portal: R&B and Soul Music

Funk is an American musical style that originated in the mid to late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, soul jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk "de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums" to the foreground. Unlike R&B and Soul songs, which had many chord changes, funk songs are often based on an extended vamp on a single chord.

Like much of African-inspired music, funk typically consists of a complex groove with rhythm instruments such as electric guitar, electric bass, Hammond organ, and drums playing interlocking rhythms. Funk bands sometimes have a horn section of several saxophones, trumpets, and in some cases, a trombone, which plays rhythmic "hits".

Influential African American funk performers include James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, Curtis Mayfield, The Meters, The Funk Brothers, Bootsy Collins, Rick James, and Prince. Notable 1970s funk bands included Rufus feat. Chaka Khan, Earth, Wind & Fire, Eric Burdon & War, Tower of Power, Average White Band, The Ohio Players, The Commodores, Kool & the Gang and Cameo, though many of these most famous bands in the genre also played disco and soul extensively. Funk music was a major influence on the development of 1970s disco music, and funk samples were present in most styles of house music and early hip hop music. It is also the main influence of go-go. Funk also has left its mark on new wave, and its pulse is evident in post punk as well.

Characteristics

Funk creates an intense groove by using strong bass guitar riffs and bass lines. Funk was built on Motown recordings,Fact: date=May 2008 which put bassists such as James Jamerson to the forefront. Like Motown recordings, funk songs used bass lines as the centerpiece of songs. Notable funk bassists include Bootsy Collins, Kenny Franklin,Bernard Edwards, George Porter, Jr., Louis Johnson, Francis "Rocco" Prestia of Tower of Power and Larry Graham of Sly & the Family Stone. Graham is generally credited with inventing the percussive "slap bass technique." Slap bass' mixture of thumb-slapped low notes and finger "popped" high notes allowed the bass to have a drum-like rhythmic role, which became a distinctive element of funk. 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, with both of them working with James Brown, George Clinton and Prince. Sometimes 1970s funk bands are divided to "hardcore funk" and "sophisticated funk", the former concept referring to earthy sound in the vein of James Brown or Funkadelic, while "sophisticated funk" refers to artists such as Tower Of Power, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Blackbyrds or The Brothers Johnson, who use softer sounds and usually incorporate soul ballads into their material.