![]() There's nu-disco and boogie funk, nodding back to disco bands with soaring vocals and dance floor-designed instrumentation. ![]() Today, funk lives in many places, with its heavy bass and syncopated grooves finding way into many nooks and crannies of music. The sound influenced contemporaneous hip-hop, funk and electronica, along with acts around the globe, while current acts like Chromeo, DJ Stingray, and even Egyptian Lover himself keep electro-funk alive and well. A key distinguishing factor of electro-funk is a de-emphasis on vocals, with more phrases than choruses and verses. ![]() In the 1980s, electro-funk was born when artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Man Parrish, and Egyptian Lover began making futuristic beats with the Roland TR-808 drum machine - often with robotic vocals distorted through a talk box. Both Collins and Clinton remain active and funkin', and have offered their timeless grooves to collabs with younger artists, including Kali Uchis, Silk Sonic, and Omar Apollo and Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, and Thundercat, respectively. Legendary funk bassist Bootsy Collins learned the power of the one from playing in Brown's band, and brought it to George Clinton, who created P-funk, an expansive, Afrofuturistic, psychedelic exploration of funk with his various bands and projects, including Parliament-Funkadelic. Of course, many other funk acts followed in the '60s, and the genre thrived in the '70s and '80s as the disco craze came and went, and the originators of hip-hop and house music created new music from funk and disco's strong, flexible bones built for dancing. As David Cheal eloquently explains, playing on the one "left space for phrases and riffs, often syncopated around the beat, creating an intricate, interlocking grid which could go on and on." You know a funky bassline when you hear it its fat chords beg your body to get up and groove.īrown's 1965 classic, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," became one of the first funk hits, and has been endlessly sampled and covered over the years, along with his other groovy tracks. The Godfather of Soul coined the phrase and style of playing known as "on the one," where the first downbeat is emphasized, instead of the typical second and fourth beats in pop, soul and other styles. It's rare that a genre can be traced back to a single artist or group, but for funk, that was James Brown. Sound Bites: Eurythmics' Dave Stewart Recounts His Band's Rise to International Superstardom Press play on the video above to hear Knight’s first-hand memories of her GRAMMY-winning experience, and keep checking for more episodes of Sound Bites. “Sometimes in the industry you tend to get pigeonholed, because of either what you sound like, or what you look like or where you come from, or whatever,” Knight continues. People around the world were listening to Gladys Knight and the Pips, and they couldn’t be confined to one genre box or demographic. To the band, their wins in those particular categories also signified a rise to a global platform unburdened by boxes. “Never in a million years did we dream we would win two GRAMMYs in one night. Gladys Knight and the Pips’ time onstage that night wasn’t over: they also won a GRAMMY for Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus, bringing their golden gramophone total up to two during the ceremony. Instead, Knight improvised an eloquent speech onstage that thanked their management company, label and everyone else who helped them along the way. So did social historian Earl Lewis, who, according to the president, chronicles African American history and “explores how diversity strengthens our nation.”īiden joked that he opens his closet to find one honoree, designer Vera Wang, inside - her clothes, anyway - then said, “Your dresses always look beautiful on my wife.They also forgot the speech they’d drafted four years earlier, back when they were first nominated. Jaclyn Sallee, who received the medal on behalf of Native America Calling, a podcast and radio show, beamed with pride. Knight, the “empress of soul,” gave the president a giant hug when he put the medal around her neck. ![]() He was lauded for “his extraordinary contributions to the American songbook, and for being ‘The Boss.’” Poet and author Richard Blanco stunned in a teal tuxedo. Springsteen, with his everyman persona, looked incongruous in a black suit. Louis-Dreyfus, who channeled Biden’s resume when she starred in “Veep,” jokingly sagged under the weight when the president placed the medal for the arts around her neck. It was a feel-good event in the East Room, as the honorees stepped forward to receive their awards one by one.
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