DWBass

Disco was more formulaic. Steady 120bpm pulse which is great for DJ's and dancing in the clubs. Funk had more varying tempos. I love both styles. I'm a bassist and started playing in the early 70's and am still playing that music today.

gandhara

There was alot of disco funk music, a mixture of both really. Chic, Crown Heights Affair, George Duke, etc..they were doin both maybe not as edgy as group like Ohio Players or Slave but its all good stuff if your into it. I love both

Rexx Shredd

Disco is 4-on-the-floor quarter-note kick drum patterns. Basslines are usually octaves (but not necessarily).Tempos usually between 110-140 BPM (avg 120 BPM)

Funk is NOT 4-on-the-floor quarter-note kick drum patterns. Basslines are built around the space/rests between the notes. Tempos can be as slow as 80 BPM

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William_the_Bloody

Disco oddly enough is one of the only genres to go from underground to corporate and still retain an element of decency in its music. I put this down to the fact that the general publics standard for musichanship was higher back then. Today music is marketed to 14 year olds who can't tell the difference between $hit and good music.

Anyhow funk licks started out largely in the undergound soul movement of the late 60 & 70's, of course being popularized by people like James Brown & Curtis Mayfield





In the gay community disco was becoming more popular in the clubs. Disco is usually thought of as the first real multicultural musical movement in western society, as it was often a crossover of black, white and latin music, so by the mid 70's there was a shift especially with the popularity of KC and the Sunshine Band,



which of course let to a lot of soul bands shifting to disco by the mid late 70's



Now a lot of people think that disco was funk that got white washed but this is nonesonse. If the demographics of North America at the time was close to 90% Caucasian at the time than this was inevitable...damn good I may add.



Disco continued to keep its African, and same sex roots, but the real reason disco became unpopular in my opinion is that it began to represent shallow corporate materialism to a lot of displaced people and thus faced a backlash by sadly a rather bigoted group of rock fans...and the rest is history.

Musicwhore A-Z

That's easy! The MUSICIANSHIP! Funk wins hands down! However, the SIMPLICITY of disco was more accessible to "average" music fans who just wanted to "dance" and who could care less about how well one played an instrument. As a result, tons more records were sold in disco than funk, rightly or wrongly.

Free Mustache

Sorry to revive this thread after so many years, but I felt I had an opinion to offer. As a person who's been listening to disco since he was 6 and funk since 11, I'd like to think I'm well versed in this. Over the years I've come to a certain controversial conclusion. Disco is funk. See, the term "disco" didn't come about until the mid '70s, and even then it wasn't widely used. Previously, groups like Chic and The Tavares were referred to as Funk. The songs were fast, and somewhat simple, but they were just a different kind of funk. However, funk "purists" (though I'd prefer to call them snobs) concluded that this type of music could not be funk (just as death metal fans decided that hardcore isn't metal). What clinches this conclusion, in my opinion, is a song from the 80's that not many consider; Notorious by Duran Duran featuring Nile Rogers (Chic). Is this song Disco, funk, Jazz, Rock, or Pop? It had all of the obvious hallmarks of funk (focus on rhythm rather than lead, experimental sound, synth or keyboard, brass, and a distinct vocal lead over a rhythmic backing) but no one wants to call it funk. This to me shows that there's a certain snobbery that comes with classifying certain kinds of music as funk or disco. It seems to be that whatever fast funky song one person likes is funk, while to another it is dirty disco. It's all funk to me. Some is fast and poppy, and others are Deep or P.

abstrakkt

Disco = party.
Funk = boogie, chill-out, cruise etc etc.

Black Francis

For me, that Funk is slightly less sucky than Disco.

not a big fan of either genre.

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dwill123

Here's the difference:

DISCO:


FUNK:

gsrox

"Brick House" is definitely funk. The smoking bass guitar tells the tale.