Funk
Funk is a popular music style built around syncopated grooves, prominent bass lines, strong drum patterns, and interlocking instrumental parts.
Syncopation: A rhythmic emphasis on beats or subdivisions that are normally weak. Syncopated accents disrupt regular meter and give funk grooves their forward pull.
African-American music: Music created within African-American communities, encompassing diverse genres and traditions. Funk draws on rhythmic practices and musical forms developed across these traditions.
Bootsy Collins: An American bassist and singer known for his work with James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic. His elastic bass lines and stage persona became influential models for funk performance.
Soul music: A popular music genre rooted in African-American gospel and rhythm and blues. Funk grew from soul but typically gives repeated rhythmic patterns more prominence than vocal melody.
Hip-hop music: A cultural and musical movement encompassing rap, DJing, breakdancing, and related arts. Hip-hop producers sampled funk recordings and reused their drums, bass lines, and breaks.
Funk bass: A bass-playing style built around syncopated riffs, percussive articulation, and repeated grooves. The bass often carries the central riff while interacting closely with the drums.
New Orleans rhythm and blues: A postwar style combining blues, jazz, and Caribbean-influenced rhythms in New Orleans. Its syncopated, dance-oriented rhythms helped shape early funk’s sound.
Bernie Worrell: An American keyboardist and composer best known for Parliament-Funkadelic. His synthesizer and keyboard parts gave funk new textures without displacing its groove.
Disco: A dance-music genre built around steady beats, orchestral textures, and club-oriented production. Disco shares funk’s dance roots but generally favors a steadier pulse and more continuous arrangement.
Breakbeat: A rhythmic passage in a song, often centered on drums, that is isolated or looped. Funk drum breaks became foundational source material for DJs and sample-based music.