Funk music is a genre of music that heralds from America, and arose in the mid 1960’s. African-American musicians combined the genres of R&B, Jazz and Soul to create an innovative new style of music that was incredibly rhythmical and could easily be danced to. Many Funk songs are based almost entirely on a vamp that has been extended. A vamp is a short repeated musical pattern, similar to the idea of a guitar riff.
Funk is very interesting in its composition. It is almost the opposite to a lot of popular Western music, in that it actively de-emphasizes melodies and harmonies, which are usually the focal point of Pop music for example. Instead, if brings drums, electric bass and rhythmic grooves to the forefront, when they are typically seen as lesser components of a song. Many extended chords are also included, such as those that can be found in the subgenre Beebop Jazz. An extended chord simply means that the chord that is generally a triad with only three notes, has more notes added to it to create a different tone, such as ninths, elevenths and thirteenths.
Instruments used are usually drums, electric guitars, bass guitars, organs, keyboards and horns (including saxophones, trumpets, etc); typical rhythm instruments that can easily create a groove. The guitars and keyboard sections will frequently play interlocking rhythms. Horns will play ‘hit’ notes, or the parts of a vamp that need emphasizing. Stevie Wonder for example, used horns in this way, but would often write them more complicated parts for choruses, such as in ‘Sir Duke,’ which gave his music a very definitive style. James Brown was equally if not more so innovative, creating his own ‘downbeat’ groove. The downbeat places emphasis on the first note of a sequence, rather than the third or fourth note for example.
Derivative subgenres have flourished from Funk’s inception; Funk-Rock (the style of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers), Funk-Metal, Boogie and Electro-music. Samples of Funk music are included in songs from almost every genre; Hip-Hop, Drum and Bass music and many more.
Like Soul, Funk is classically upbeat, even if discussing more negative topics. As an example, Stevie Wonder’s ‘Living for the City,’ talks about having to work hard to make ends meet, prejudice and more, all the while managing to sound positive due to the infectious rhythms produced by the synthesizer and the groove from the repeating chord progression. The song is ranked in ‘Rolling Stone’s’ top 100 songs of all time, not just because of the exceptional composition, but because of it being one of the very first songs to actively challenge racism.
Overall, I think that Funk is a very rewarding genre of music to listen to and to learn about, due to its vivacious nature. Despite taking inspiration from the Blues style and even sharing some lyrical themes, it is almost the antithesis. The Blues create such a melancholy tone, whereas Funk seems to be about pure enjoyment, dancing, life. Hopefully we will see Funk becoming a more prominent style within our Western society again, thanks to the help of musicians such as Mark Ronson clearly paying homage to the genre by infusing their own songs with a heavy Funk feel.
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