Funk was born from the influence of many genres such as jazz, R&B, soul, and African grooves. It already existed in an early form in New Orleans since the mid-1900s. Over many years, it has influenced jazz, R&B and soul music in return, and led to the creation of Hip Hop music. Funk music, has a huge influence from rhythm and blues and jazz and has a more upbeat sound. It is best identified by its polyrhythmic base. Due to the genre being a mix of many different genres, within the genre, you can hear the trumpet arrangements (like jazz) and the vocal style of soul.Funk’s regular musical traits include dynamic syncopated rhythms, which are driven by sixteenth-note divisions of the beat and a lot of guitar playing. Because Funk is designed to make people dance, funk rhythms are usually presented in small, repeated ideas that through the repetition become quite danceable. Funk music normally has a bass guitar as a source of both melodic and rhythmic interest. Normally, the bass guitar was used to solidify the harmony in popular music and was overlooked but through the creation of soul music, the bass guitar became like a stronger voice. Although the electric guitar is the center of attention for rock and roll, it is used as an extra percussion instrument.
Funk music was another way for black people in America to embrace the fact that they were black. They were proud of their race. The black power movement and the funk era was happening around the same time. There were songs like “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m proud” by James Brown and “Give more power to the people” by the Chi-Lites that expressed how the black people felt. I’m not against listening to Funk music but it isn’t a genre that I would have downloaded on my playlists. It’s more something that my mother would play while we’re cleaning the house on a Saturday morning.
