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Funk is ending up like the Blues

Dr. Cheese

Dr. Cheese

Supporting Member
Mar 3, 2004
57,303
120,477
Metro St. Louis
#1


Vulfpeck is the future of Funk. Young Black kids are totally into Hip Hop, frankly most White kids are into Hip Hop too. Even country acts are being heavily influenced by Rap these days. Funk is being produced by music school “nerds” like Vulfpeck (I love them, but they do come off as music department nerds.) Of course, musicianship is very healthy in the Black Church, Black Church bassists can certainly get funky, but Gospel is not Funk, funk is just one of many flavors comprising current Urban Gospel. I am not complaining, I was blessed to have grown up during the heyday of Funk, and just like the Big Band and Jump Blues that my parents grew up listening to gave way to R&B, Funk was not going last forever. It is just a sign of my aging that I am seeing what happened to my parent’s music, happen to my music.
 
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#8
Dr. Cheese said:
Funk is no longer the major style of music enjoyed by the community that created it. The same thing happened to the Bues two generations ago.
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Funk arguably hasn't been the style of music preferred by the "community that created it" since the 70's (though go-go was still pretty happening in D.C. through the 80s).
 
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#9
bass12 said:
Funk arguably hasn't been the style of music preferred by the "community that created it" since the 70's (though go-go was still pretty happening in D.C. through the 80s).
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It depends on how one defines Funk. Eighties Funk was much more synth/drum machine/ midi oriented. In the 1990’s Neo Soul heavily leaned on elements of Funk. Today, even bassists like Thundercat show more Hip Hop than Funk influence.
 
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#11
Dr. Cheese said:
It depends on how one defines Funk. Eighties Funk was much more synth/drum machine/ midi oriented. In the 1990’s Neo Soul heavily leaned on elements of Funk. Today, even bassists like Thundercat show more Hip Hop than Funk influence.
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So your main point is that the influence has shifted from previously being funk to now being hip-hop?
 
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#13
This is a longstanding American tradition: musical innovation moving out of the black community and into the wider "white" community (which, not all that long ago, was actually a whole bunch of different communities that hated and/or mistrusted each other despite all being "white.") Ragtime, jazz, blues, rock 'n' roll, soul, funk, and even hip-hop and rap. And in fairness, pull the racial element out of it, and go ahead and name me some of the many creators of marches from the late 19th century (that were displaced by ragtime and jazz), or talk about, say, the court composers of Mozart's time. The musical world is never static.

I'm a middle-aged white dude, and I surely do enjoy funk (especially trying to play it. I need more practice). But my kids and their contemporaries don't care at all for "my" music (guitar-driven rock). It's just what happens.
 
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#17
BassUrges said:
This is a longstanding American tradition: musical innovation moving out of the black community and into the wider "white" community (which, not all that long ago, was actually a whole bunch of different communities that hated and/or mistrusted each other despite all being "white.") Ragtime, jazz, blues, rock 'n' roll, soul, funk, and even hip-hop and rap. And in fairness, pull the racial element out of it, and go ahead and name me some of the many creators of marches from the late 19th century (that were displaced by ragtime and jazz), or talk about, say, the court composers of Mozart's time. The musical world is never static.

I'm a middle-aged white dude, and I surely do enjoy funk (especially trying to play it. I need more practice). But my kids and their contemporaries don't care at all for "my" music (guitar-driven rock). It's just what happens.
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Music stores all over America are already dealing with the aging and death of guitar loving Baby Boomers.
I have two Basses coming in the next few months, but at 59, I have to ask myself, “why keep accumulating basses that my wife will dang near give away soon as I am dead?”
 
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#18
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing when I saw the successful of Vulfpeck. Did it start with RHCP?

On whether this is a good or bad thing I don't know. People are allowed to like what they like, and if it builds connections between folks that's even better. On the other hand I worry a little about cultural appropriation but this seems more like cultural exchange which I think is good.
 
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#19
Doctor Intrepid said:
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing when I saw the successful of Vulfpeck. Did it start with RHCP?

On whether this is a good or bad thing I don't know. People are allowed to like what they like, and if it builds connections between folks that's even better. On the other hand I worry a little about cultural appropriation but this seems more like cultural exchange which I think is good.
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I am leery of the notion of cultural appropriation because we do not live in total are even partial isolation from each other. What is dead wrong is when influences are ignored, downplayed, or denied.
 
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