Talk:Funk

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For discussion prior to 2006, see Talk:Funk/Archive1.

Newer people
I think Vulfpeck, Childish Gambino, Bruno Mars, Anderson Paak, Lizzo should be mentioned. Xrockerboy (talk) 03:51, 24 October 2023 (UTC)

Cold Blood
I would like to urge the authors/editors of the Funk article to include mention of the San Francisco band Lydia Pense & Cold Blood. They are chronicled in Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Blood_(band). Besides sharing musicians with and complimenting the Oakland band Tower of Power, Cold Blood has been innovative in their own right. Their album Thriller (1973 - no relation to Michael Jackson's album of the same name), in particular, features several notable tracks, including an excellent cover of Stevie Wonder's You Are the Sunshine of My Life. The lead track - Baby I Love You - starts with exactly the kind of guitar/keyboard/bass/drum syncopated groove that the Funk article cites as a hallmark of the Funk genre, with the bass, in particular, playing multiple notes of the pattern on the offbeat eighth notes. The track Feel So Bad is astonishing - perhaps the only recording of a blues in which the downbeat is not on 1. Cold Blood puts it on the "and" of 4 of the previous measure - an anticipatory syncopation that compels the listener's hand, elbow, shoulder, hip, and knee to slip, in the classic way that makes funk so danceable. After an initial disorientation, the effect of this marvelous early downbeat is irresistible. And, of course, there are the horns. Some of us consider horns to be not just a common funk element but a defining one. Cold Blood's horns are tight and expressive. Lydia Pense, herself, deserves mention in the Women of Funk section. She delivers consistently strong performances, clearly leading and defining the band's sound. If the authors/editors of the Funk article have not sampled the Cold Blood body of work, I strongly suggest that they do so and include the band on the basis of musical quality, rather than fame or popularity. Ebuchter50 (talk) 23:31, 28 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Very interesting thankyou for the info
 * Based on what you cite I will be listening as well as I hope others will do. AND respectually based just on your suggestion second your request
 * Ree 166.181.87.120 (talk) 04:23, 4 May 2024 (UTC)

No chord progressions??
I am very far from being a funk expert, but it seems to me that saying anything about "no chord progressions" might be a mistake. How many funk tunes have exactly one chord with no changes ever? "Play That Funky Music" is mentioned as an example, but not only does it have more than one chord (as already acknowledged), it also prominently features a dramatic chord progression that couldn't be removed without wrecking the song.

Staying on one chord for a long time, and then changing it at just the right moment with a dramatic flair, shows a tune that is highly focused on chord progressions – just very slow-moving ones.

"No chord progressions" would happen in two basic kinds of situations:

1. If there's only one chord in the whole song, from start to finish, no exceptions, especially that the bass can only ever play the same note. (When the bass moves, it's generally a new chord, even if the rest of the band don't notice. There can be exceptions to that, but not many.)

2. If the chords change but they can't be analyzed as progressions (either because they follow a completely different kind of logic that doesn't even have progressions, or because they're random).

Are there tons of funk songs where the chord never ever changes and the bass never ever moves to a different note, especially not near the end of the song? That would prove me completely wrong.

Suggestions for "Did you maybe mean something like this instead?":

- Should it be called something like radically simplified chord progressions? (side note: is it possible to prove that this is an intentional contrast against styles with complicated fast changes? Did any famous expert say that?)

- Does funk stay away from highly-detailed chord progressions because the highly-detailed rhythmic patterns became the short-term interest instead? (Can we prove that too?) TooManyFingers (talk) 16:38, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Example of swing 16ths in funk?
First, I don't even know of a swing funk song. But OK, what is an example of a swing funk song in which it's the sixteenth notes that swing, instead of the eighth notes? TooManyFingers (talk) 20:35, 11 June 2024 (UTC)


 * Reading further down the article, I see Cissy Strut given as an example. Now I understand, but I'm not sure if this actually swings in any traditional sense, or if it's using straight 16ths in a very smart way to create a swing-like feel. But in any case I get the point, I do feel it swinging, whether it technically is or not. Maybe a metronome can prove to me that it is – I'll see if I'm bright enough to set that up. TooManyFingers (talk) 20:52, 11 June 2024 (UTC)