History Of Funk

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Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid- to late 1960s when African American musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues. Like much 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 originated in the mid-1960s, with James Brown's development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat-with heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure, funky bass lines, drum patterns, and syncopated guitar riffs. While much of the written history of funk focuses on men, there have been notable funk women, including Chaka Khan, …show more content…

Throughout the 1970s, TOP had many hits, and the band helped to make funk music a successful genre, with a broader audience. The 1970s were the era of highest mainstream visibility for funk music. Even with the arrival of Disco, funk became increasingly popular well into the early 80s. Funk music was also exported to Africa, and it melded with African singing and rhythms to form Afrobeat. In the 1970s, at the same time that jazz musicians began to explore blending jazz with rock to create jazz fusion, major jazz performers began to experiment with funk. Prince went on to have as much of an impact on the sound of funk as any one artist since Brown; he combined eroticism, technology, an increasing musical complexity, and an outrageous image and stage show to ultimately create music as ambitious and imaginative as P-Funk. Eventually, the band went on to define their own style of stripped-down funk based on tight musicianship and sexual themes. Similar to Prince, other bands emerged during the P-Funk era and began to incorporate uninhibited sexuality, dance-oriented themes, synthesizers and other electronic technologies to continue to craft funk

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