
The first example is an unrecorded number by Buddy Bolden, remembered as either " Funky Butt" or "Buddy Bolden's Blues" with improvised lyrics that were, according to Donald M. In early jam sessions, musicians would encourage one another to " get down" by telling one another, "Now, put some stank on it!" At least as early as 1907, jazz songs carried titles such as Funky. Even though in white culture, the term "funk" can have negative connotations of odor or being in a bad mood ("in a funk"), in African communities, the term "funk", while still linked to body odor, had the positive sense that a musician's hard-working, honest effort led to sweat, and from their "physical exertion" came an "exquisite" and "superlative" performance. In 1784 "funky" meaning "musty" was first documented, which, in turn, led to a sense of "earthy" that was taken up around 1900 in early jazz slang for something "deeply or strongly felt". It is originally derived from Latin "fumigare" (which means "to smoke") via Old French "fungiere" and, in this sense, it was first documented in English in 1620.


The word funk initially referred (and still refers) to a strong odor.
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Look up funk in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Funk samples and breakbeats have been used extensively in hip hop and electronic dance music. It is also the main influence of Washington go-go, a funk sub-genre. Express, Shalamar, One Way, Lakeside, Dazz Band, The Gap Band, Slave, Aurra, Roger Troutman & Zapp, Con Funk Shun, Cameo, Bar-Kays and Chic began adopting and developing Brown's innovations during the 1970s and the 1980s.įunk derivatives include avant-funk, an avant-garde strain of funk boogie, a hybrid of electronic music and funk funk metal G-funk, a mix of gangsta rap and psychedelic funk Timba, a form of funky Cuban dance music and funk jam. Other musical groups, including Kool and the Gang, Parliament-Funkadelic, Ohio Players, Fatback Band, Jimmy Castor Bunch, Earth, Wind & Fire, B.T.

It uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, and dominant seventh chords with altered ninths and thirteenths.įunk originated in the mid-1960s, with James Brown's development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat-with a heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure ("The One"), and the application of swung 16th notes and syncopation on all basslines, drum patterns, and guitar riffs -and rock and psychedelia-influenced musicians Sly and the Family Stone and Jimi Hendrix, fostering improvisation in funk.

Funk typically consists of a complex percussive groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves that create a "hypnotic" and "danceable" feel. It deemphasizes melody and chord progressions and focuses on a strong rhythmic groove of a bassline played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a percussionist, often at slower tempos than other popular music. Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid-20th century.
