Funk Music Analysis
A robust rhythm, a commanding beat, an energetic aura. The year was 1974, ten years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, yet the future of race relations was still a perplexing mess. Amidst the chaos, a powerful voice could be heard:
Music is designed to free your funky mind
We have come to help you cope
Out into another reality, you will be
Through our music we bring you hope (Funkadelic 23-26)
Funk music, a representation of power and confrontation, was a groundbreaking musical style developed in a period of social uncertainty and racial oppression. Inextricably intertwined with the issue of race, funk powerfully opposed hegemonic domination by creating a discourse that empowered and educated black communities.
From its earliest …show more content…
roots, funk music’s development occurred in a social environment that was heavily influenced by issues of race. As a musical genre, funk began to gain creative momentum within black communities in the mid 1960s. This period was an incredibly confounded time that greatly shaped the blunt nature of funk music. Despite the violent end of the Civil Rights Movement with the assassination of leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, many communities across the United States remained optimistic in their prognosis of race relations. The dominant consensus was one of social progress and a belief in a newfound fairness in American society. This general hopefulness coupled with the lack of leadership in the Civil Rights Movement caused a lull in the political activeness of many African Americans. As a result, many of the promises from the Civil Rights Movement simply failed to materialize, yet many of the disadvantages still existed. By the time the euphoria of the era had simmered down, all that was left behind was a directionless sense of disillusionment. Despite these bleak conditions, most people inside and outside of black communities believed that the struggle for social justice was over and progress would be inevitable. This post-Civil Rights Movement haze placed identity politics on the periphery, as many believed “the apparent need for communality and unity” within the black community was no longer necessary (Morant 74). However, the most marginalized of African Americans were still struggling and had no outlet for expression or solidarity. It was out of this uncertain and instable social climate that funk music was born.
Going against the popular sentiment of its time, funk was a genre that was qualitatively rooted in the principles of black power and protest.
Sonically speaking, funk’s bass-centric nature and rhythmic backbone reflected an attitude of confrontation and rebellion. Loud horns, drums, and beats all paralleled the aggressive frustration out of which it came. Its hardcore, unrefined sound led many to label “funk [as] the extreme of everything” (Morant 75). In addition to the robust instrumentals, pioneers like James Brown developed a style of the frequent repetition of politically-charged lyrics, which further reinforced its association with power and strength. Songs sometimes consisted of just a small collection of phrases or words; however, as long as the perfect energy and emotion was conveyed with the lyrics the resonating quality of funk lived. Frequently, the lyrics did no more than set a loose theme or outline, and the artist would then color the performance through the delivery. Largely, artists focused on themes of racial power, happiness, and pride. Admittedly, some funk lyrics also had a party-element to them; however, the uplifting energy of these songs still rejected mainstream complacency and instead galvanized black pride. And even though artists like Sly and the Family Stone were multiracial in that they included white artists in their group, the music itself was crafted for a black audience, and the lyrics and style sought to empower and educate the extremely marginalized within the African American community. Resultantly, funk became intertwined with black communities that sought to differentiate themselves from the dominant white culture. This separatist spirit is even observable in “words like… funk, [as they] were efforts to come up with a language to talk about that visceral element in music” that didn’t exist in popular discourse (Kelley 40). Between its instrumentals, lyrics, audience, and language, the identity funk carved out was
counterhegemonic: black, protesting, and intense.
Music is designed to free your funky mind
We have come to help you cope
Out into another reality, you will be
Through our music we bring you hope (Funkadelic 23-26)
Funk music, a representation of power and confrontation, was a groundbreaking musical style developed in a period of social uncertainty and racial oppression. Inextricably intertwined with the issue of race, funk powerfully opposed hegemonic domination by creating a discourse that empowered and educated black communities.
From its earliest …show more content…
roots, funk music’s development occurred in a social environment that was heavily influenced by issues of race. As a musical genre, funk began to gain creative momentum within black communities in the mid 1960s. This period was an incredibly confounded time that greatly shaped the blunt nature of funk music. Despite the violent end of the Civil Rights Movement with the assassination of leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, many communities across the United States remained optimistic in their prognosis of race relations. The dominant consensus was one of social progress and a belief in a newfound fairness in American society. This general hopefulness coupled with the lack of leadership in the Civil Rights Movement caused a lull in the political activeness of many African Americans. As a result, many of the promises from the Civil Rights Movement simply failed to materialize, yet many of the disadvantages still existed. By the time the euphoria of the era had simmered down, all that was left behind was a directionless sense of disillusionment. Despite these bleak conditions, most people inside and outside of black communities believed that the struggle for social justice was over and progress would be inevitable. This post-Civil Rights Movement haze placed identity politics on the periphery, as many believed “the apparent need for communality and unity” within the black community was no longer necessary (Morant 74). However, the most marginalized of African Americans were still struggling and had no outlet for expression or solidarity. It was out of this uncertain and instable social climate that funk music was born.
Going against the popular sentiment of its time, funk was a genre that was qualitatively rooted in the principles of black power and protest.
Sonically speaking, funk’s bass-centric nature and rhythmic backbone reflected an attitude of confrontation and rebellion. Loud horns, drums, and beats all paralleled the aggressive frustration out of which it came. Its hardcore, unrefined sound led many to label “funk [as] the extreme of everything” (Morant 75). In addition to the robust instrumentals, pioneers like James Brown developed a style of the frequent repetition of politically-charged lyrics, which further reinforced its association with power and strength. Songs sometimes consisted of just a small collection of phrases or words; however, as long as the perfect energy and emotion was conveyed with the lyrics the resonating quality of funk lived. Frequently, the lyrics did no more than set a loose theme or outline, and the artist would then color the performance through the delivery. Largely, artists focused on themes of racial power, happiness, and pride. Admittedly, some funk lyrics also had a party-element to them; however, the uplifting energy of these songs still rejected mainstream complacency and instead galvanized black pride. And even though artists like Sly and the Family Stone were multiracial in that they included white artists in their group, the music itself was crafted for a black audience, and the lyrics and style sought to empower and educate the extremely marginalized within the African American community. Resultantly, funk became intertwined with black communities that sought to differentiate themselves from the dominant white culture. This separatist spirit is even observable in “words like… funk, [as they] were efforts to come up with a language to talk about that visceral element in music” that didn’t exist in popular discourse (Kelley 40). Between its instrumentals, lyrics, audience, and language, the identity funk carved out was
counterhegemonic: black, protesting, and intense.