Funk music, labeled “happy music” by drummer Hamilton Bohannon, reunited African Americans “one nation under a groove.” Its emergence parallels the transition from a segregated to a “desegregated” post–civil rights society in the late 1960s and early-1970s. Despite promises for new opportunities and advancement, the Black working class and the poor experienced little change in their lives in an era of deindustrialization and during two recessions 1973–1975 and 1980–1982. At the same time, members of the Black middle class encountered exclusionary practices in integrated workplaces, housing, and social settings. The prospect for advancement in corporate America, and predominantly white institutions of higher education, became illusive for many. The term “funk” as well as the diversity of funk music’s styles captures both the complex, and often contradictory, feelings of optimism, ambivalence, disillusionment, and despair that accompanied the transition from a segregated to a post–civil rights society.

Among the pioneers of funk are James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone, whose revolutionary sounds became popular at the height of the Black Power, anti–Vietnam War and hippie movements of the late 1960s. Soul singer James Brown gave funk its polyrhythmic foundation, onto which Larry Graham, Sly Stone’s bass player, added a percussive bass guitar style as heard in “I Want to Take You Higher” (1968). Sly Stone introduced rock technology (wah-wah pedal, fuzz box, echo chambers, vocal distortion, etc.) and a blues-rock-flavored guitar in his music (“Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey” 1969) (explicit).

Funk lyrics cover a broad range of themes. Recurrent chanted phrases like “party,” “dance, dance all night,” “let yourself go,” and “give up the funk” encourage dancers to escape temporarily from the uncertainties and pressures of daily life. Kool and the Gang (“Funky Stuff,” 1973), the Bar-Kays, the Gap Band, and Roger popularized funk as party music. Albums such as Sly and the Family Stone’s Stand! (1969), Earth, Wind and Fire’s That’s the Way of the World (“That’s the Way of the World,” 1975) and Kool and the Gang’s Spirit of the Boogie (1975) address issues including society’s need to care for its children, peace on earth, universal understanding, love, and fulfilling relationships. Socio-political commentary, rooted in the ideology of Black Power, forms the core theme of P-funk, whose song lyrics encourage Black people to celebrate their “Blackness” by creating new spaces for social interaction. These spaces, traditionally reserved for whites, include the White House (“Chocolate City,” 1975), outer space (“Mothership Connection,” 1975), and underwater (“Aqua Boogie,” 1978). George Clinton uses humor to address social issues, developing story lines around mythical heroes and villains presented as science-fiction characters, as in the album Clones of Dr. Funkenstein (1976). Humor also inspired the creation of Black slang from which Clinton derives song titles such as “Groovallegiance,” “Funkentelechy,” and “Prosifunkstication.” Funk ballads, as well as uptempo songs, describe the trials and tribulations of romantic encounters: Bar-Kays’ “Too Hot to Trot” (1976) and “Hit and Run” (1981); the Gap Band’s “You Dropped a Bomb on Me” (1982) and Cameo’s “Back and Forth” (1987).