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Caleb3221 · 10-10-2005, 04:35 PM

Funk is all about feel, and groove. There is a certain, indescribable quality that makes funk music funky. If you listen to an average punk or rock drummer play the "standard rock beat", bass on 1, 3 snare on 2,4, it will sound OK. Then you have a great funk drummer play it, it sounds amazing. And it is basicly impossible to expain why. There is a great funk bassist I was talking to recently, named Patrick Thornton, and as he explained it, funk isn't about what you play, but the attitude and feeling you put into playing it. In funk, a solid but extremely simple groove wins over something much flashier but less groovealicious, as well. Very little emphasis is usually placed on showy playing.
Another characteristic of funk that I notice is that it is very lighthearted, the entire purpose of the music is to have fun. That's even what many of the lyrics are about. The sole purpose of the music is to dance to and have a good time. Sure, sometimes it has a message too it, but that is secondary to the groove. Even the egoistical rantings of "Dr. Funkenstein" are lighthearted and rather silly.

The lyrics almost never carry the song, though, as they tend to in rock and other styles. If you take the average rock song and cut out the lyrics, then the song is usually pretty boring. Cut them out of a funk song, the song sounds empty, but it still holds its own. They tend to act almost as another instrument, adding to the song as a whole rather than covering it up.

That's my rant on what I think makes funk funky. I'm done. For a little bit.

10-10-2005, 04:35 PM	#2
Caleb3221 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 1,681	Funk is all about feel, and groove. There is a certain, indescribable quality that makes funk music funky. If you listen to an average punk or rock drummer play the "standard rock beat", bass on 1, 3 snare on 2,4, it will sound OK. Then you have a great funk drummer play it, it sounds amazing. And it is basicly impossible to expain why. There is a great funk bassist I was talking to recently, named Patrick Thornton, and as he explained it, funk isn't about what you play, but the attitude and feeling you put into playing it. In funk, a solid but extremely simple groove wins over something much flashier but less groovealicious, as well. Very little emphasis is usually placed on showy playing. Another characteristic of funk that I notice is that it is very lighthearted, the entire purpose of the music is to have fun. That's even what many of the lyrics are about. The sole purpose of the music is to dance to and have a good time. Sure, sometimes it has a message too it, but that is secondary to the groove. Even the egoistical rantings of "Dr. Funkenstein" are lighthearted and rather silly. The lyrics almost never carry the song, though, as they tend to in rock and other styles. If you take the average rock song and cut out the lyrics, then the song is usually pretty boring. Cut them out of a funk song, the song sounds empty, but it still holds its own. They tend to act almost as another instrument, adding to the song as a whole rather than covering it up. That's my rant on what I think makes funk funky. I'm done. For a little bit.