Genre Evolution,
Funk.
Funk as a genre is very hard to put into words. It symbolizes social equality, musical individuality, and political awareness. Sonically however, Funk music helped to alter how black music in America was written, produced and performed. I chose five distinct and iconic recordings of the Funk genre to analyze for its generational and innovative importance. These include, James Brown, “Papa’s Gotta Brand New Bag”, Sly & The Family Stone, “Everyday People”, Earth, Wind & Fire, "Runnin'", Funkadelic, “Not Just (Knee Deep)”, and Prince and The Revolution, “Kiss”. Throughout these five recordings I will demonstrate not only how recording and mixing techniques were used, but their overall musical and even societal impacts on American culture.
James Brown has been called the author and the finisher when it comes to Funk music. No other individual has had the shear impact that this man has had on the genre, and through his music he has inspired generations of artists worldwide. In the Winter of 1965 James Brown recorded his future hit, “Papa’s Gotta Brand New Bag.” The song was recorded at Arthur Smith Studios in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sonically the song is very balanced, each instrument fits in its correct place while still on the beat, the blazing horns and tight guitar strumming on the top end, while the bass and kick are grooving in the bottom. The mids are dedicated to James vocals, with a little bit of mud from the clash of the vocals and horns happening in the high mid frequencies. Notable tape hiss, which was prevalent in most recordings at that time, sticks out a bit at the beginning of the song and fades out gradually has it progresses. Upon doing some research I was able to find out that originally the song clocked in at seven minutes. To give the song more power, Kings Records Engineer Ron Lenhoff modified the tape by speeding it up a bit so that it clocked in at just over two minutes. In doing this he altered the pitch, and completely changed the originally chill groove, into something a bit more danceable and driving. James added in his own production traits by adding in some elements of his live performance of the song. Most noticeably the stops and breaks in the instrumentation which would allow James to dance and move around stage so that he wouldn't have to dedicate much time and energy to his voice. These stops and breaks became a staple in funk bands after that, and more acts were adjusting their live as well as studio performance to replicate the every unique sound of James Browns Band, which would enviably become the beginning of Funk music.
The next recording occurs over 3 years later. Sly & the Family Stone was the first major racially integrated rock band in history. There song, “Everyday People” went number one on the U.S. Soul singles chart, and the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, making it one of their most popular and remembered songs of the late 1960s. With the rise of Stereo LP records, the song has more sonic depth than earlier recordings of the 1960s, which in my opinion, gives the song more space and dimension. Like most recordings at that time, I can tell by listening that the drums were miked very simply with 2-3 mic’s, one for the kick and two others for overheads and one for the snare. This not only helped prevent microphone phasing issues due to multiple mic’s, but also helped to better balance the drummer, which is key in maintaining a steady Funk groove. The horns are a lot more in the mid-range than in James Browns band, and because of that it allows for more vocal harmonies to peak out. Why this particular track is so innovate though, is due to a man by the name of Larry Graham. Larry Graham was the bass player for Sly & the Family Stone, and at the time was experimenting with a bass technique now known as the “Slap and Pop” technique. Although then it would have been called “Thumb’n and Pluck’n” by Mr. Graham, this element helped give the song more drive, and pushes the groove right into the forefront of the song! Multiple bassists of the genre would refine this technique over the years making it one of the most recognizable musical characteristics of the Funk genre. Also due to the psychedelic nature of the bands inception, guitars now have a bit of distortion, which helps the short guitar parts cut through the mix. This also marks one of the first Funk recordings that feature effected guitars on the track, another element which will be later refined by Funk guitarists throughout the 1970s.
After Sly & the family stone, the doors of creativity and expression where almost literally flung open for other funk bands to do whatever they wanted, the sky was absolutely the limit. The next tune “Runnin’” by Earth, Wind & Fire was recorded in the summer of 1977 at Hollywood Sound Studios. This particular track was very diverse in nature, after Sly Stone had merged psychedelic rock with Funk music the possibilities were limitless as to what Funk could actually become as a genre. The song was written and arranged by keyboardist Larry Dunn, and right from the get-go you can hear the multiple genre influences in this track. Particularly distinctive is the overall balance and panning of the track. Prior to this album, Funk artists never really aggressively experimented with panning or other studio techniques as much as Earth, Wind and Fire did. Before the drums, bass, piano, guitar, vocals and horns typically were in the same place on the audio spectrum. In “Runnin'" the guitars are panned hard left and right, the drums are panned in the perspective of the drummer, and most interestingly the vocals aren’t dead center, they're also panned hard left and right. Because this track is considered to be an instrumental, it gives the engineer more options as to what the listener can primarily focus their attention to. The vocals are now an instrument, still dominant in that they carry the primary harmonies of the tune, but still blending enough with everything else that you can still focus on the crispness of the high-hat and aux percussion, synths, piano and airy jazzy horns. The arrangement is superb, paying homage to more fusion heavy arrangement typically heard in a Miles Davis album, while still maintaining that feel good, danceable rhythm that Funk is known for. Another great element comes in at about 2min 30secs when Larry Dunn incorporates the Mini Moog synth, which is used as a transitional instrument from the Funk Fusiony feel to the more Latin driven groove of the second half of the tune. It comes in on a quick fade in, and really is nothing but ear candy, but signifies just how new technology like the Mini Moog was helping to incorporate new sounds and depth to Funk recordings that many artists soon afterword would emulate in their own recordings. The last big advancement I heard in this particular recording occurs right at 4mins 32secs when the band slows down after the speedy Latin groove, and you can hear another track off the album playing in the background, while the band is warming up in the background. This was an old tape trick that session engineer George Massenburg had used by splicing that part of the song to tape, obviously lowering the volume, while the band got ready to hit it again to finish out the instrumental. The song went on to win a Grammy award in 1978 for Best R&B instrumental, and the album “All’ N All” went on to become Earth, Wind and Fire’s most commercially successful album of their career.
As the 1970s further progressed, Funk music was almost becoming a completely different genre altogether! The level of musical sophistication, originality and impact was at an all time high, influencing other genre’s like R&B and Disco. Funk bands like The Ohio Players, Zapp Band, Slave, Kool and the Gang, Average White Band and Earth, Wind, & Fire were some of the most popular of that era. However, one man (with two bands incidentally) stood out among the rest. George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic defined Funk music from the 1970s onward. They took all the basic elements set forth by James Brown and Sly Stone and modified them 10 fold! The bass tracks became more punching, the drums more driving, the vocal harmonies more sophisticated and smooth, and with the introduction of effect pedals and more practical keyboard synths helped to add another layer to the Funk genre that made it 100 times more danceable and dynamic. Funkadelic’s song, “Not Just (Knee Deep)” topped the billboard Black Singles charts in 1979, and the album it was from (“Uncle Jam Wants You”) went platinum. Phonically the song has way more digital elements, and with the advent of digital recording, the quality of the recording as compared to the previous examples is very obvious. The song features simplistic instrumentation, Keyboard synths, Drums, aux percussion, and vocals. The drums certainly become more driving and defined now that more innovative miking techniques are used, which helps to get a better sonic image of the kit, and is just another factor in really helping that groove to pulsate. Interesting to note, influential Funk bassist and star-glasses aficionado, William “Bootsy” Collins is playing drums on this track! Musical arrangement and Minimoog bass synths were provided by Walter “Junie” Morrison who works with Bootsy to help drive the groove while laying some thick synth parts over top of the drums. The vocal harmonies of George Clinton and P-funk are fantastic, one of the distinct musical traits of Parliament/Funkadelic is that there’s never a shortage of vocalists with depth, range and harmony. Altogether the group creates a soulful choir of funky, soulful harmonies that almost melt through your ears. Panned off to the right is some aux percussion by Larry Fratangelo, who is providing some freaky Bongo noise, giving the track an almost tribal-like quality. This song has been sampled by more artist than I can name, and remains one of George Clinton’s most memorable tunes.
The last song, which I feel pays great homage to James Browns pioneering style that helped to put Funk on the map in the first place, is “Kiss” by Prince and the Revolution. This song was recorded at Sunset Studios in 1985. This song actually originally belonged to Mizarati, which was one of Prince’s protégés that he himself was producing. After giving them a demoed version of the song to work with, Prince was amazed at their progress with the song so much that he took the song back for himself. After stripping down some of the elements and overdubbing vocals and guitar, “Kiss” was born. Prince and the Revolution is very significant in the growth of the 1980s due to their minimalistic and pop approach to Funk music. Songs like “When Doves Cry” as well as “Kiss” were innovate hits in the 1980s because they were the first no bass funk songs. The song Kiss is extremely stripped down and almost broken into the bare elements of Funk. The only instrumentation is Prince’s guitar, electronic drum beat, and a small marimba synth part during the second verse. Balance and panning its very tight and dry sounding, every instrument is almost percussive in nature and fits in a very compact place in the song. The background harmonies stick out at the top end with thin chicken pick guitar and Prince’s blaring falsetto. The low and mid are completely dedicated to the drums and gated acoustic guitar. This presents a really spacious sounding groove that is experimental but at the same time familiar to the Funk genre. Interesting to note, however, is that engineer/co-producer David Z decided to gate the acoustic guitar by synching it up with the gate of the hi-hat giving it a really weird shimmery and fluttery sound. It further adds more of a danceable rhythm to the track. It sounded electronic enough to fit in with the more contemporary pop songs of that era, but also introduced listeners to what Funk could enviably become through aggressive experimentation of studio techniques. Prince was awarded a Grammy award for best vocal performance by duo or group in 1987, and "Kiss" became Prince’s third #1 hit of his career.
In conclusion, Funk as a genre has evolved in very creative ways over the past 40-50 years, and has been responsible for the creation of Hip-Hop, New Jack Swing, Neo-Soul and multiple other genres. Sonically the genre has evolved from monophonic recordings to stereophonic, to becoming more elaborate to more stripped down and simplistic. The gap between “Papa’s Gotta Brand New Bag” and “Kiss” is very significant, but both possess qualities of intense danceable rhythm, driving groove and smooth harmonies. Various studio innovations have helped in this progress by experimenting with different ways of miking, processing and recording the instrumentation. But Funks true innovate factors are due to it’s instrumentation, orchestration and performance. Most of the innovate factors in James Browns music came as a direct result of his life shows, whereas Sly Stones art reflected the political instability of the time. Earth, Wind & Fire as well as George Clinton took their basic concepts and used multiple synths and other immerging technology at the time to add more diverse sounds to his band, and Prince in the 1980s being a student of funk kept the basics and fused it with other genres at the time like Hip-Hop and New Wave. This helped to re-create Funk for a whole new generation of listeners, and helped pave the way for other Funksters following. Multiple societal changes helped to advance the genre of Funk into what we no hear today. In the 1960s the civil rights era, had helped to not only inspire and motivate a number of African Americans, it also provided an outlet for them to express themselves in new ways. James Brown had been a long time student of some of the most dynamic gospel, R&B and soul acts of the 1950s and early 1960s and as a result blended the best characteristics of those genres and created something unique and energetic! He used this new-sound to motivate and inspire young Black Americans by letting them know that being Black was not only dignified, but cool too. This brand of musical political activism caught the eye and ear of Sly Stone who decided to bravely paint the picture of social equality by comprising a band of not only blacks and whites, but men and women too. Sly & the family stone was a testament to the ideals set forth by the civil rights era, and a stunning achievement to how the music could positively impact society. On the other end of the spectrum George Clinton and Prince also had very diverse bands, but more so focused on societal taboo’s like Drugs and Sex. George Clinton often has said that drugs were at times is greatest inspiration behind his writing, and was a direct result of his brand of Outer Space Funk. Prince, decided to paint himself as the first androgynous Funk superstar! And with the advent of MTV, it allowed him to be more visual with his music than any other Funk musician before. These qualities in these artists are timeless and together James Brown, Sly & The Family Stone, Earth, Wind & Fire, Parliament/Funkadelic and Prince have inspired millions. Through their particular innovations in and out of the studio, these artists have been responsible for the biggest innovative shifts in Funk music.
Bibliography
· http://www.npr.org/2000/07/29/1080113/npr-100-papas-got-a-brand-new-bag
· http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyday_People_(Sly_%26_the_Family_Stone_song)#cite_note-1
· http://www.discogs.com/Funkadelic-Not-Just-Knee-Deep/release/1648309
· http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/708579-minimoog-funky-bass-classic-songs.html
· http://www.princevault.com/index.php/Kiss
· http://www.sunsetsound.com/?page_id=68
· http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/11/that-groove-was-undeniable-making-earth-wind-fires-all-n-all/265323/
· http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_%27N_All
Bibliography
· http://www.npr.org/2000/07/29/1080113/npr-100-papas-got-a-brand-new-bag
· http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyday_People_(Sly_%26_the_Family_Stone_song)#cite_note-1
· http://www.discogs.com/Funkadelic-Not-Just-Knee-Deep/release/1648309
· http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/708579-minimoog-funky-bass-classic-songs.html
· http://www.princevault.com/index.php/Kiss
· http://www.sunsetsound.com/?page_id=68
· http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/11/that-groove-was-undeniable-making-earth-wind-fires-all-n-all/265323/
· http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_%27N_All