Funk

Funk is an African American musical style. It originated in the 1960s with performers such as James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, and George Clinton. Funk de-emphasized melody and harmony, bringing rhythm, which was understood as a defining aspect of African music, to a foreground. Funk recordings, like swathes of African music, often consisted of a complex groove in which every instrument played a different rhythm, and all sounds fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Entire verses and choruses were often written without any chord changes. With "Cold Sweat", James Brown heralded the birth of funk music. For other uses, including related musical genres, see Funk (disambiguation).

Funk is an African American musical style. It originated in the 1960s with performers such as James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone and The Meters. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony, bringing rhythm to the foreground. Like much African music, funk typically consists of a complex groove in which every instrument plays a different rhythm, and all the sounds fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Entire verses and choruses of funk songs often lack chord changes.

Funk music was a major influence on the development, and actually is the main ingredient of disco and, later, most styles of hip hop music.

Funk Styles or funk dance refer to dance styles that are primarily danced to funk music. More specifically they can be used for a group of street dance styles that originated in California in the 1970s, mainly popping and locking (refer to end of document). Though these specific dance styles have today been incorporated into the hip hop culture to some extent, and are often seen danced to hip hop music and electronica as well, they were originally and are still commonly danced to funk music. One of the reasons that the term funk styles first appeared was to give these dances their own identity and avoid them being primarily associated with hip hop and breakdancing.

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