Preview

Funk Music

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
847 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Funk Music
The word "funk", once defined in dictionaries as body odor or the smell of sexual intercourse, commonly has been regarded as coarse or indecent. African-American musicians originally applied "funk" to music with a slow, mellow groove, then later with a hard-driving, insistent rhythm because of the word's association with sexual intercourse. This early form of the music set the pattern for later musicians. The music was slow, sexy, loose, riff-oriented and dance able. Funky typically described these qualities.(wikipedia)
There are so many different kinds of music throughout the world, even in this country alone. There's rock and roll, hip hop, R&B, rap, soul, and many more. One of the most fascinating kinds of music that you might not be aware of is funk. Funk music is characterized by intensely syncopated, dance able rhythms with the emphasis falling heavily on the first beat of every measure prominent bass lines; a distinctive, razor-sharp type of rhythm guitar; chanted or hollered vocals in the style of soul music; powerful, rhythm-oriented horn sections; a strong emphasis on percussion, often including hand drums and other instruments as well as a drum kit; and African and jazz influences. Funk music was a major influence on the development of disco and, later, hip hop music. There's no real definition of funk, but here's how one person described it funk a stew of jazz + blues + rock and roll + soul with a little gospel, hip hop, reggae and Latin added for spice with a message. That's quite a definition with a lot of elements combined, but it seems to be the most fitting. The sounds of funk began emerging in the 1960's. It was a sign of the times. The 60's were a revolutionary era with a very unsettled feel. It was then that the Vietnam War was being fought, and black leaders were pushing the idea of civil rights. People across the nation were aware and involved in the protests to allow rights to every person regardless of color. This explosive

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    It is important to understand that hip-hop and jazz are both more than just genres of music; they are lifestyles that embody the music. Jazz and hip-hop are products of a counter culture. They are both creative art forms. Hip-hop music is often used as a platform to express thoughts about the establishment and insight into life urban black youth growing up in the streets. Although Jazz has assimilated into mainstream America, much of its growth took place from rebellious actions. The technical elements found in a jazz composition have had an extremely large influence on hip-hop. With the growth of improvisation hip hoppers established freestyle rapping. Jazz has influence hip through the establishment of syncopated rhythm. Rappers are able to take a beat and play with it or against creating a very unique and interesting composition. Artists Nas and The Roots have shown the ability to fuse hip-hop essence with jazz through sampling and live recording. Often times hip hop musicians have given As RZA With the similarities through development and growth hip hop has become a new and popular form of jazz as bebop developed in the mid-1940s and ragtime in the early 20th…

    • 1889 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Disco is one musical genre that developed in the 1970s. The characteristics of this music is mixing "soaring" vocals with a beat that encouraged dancing, disco became the dance music of the decade. The music often had 100 to 130 beats per minute (a relatively fast tempo) and the pulse of the rhythm was often emphasized.…

    • 710 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hip Hop Influences

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Hip hop is a musical genre which developed alongside hip hop culture, defined by key stylistic elements such as rapping, DJing, sampling, scratching and beatboxing. Hip hop began in the Bronx of New York City in the 1970s, primarily among African Americans, Jamaican Americans, and, to an extent, Latino Americans. The term rap is often used synonymously with hip hop, but hip hop denotes the practices of an entire subculture.…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Conscious Hip-hop is the modern form of the blues. Both genres of music express the hardships of the African American people in their respective time periods or explain the culture surrounding the artist and/or their community. Through their lyrics, the artists from the two genres are able to spread the culture and experiences of the black race.…

    • 2671 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Blues Music

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Blues' development the enormous impact of pop music to the world. The development of today's popular music from the blues music popular in America and really start to exist. Blues music, as it were, on the change and development of popular music played a large role. Ragtime, jazz, big band, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, country music and ordinary pop songs, and even modern classical music contain Blues factors or is developed from…

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Jazz Music Essay

    • 1583 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Dixieland jazz sounds are created when an instrument plays the melody or a variation on it, and the other instruments improvise around that melody. This works in jazz’s key element of improvisation. Next, swing jazz. Jazz music reached its height during the swing era. Swing music is unique in its strong rhythmic drive and “call-and-response” usage. As we discussed earlier, jazz music is unique in its rhythm, particularly swing, an element prominently incorporated in swing jazz, hence the name. Without this rhythmic element, swing music would not have the original jazz style. Mainstream jazz is considered to be extremely complex in nature, but it still contains important elements of jazz, including subtle use of rhythm, improvisation along with pre-arranged introductions, and “blues notes.” Despite introductions that are composed ahead of time, Mainstream still has the important element of improvisation. This shows us that jazz has evolved from the original style in to new styles that incorporate new and different elements. Funky Jazz, basically Mainstream’s alter ego, even contains the elements essential to original jazz style. Many of the original Funky jazz pieces were influenced heavily by blues and contain an abundance of “blues notes.” The rhythm of funky jazz is very simple, but funky jazz still includes strong jazz…

    • 1583 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Culturally, hip-hop has affected how people behave, think, and what is important to African Americans. Since it emerged and became popular hip-hop has affected African-Americans in a negative way. In the majority of hip-hop songs there is the presence of violence, sex, drugs, misogyny, and money. These characteristics are violent and may lead to it being acceptable in African…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Early rock and roll music absorbed a lot of elements of African-American music, such as blues and jazz. These black popular music elements appeared frequently in early rock and roll songs, and were favored by white youth during 1950s.…

    • 322 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ethnomusicology 50b

    • 1434 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Although bop and cool jazz popularized in a similar time frame, their individual demographics and cultural associations differed drastically. Jazz music began its rise to popularity in the 1940s through a style known as bebop, or bop, following the wildly popular dance genre known as swing (Meadows 244). Within this postwar period we saw a high concentration of immigrants, primarily African Americans, seeking opportunity and discovering their individual identities (Meadows 243). This shift in culture brought to life a transition from popular swing music, opting instead for increasingly complex and rich forms of music with unprecedented layering of melodies and harmonies, creating sounds unheard of from any of its predecessors (Deveaux & Giddins 12). Music became more daring and musically adventurous, straying away from conventional norms with bands consisting primarily of black musicians located in New York (Deveaux & Giddins 11). Bop compositions…

    • 1434 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Funk and Goal

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The word SMART is an acronym which actually stands for something in this case. The S stands for specific meaning that your goal must be specific. For example you can say a goal for you is to graduate at the end of the year, but that is too vague. You must be specific to a better goal would be to pass this course so I may move on to the next one. M stands for Measurable, meaning that your goal must be measurable so you can see progress. A stands for attainable, so something that is achievable, something that you can actually reach. R stands for realistic, meaning that, is it realistic that you can pass the class by not showing up, the answer to that would be no. So a realistic goal would be to show up to class because that is important to passing the class. T stands for timely. Give yourself a reasonable amount of time to achieve your goal.…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    History Of Hip Hop

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The hip-hop music genre escort in a culture of DJing, breakdancing, rapping and graffiti writing. (Mazzei 6-12) People think hip-hop is just people moving their body, specifically legs and arms. It is everything even your brain! Amazing right? “Hip-hop is a genre of music featuring stylized rhythmic music that accompanies rapping.” (The Origins of Hip-hop 26) Don’t just go around saying ‘I can do hip-hop! Wanna see?’, because really have you gone to a dance studio and actually learned hip-hop, probably not! Hip-hop acquires you to learn hip-hop in a dance studio and stay there for a few years.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evolution Of Hip Hop

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Hip-hop has many credited fathers; all who have enhanced hip-hop-adding their own style and feel to the new more relatable sound. Hip-hop began as a solution for young people who could not relate to other genres of music such as, funk, soul, and disco. As more faces joined the evolution, hip-hop changed and transformed into something much larger than anyone could have ever imagined…

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ethno 50B Essay #1

    • 1336 Words
    • 6 Pages

    A living jazz legend once exclaimed “jazz has borrowed from other genres of music and also has lent itself to other genres of music.” Herbie Hancock makes it clear that jazz has been an evolving form of art. And just as simple as the notion that music can change the world, music changes in itself. Jazz once evolved into something we call swing. Back in the roaring twenties people got up and danced to this kind of music. However, these simple and playful melodies that everyone were accustomed to transformed into intricate music with a different basis. When jazz was over everyone’s head and people stopped dancing, we call this period bop. Inevitably, new ideas emerged and jazz musicians decided to take a step back, leading into the cool period. Although it is hard to find the exact beginnings and ends to these distinct eras, I will show how musicians utilized different styles to express themselves.…

    • 1336 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    "Hot" Extended Definition

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages

    14. Music Of, relating to, or being an emotionally charged style of performance marked by strong rhythms and improvisation: hot jazz.…

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Up until this point, radio stations were reluctant to promote black music, as it was more out of touch with the average white listener. Disco was out of the popular picture and the rhythm-based black music had a beat that could be considered almost disco-like, which caused radio stations to stay away from it. It seemed as though black music didn’t have a home of its own unless black artists were singing songs that appealed to a larger white…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays