An Introduction to Funk

We all love giving it up, turning it loose, and tearing the roof off the sucka to a good slice of funk now and again (or, in our case, all the time). But what is funk? And how did it come to be?

The answer lies in the Black music tradition of America – at the turn of the sixties, but stretching back into the mists of the African Diaspora. Originally meaning ‘dirty’ or ‘smelly’, the word ‘funky’ was being applied to the rawer, sweatier styles of black music as far back as the 1920s. In the ‘50s, ‘funk’ became another name for hard bop, the deeper, blusier variety of jazz, drenched with gutbucket guitars and wailing gospel organs.

Funk as we know it now was really kick-started at the turn of the 60s when RnB musicians began to experiment with straight 4-beats, rather than the swing beats that had always dominated popular music. With the arrival of the electric bass around this time too, a straight drum beat could play off against a rumba or twist rhythm in the bass, and a repeating electric guitar or keyboard riff to create a totally new rhythmic experience.

As the 60s progressed, the sound matured, becoming less reliant on standard dance bass rhythms and with more emphasis on the one beat. The hard-edged brass sound of hard bop was incorporated, as were traditional blues and gospel elements like call and response chanting. The result was irresistible, soulful dance music – unashamedly raw and sexy, yet rhythmically, and often musically, highly sophisticated.

The maturation of the funk sound in the late 60s accompanied a new sense of self awareness among the US black community, as race issues finally found a place on the political agenda. Funk was the perfect vehicle to express a new way of thinking – confident, positive, inclusive, but not taking any shit from anybody. The people and the music were unashamedly black, and feeling that good about yourself is the only way to make others feel good too.

In the late 60s, the idea that boldness and pride in oneself was not incompatible with reaching out to others began to underpin many social and political movements, and funk – because of its irresistible sound and its almost spiritual message – had universal appeal. Somehow working up a sweat getting down to some hard funk felt like a step towards putting the world right, and it still does today.

- The Colonel