on beat 1 in the bar, which is demonstrated by the legendary funk bass player Bootsy Collins in this video.
Influences
Funk music was pre-dominantly an African-American people’s music, and was heavily influenced by the riots and racism at the time. James Brown was a massive influence, being not only the start of funk, but going on to be a great influence on further major funk artists such as, Marvin Gaye and George Clinton. Musically funk grew out of the soul tradition and put a more pronounced beat, with influences from rock, Jazz and original R&B.
George Clinton breathed new life into funk by incorporating psychedelic rock influences. With his bands, Funkadelic and Parliament, giving birth to a new sub-genre (P-Funk), funk began to grow in popularity even further, and many jazz musicians of the time began to incorporate a lot of funk into their own music.
Funk has gone on to influence so many bands and artists. Funk was and still is commonly sampled in modern hip-hop tracks. Such as George Clintons “Atomic Dog”, which was sampled by Snoop Dog in his song “Who Am I (What’s My Name?)”.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers are another heavily funk influenced band, who even covered Stevie Wonder’s 1973 hit “Higher Ground”.
Another great band that was heavily influenced by funk, is Dave Matthews Band. From the grooves and horn sections, down to the lyrics, Dave Matthews Band hold typical aspects of funk music.
In the 1980s the sexually suggestive lyrics of the 70s funk, had been turned more explicit and less traditional. However there were many people who carried on the traditonal legacy of funk, such as Prince and Rick James.
Lyrical Content
The lyrics of most funk songs were often political, giving out messages to the people. These messages were often very simple for anyone to understand. A great example of this, is James Brown’s “Say it Loud I’m Black and I’m Proud”.
These lyrics were obviously based of the politics at the time. This song alone made many African –American people feel empowered, which was the whole point of the song. Other than political lyrics, songs mostly contained lyrics about dancing and having a good time.
Without Funk, many bands would not exist in the way they have, and some of today’s music would not have even been created. Funk was and is part of evolution in music and has produced so many amazing musicians and artists.
