Funk Rock
 

According to one source, New Orleans-born drummer Earl Palmer "was the first to use the word "funky" to explain to other musicians that their music should be made more syncopated and danceable.

Funk rock (also written as funk-rock or funk/rock) fuses funk and rock elements. Its earliest incarnation was heard in the late '60s through the mid-'70's by musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Herbie Han****, Gary Wright, David Bowie, as well as Mother's Finest, and Funkadelic on their earlier albums.

Many instruments may be incorporated into funk-rock, but the overall sound is defined by a definitive bass or drum beat and electric guitars. The bass and drum rhythms are influenced by funk music but with more intensity, while the guitar can be funk-or-rock-influenced, usually with distortion. Prince, Jesse Johnson, and Fishbone are major artists in funk rock.
Its earliest incarnation was heard in the late 1960s through the mid 1970s by acts such as the Jimi Hendrix Experience (last two albums), Eric Burdon and War, Funkadelic, Betty Davis and Mother's Finest.

In the early 1980s Gang of Four, Iggy Pop in his LP The Idiot, The Big Boys, Xavion (An Afro-American group whose Asylum/Mirage LP in 1984 predated the formation of Living Colour) & Rick James along with New Wave mainstays Blondie and Talking Heads created their own sound mix of Punk Funk. One famous funk rock song of the period was "Another One Bites the Dust" by British Rock icons Queen. Also in the 1980s, a fusion genre probably best described as Synth-Funk (a combination of synthpop and Funk) was prominent in some Synthpop bands such as Scritti Politti, a notable album being Cupid & Psyche 85.

(Synth-Funk) The increasing availability of synthesizers in the late 70s and early 80s spawned a new generation of Funk artists who typically replaced melodic segments traditionally performed with horns with synthesizers. Synthesizers also sometimes usurped the roles of keyboards and both electric and bass guitars. Synth funk often, but not always, incorportated drum machines to augment the futuristic sound. Prominent artists of synth funk include The Gap Band, Zapp, and Prince, and their example would go on to spawn a number of followers as well as influence many established funk acts like Cameo and Rick James.

(Punk-Funk) Originally coined to classify the early 1980s post-punk artists introducing funk, disco and dub influences to experimental rock (A Certain Ratio, Konk, Liquid Liquid, PiL, Pigbag), the term punk-funk has now been requisitioned by the current crop of acts putting that same ideology to more direct effect. At the center of the movement is the New York production team the DFA, who produced the Rapture and whose James Murphy fronts LCD Soundsystem. Meanwhile, !!! and Spektrum demonstrate how guitars can be successfully welded to four-to-the-floor house rhythms without the embarrassment of most ill-considered dance/rock crossovers. Punk-funk challenges the complacency of clubland while giving indie kids something to dance to.

(80s Funk Rock) The genre's representatives from the 1980s to present day include Jane's Addiction, Fishbone, Mr. Bungle, Primus, Living Colour, Spin Doctors, as well as Prince leading the way with spinoffs, The Time, and one hit wonders, Mazarati, who all have created, expanded and defined the funk rock style.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers's second and third albums (which were released 1985 and 1987 respectively, and featured guitarist Hillel Slovak) are seen by many fans as the more funk orientated albums of their collection. This is often characterized by a driving bass-line which is played over a sparse guitar track occasionally punctuated by metal-like riffs and solos (such as the solo in the middle of Backwoods).

(90s Funk-Metal) In the early 1990s, several bands combined funky rhythms with heavy metal guitar sounds, resulting in "Funk metal", where the emphasis is in using much Heavier distorted guitar sounds in the mix. Funk Rock employs more of a lighter, "crunchier" distorted guitar sound, and the musical emphasis tends to be more beat-driven with prominent Bass lines; more rhythmic in the R&B sense. One of the best examples of the fusion can be heard on the critically-acclaimed Blood Sugar Sex Magik album, released in 1991 by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Other notable 1990's artists in the Funk-Rock genre, although not widely-known in North America, include guitarist Stevie Salas and Funk-Metal bassist TM Stevens. The latter's 1995 album Boom! is an excellent example of bass-heavy songs mixed with rhythmic guitar riffs.

Lenny Kravitz is one of the most prominent musicians today in the fusion of rock riffs and funk rhythms, as exampled in tracks such as "Tunnel Vision," "Always on the Run," and "American Woman." Incubus has dabbled in the genre as well with albums such as Fungus Amongus and S.C.I.E.N.C.E.. During the making of his acclaimed studio album Voodoo (2000), neo soul musician D'Angelo was influenced by the funk rock sound of P-Funk, Jimi Hendrix and other such artists, while his hit single "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" has been noted by critics for containing elements of and similarity to the "Maggot Brain" sound of Funkadelic.Jane's Addiction have included many funk based routines in tracks as well as Slipknot in their early days with tracks like Bitchslap and Confessions from Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., Limp Bizkit too uses funk metal.

Funk Rock is a term broad enough to include the narrower Funk Metal genre as well as funk-related jam bands like the Spin Doctors and the Dave Matthews Band. The more retro-tinged work of artists like Prince (the Artist) and Lenny Kravitz also fall into this category. All of these artists take the guitars and riffs of metal and rock and meld them to the popping basslines and syncopated rhythms of funk.

I think Paul Weller said it best.

i think there's a continuing confusion in the distinction between Funk and Disco. the booty groovability is present in both styles but it's the subtleties that divide. Funk is about endless grooves, Disco is about dollars.

kudos for slightly editing a wikipedia page rather than just copying and pasting i guess, still just as dry to read though.

i definitely agree funk deserves praise. i think one aspect a lot of people miss on is its proximity to jazz with a heavy feel for improvisation.

as for the funk rock bits they're pretty solid though i disagree with the Spin Doctors being listed as much of anything. especially where FAITH NO MORE is somehow omitted from funk metal. i also vehemently refuse to acknowledge Dave Matthews as funky. he might be able to play funk but he, and his band, are NOT funky.

Would you vote differently now?

I kinda skimmed, but my Ctrl+f is telling me that Infectious Grooves, Faith No More, and 311 were all left out? Sublime had some funky stuff, and the Minutemen's Mike Watt was a major influence on many 80s bassists. And if you're gonna bother to mention Limp Bizkit you might as well say something about KoRn too, who were another variation of funk metal.

Cheers to that! :beer:

it's got just as much of a place in this genre as half of the other acts listed so far. it may be far more on the pop side of the spectrum but there's still a solid funky groove at play. sounds like a simpler, more accessible P-Funk track which puts in that grey area of being too poppy to be funk but too musically complex to be disco.

Yeah, but this is a "funk rock" thread, not a "funk" thread.

That Isley Brothers song was okay. It needed a little more energy but had a fine bass line. When I read the name "Isley Brothers" the first thing I think of is the story about when Les Claypool auditioned to fill Cliff Burton's vacancy in Metallica and suggested he and the band "jam on some Isley Brothers tunes." :laughing: I'm glad that didn't work out because we probably wouldn't have Primus!

Funk Metal is almost purely a product of California in the 1980s. Los Angeles had just finished with its first wave of punk and was amidst a new sound called hardcore. Many LA bands wanted more than abrasiveness in their music and began experimented with what would eventually lay the foundation for funk metal. Original LA funk pioneers include the Red Hot Chili Peppers (funk with punk), Fishbone (funk with ska), and Jane's Addiction (funk with alternative rock).



Not long after, the thrash metal scene exploded north in the Bay Area. Many funk metal musicians, such as Les Claypool and Robert Trujillo, first honed their chops in the thrash scene. Northern Californians Faith No More and Mr. Bungle emerged with a funk sound influenced by thrash. Claypool started Primus with a bunch of ex-thrashers. LA skate-punk-turned-thrash-metal band Suicidal Tendencies filled a vacancy with bassist Rob Trujillo, who brought funk along with him. ST frontman Mike Muir eventually started a side project with Trujillo called Infectious Grooves just so they could focus on more funk.



Some funk metal bands popped up in other areas of the country during the 1980s too. Rolling Stone called New York's Living Colour "black-funk-metal pioneers." Elsewhere, King's X played progressive metal which included funk influences.



In the 1990s, many of the early funk metal bands found mainstream success. Faith No More's 'Epic' made an especially large impression. 311 formed in 1991 and by the middle of the decade their ska-funk hybrid was common on American mainstream radio. Rage Against the Machine played funky rap metal that along with Faith No More and Primus helped initiate a new era of metal called "nu metal". Because their heroes played funky, many nu metal bands incorporated melodic bass lines into their sound. KoRn played with the bass high in their mix, and you can especially hear funk metal in Incubus's first two albums.



I think the truest funk metal bands are Infectious Grooves, Faith No More, and Living Colour. All three bands have excellent metal pedigrees and have the purest combination of funk and metal.



Maybe some of the Brits can help me out; are there any influential European funk metal bands?

touché

as for Claypool, i've read him directly crediting Metallica for Primus. they basically told him he was too weird for Metallica but that he absolutely positively totally needed to start his own band.

though if i may, this album is an ABSOLUTE MUST LISTEN for anyone interested in funk rock.

http://bigearflux.files.wordpress.co...milk_front.jpg

Good Time Boys sets the mood nicely, it's an album full of non stop in your face funky freak outs with a cool 'odd' bit in the middle then ends with a bang. it's a simple formula when you look at it that way but it still kicks 45 minutes of solid ass front to back. the positivity still feels genuine.

it's the first album featuring the 'main' lineup and they're playing like they have something to prove. everything is cranked up a notch and played furiously.



the lyrics could almost be prophetic about the band as well considering what their followup did for them. speaking of, they're not 'that' deep on this album and it definitely works better at delivering the message they wanted to get across. they still had something to say as opposed to just wanting to make music.

Thanks for posting this song, I haven't heard it in yeeeears :)

I'd say it's pop/soul - it's certainly a little funky but nothing I'd call funk/rock. No need to split hairs over genres anyway.

YouTube - The Inspector Cluzo "Two Days"

The Inspector Cluzo is a very cool duo.

Mother's Milk might have been Blood Sugar Sex Magik with some better production...

Everything you say I believe to be true, but Cliff Burton died in 1986 and Claypool's Primate started playing together back in 1984, so he had already started to explore doing his own thing...

It actually goes back further than that. He went to high school with Kirk Hammett and it was Hammett who first encouraged him to pick up the bass.

Yeah, he started with the upright bass in jazz band...

how so?

BSSM had far more musical variety and depth. the production was just as good as anything else at the time (Appetite for Destruction / Nothing's Shocking etc.) . if anything the complaints seem to center around the guitar sounding 'too metal', more like too much Dave Navarro tones and not enough Jimi Hendrix.

in retrospect Mother's Milk was essentially a new band warming up by capping off their old sound. they even beg for it on Punk Rock Classic. this album is just too fast to have the broader appeal that BSSM has.

Mostly it might be considered their best and/or be my favorite if it had some better production. I'm not saying it would have sounded anything like it.

And yeah, I love the songwriting on Mother's Milk but I can't really stand the production/guitar tone. That's not to say I don't love listening to Mother's Milk, but songs like 'Good Time Boys' and 'Stone Cold Bush' just sound awkward...

I like this, even though I believe thats a shuffle the drummer is funkin up:

Higher Ground (TV Live) Music Video by Stevie Wonder

I like this one better

YouTube - Stevie Wonder - Higher Ground- LIVE London Part 5

I like this one best! :D



BTW, best song ending ever?

I think so a little bit. A lot of nu metal bands have funk/rap elements...

no offense but your personal preference for the production is irrelevant, BSSM is simply a stronger, more matured, more varied, and simply a better overall album. Mother's Milk is like a proof of concept for a new band on the verge of establishing itself within the mainstream as proven by the followup. 'better' production might have resulted in slightly better sales but it can't make up for the lack of depth in the material presented.

i'll stop derailing this now.

also POD and Saliva are horrible and derivative. POD sounds like the east coast answer to Linkin Park while trying their damndest to look like the Deftones (way to pick the wrong band to mimic). Saliva comes off like an angry version of Kid Rock (and that's just sad).

Yummy isn't the easiest band to find information about, but their only release, Elegante, is outstanding. Very good funk rock band. It plays on my Pandora station all the time. I could put it on MegaUpload or something.

Here is their myspace page, which is the only place I have found their music on (I bought the CD off Amazon for like $1):

yummy on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

sorry man i just can't take those styles haha as for new stuff i haven't really kept up. the style just cheesed out too much for my tastes after the early 90s.

even though is sounds rougher and BSSM is way more refined in both production and variety, I would much rather listen to Mothers Milk. I mean look at these songs:

1. "Good Time Boys" – 5:02
2. "Higher Ground" (Stevie Wonder) – 3:23
3. "Subway to Venus" – 4:25
4. "Magic Johnson" – 2:57
5. "Nobody Weird Like Me" – 3:50
6. "Knock Me Down" – 3:45
7. "Taste the Pain"(Frusciante, Kiedis, Flea, Henley) – 4:32
8. "Stone Cold Bush" (Frusciante, Kiedis, Flea, Smith, Peligro) – 3:06
9. "Fire" (Jimi Hendrix) – 2:03
10. "Pretty Little Ditty" – 1:37 (3:07 on 2003 remastered version)
11. "Punk Rock Classic" – 1:47
12. "Sexy Mexican Maid" (Frusciante, Kiedis, Flea, Smith, Peligro) – 3:23
13. "Johnny, Kick a Hole in the Sky" – 5:12

Of course I do like that one.

Also Backwoods, etc

Shaka Ponk is a french hip-hop/funk-rock band. You probably never heard of them but they're not so bad. Lyrics are in english.

Seal is one of my favorite artist, I just love his style of music.

YouTube - Seal - Crazy (Video)

YouTube - Seal - Kiss From A Rose (Official Music Video 720p HD) + Lyrics

It's not funk rock though... :laughing:

I know Seal is classified in the Soul/R&B, Adult Contemporary, Soft Rock, & Pop genres.
But I think the single 'Crazy' should be able to crossover into the Funk Rock genre more so, than it being labeled in the Soul/R&B genre.
I will admit that Adult Contemporary may be the correct genre to label Seals music.
Somtimes there are simply just 'Fine lines' between the relationship from one certain genre to another.
But after all is said, you are absolutly correct V&F, thanks for pointing it out.

YouTube - Seal - Crazy (Video) (Adult Contemporary)

Maroon 5. YouTube - Maroon 5 If I Never See Your Face Again (Funk Rock)

Funk Metal & Funk Rock.
 

Funk rock is a music genre that fuses funk and rock elements. Its earliest incarnation was heard in the late 1960s through the mid-1970s by acts such as the Jimi Hendrix Experience (last two albums), Eric Burdon and War, Funkadelic, Betty Davis and Mother's Finest.
Funk rock is a fusion of funk and rock. Many instruments may be incorporated into the music, but the overall sound is defined by a definitive bass or drum beat and electric guitars. The bass and drum rhythms are influenced by funk music but with more intensity, while the guitar can be funk-or-rock-influenced, usually with distortion. :)

Stylistic Origins: (Funk, Rock music, Rock and roll).

YouTube - Living Colour - Cult Of Personality
Genres/ (Funk metal), heavy metal, hard rock, alternative metal, Jam Band.

YouTube - Spin Doctors - Little Miss Can't Be Wrong
Genres/ (Funk Rock), Alternative rock, Hard rock, Jam Band.

YouTube - Two Princess - Spin Doctor

seriously dude, what are you on? can you hook me up with a sample?

your back to posting like you're making an entry for wikipedia and we already established that the Spin Doctors are crap. what's next Hootie and the Blowfish links?

In order to satisfy your own personal curiosity Dave, I dont do drugs or drink Dave. :p:
And what in the hell is so wrong with using wikipedia? You make it sound like I am going to be graded on originality in a high school or college exam.
Should I get a band together and perform my own version of the youtubelinks also in order to meet your satisfaction or what.
And where in the name of 'Jesus Christ' does..'we already established that the Spin Doctors are crap' come from?
I personally like a few of the Spin Doctors, although I dont care for the Blowfish.
You take this music forum stuff way to serious Dave, but you are still #ONE with me Dave! Have a great week Brother :)
.

we established the crap-ness of the Spin Doctors on the first page haha so now there are links to TWO of their songs? :p:

it's not that wikipedia is bad, just that it comes across as detached and odd when people post like that.

When I think of Funk Rock I almost always think first of the 70's and those bands that incorporated guitar solos and a riff orientated sound as opposed to the typical waca waca sound so apart from the usual Parliament/Funkadelic there is stuff like this:





Admittedly the Cane & Able is more Psychedelic but hopefully you get the the picture. It then found renewed interest in the mid-late 80's to varying results.

You had RHCP, Faith No More and Living Colour who are were successful but you also had bands like 24-7 Spyz, Dan Reed Network Lock Up (Tom Morello's first band) and Electric Boys. The problem with that scene is that some bands didn't get the essence of Funk and used it more as a gimmick a lot of the time.

Here's some tunes if you fancy checking out some of those bands:




As you can hear from Electric Boys it's barely Funk but I do have a soft spot for them :o

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5...eakystyley.jpg

One of the best albums I've ever heard, right there.




Love that bassline.

Gotta admit, as much as I usually prefer the RHCP version of their covers, the original Sly version is better:

^ agreed. though i LOVE Hillel's guitar parts in the cover. i remember reading that he used to record significantly funkier / jazzier solos initially then would punk-ify them for the final album take. the vocals are what really distinguish and establish the original as superior to the cover.

I prefer RHCP's version, personally.

I always liked these two singles by Janes Addiction back in the 80s, Janes Addiction's style of music helped define and expand Funk Rock, of course the RHCPs are the prime example of the 80s Funk Rock.

YouTube - Jane's Addiction - Jane Says

YouTube - Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing (Video)


The Isley Brothers, in my opinion were along beside Funkadelic/Parliament as a major influence to the development of Funk Rock in the 70s.

YouTube - LIVIN' IN THE LIFE - THE ISLEY BROTHERS (1977)

YouTube - The Isley Brothers - Fight The Power (Part 1 & 2) (1975)

YouTube - CLIMBIN' UP THE LADDER PTS. 1 & 2 - ISLEY BROTHERS (1977)


And this one by Wild Cherry in 1976 is a little more of the Funk Rock/Disco style, but none the less, a big Funk Rock influence.

YouTube - Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry (1976)