Funk music was introduced in the late 70’s. Many people saw it as a celebration of being black and a sound of rebellion. Funk music is a mixture of soul, R&B, and a splash of jazz. This music included elements from previous genres such as narration and call and response, but with yells, melodic riffs, shouts, moans and hums, it has its own style in lyrics and vocals. Rock music changed after popularizing funk to add funk elements to their music to create a new subgenre called funk rock. Funk Rock was comprised of artists such as the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Prince, and their style influenced groups such as Outkast. Hip-hop artists began to cover funk music in their tracks including the great James Brown and Parliament albums. Some hip hop created an original beat and included funk elements in the beat such as the bass and guitar riffs. James Brown is seen as a pioneer in funk when he came out with the song Cold Sweat in 1967. He received a lot of pressure as this was also the Civil Rights Era. His response to this was “ Say it Loud, I’m black and I’m proud.” Funk music has emphasis beat one and includes slap base. Examples of Funk bands would be Earth, Wind & Fire, Sly and the Family Stone, Kool & The Gang and the Ohio Players. Disco also uses the bass drum. So the only then that separates the two is that Disco included all races and sexualities.
