Parlament Funkadelic
Parliment-Funkadelic (also commonly known as P-Funk) is an American funk music collective group lead by George Clinton. This group is consisting of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic, who have both been active since the 1960s. With their funky style, the group first began in New Jersey in 1956 and has led a large legacy of many fans of both their music and their style.
The band draws a lot of inspiration from James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and many others. They first hit the music charts with their first single “Flash Light”. George Clinton’s iconic and widely loved Mothership is avalible in the Smithsonian Museum of African American history and Culture exhibit. They are also in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, #56 on the “Greatest Bands of All Time” list, and their song “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)” has been sampled more than 35 times by other rappers and artists. On May 11th, 2019, Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic were given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy.
In the concert that we watched during class I noticed and liked how they were able to incorporate different rhythms into the performance, and how when they were changing songs it never sounded out of place or awkward in the transition.
Many of the artists had a harmony with not only their music, but with each other when the time was right. I really liked the improvised and the written harmony of their songs.
One aspect of improvisation that I noticed was that he slowed the beat and his singing down when he realized that the people were not clapping on beat to the original song. He also told the instrument players to get quiet before he handed the microphone off to the woman. I like how everyone had fun with not only the other performers on the stage, but with the people in the audience as well. They kept the audience entertained the entire time by mixing things and aspects of their show up, and I think it worked very well.
There was not much dancing done by George Clinton, but the backup singers were dancing while they were on the microphones and it looked like both them and the people playing the instruments were having an fun time with the music. Anything like synchronized dancing or rehearsed dancing I don’t think happened.
I feel like the improvisation and creativity go hand in hand with each other. The performers were creative enough to add their own sense of flair to whatever they were doing but were talented and experienced enough to not let it take away from the performance (i.e., their singing, instrument playing, and the overall feeling of the atmosphere).
I liked the performance style of this concert. It felt like everyone on the stage and in the crowd were all having a good time. One thing I did notice with this performance was that the people on the stage looked just a little more excited than the crowed (whenever the camera would pan to the crowd) and I just wonder if it was because the camera panned at the wrong moments or if it was like that all the time.
To me, this seems like a concert I would go to on a Friday or Saturday night. It seems really chill but at the same time exciting enough to not drift away or want to leave after a while. Both Parliament and Funkadelic know how to keep their audiences entertained until the end with their unique styles, interesting concepts, and changing beat music.