FUNK!: BLACK SOUND IN THE POST-CIVIL RIGHTS ERA

Duane BarksdaleProfessor KaskowitzMUSC006530 November 2015

TIME FRAME

• 1965-late 70s/early 80s• After Voting Rights Act of 1965

and Civil Rights Act passed• Accepted as end of Civil Rights

Era in mainstream ideology• Seen by oppressed as either

largely empty symbolism, some as opportunity for success

• Attention shifts to Vietnam War, although struggles for communities of color, particularly black communities, continue

WHAT IS FUNK?

• “Funk music was the social protest discourse of the young Black poor and working-class communtiy after the euphoria of the civil rights movement faded, a period defined as ‘the decade of the detached’” (Morant, 72)

• Not supported commercially before James Brown, “ghettoized” by the music market, gained traction amongst communities

MUSICAL AND POLITICAL ELEMENTS

• Useful to think of as umbrella genre• 1960s - “The funk impulse –

drummed instrumentation, atomized melodies, harmonically unmotivated compositions, the ‘New Orleans beat’” (Brown, 494)

• Differs from George Clinton/Parliament-Funkadelic

• Clearly influences popular genres such as hip-hop, soul

FUNK AS POPULAR MUSIC

• “While soul and disco were embraces as palatable genres for White listeners, the industry ‘consciously ghettoized funk’” (Morant, 74)

• Reception of audience shifts power dynamics economically, thus reclaiming some sort of power in both sound and producer-consumer context

JAMES BROWN

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VRSAVDlpDI

“Some people say we've got a lot of

malice //

Some say it's a lot of nerve //

But I say we won't quit moving until

we get what we deserve //

We have been 'buked and we have

been scorned //

We've been treated bad, talked about

as sure as you're born //

But just as sure as it takes two eyes

to make a pair, ha //

Brother we can't quit until we get our

share” – “Say It Loud”

FUNKADELIC/GEORGE CLINTON

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQFGkGk4PSc

“Feet don't fail me now, ha ha //

Here's a chance to dance //

Our way out of our constrictions //

Gonna be groovin' up and down //

Hang up alley way //

With the groove our only guide //

We shall all be moved // - “One Nation

Under A Groove”

CONCLUSION/QUESTIONS?