A report on Funk and Psychedelic soul

James Brown, a pioneer of funk, in 1973
The Chambers Brothers in 1970
The rhythm section of a funk band—the electric bass, drums, electric guitar and keyboards--is the heartbeat of the funk sound. Pictured here is the Meters.
Simple kick and snare funk motif. The kick first sounds two onbeats, which are then answered by two offbeats. The snare sounds the backbeat.
A thirteenth chord (E 13, which also contains a flat 7th and a 9th)
Bootsy Collins performing in 1996 with a star-shaped bass
The drum groove from "Cissy Strut"
Guitarist Nile Rodgers is best known for his performances with Chic.
Isaac Hayes playing keyboards in 1973
Singer Charlie Wilson
Funk horn sections typically include saxophones and trumpets. Larger horn sections often add a second instrument for one of the saxes or trumpets, and a trombone or bari sax may also be used. Pictured is the Earth, Wind and Fire horn section.
James Brown, a progenitor of funk music
George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic in 2006
The Original Family Stone live, 2006. Jerry Martini, Rose Stone, and Cynthia Robinson
Prince was an influential multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, singer and songwriter.
Me'shell Ndegeocello playing electric bass
Talking Heads combined funk with elements of art rock.
Dr. Dre (pictured in 2011) was one of the influential creators of G-funk.
Chaka Khan (born 1953) has been called the "Queen of Funk".
Janelle Monáe (born 1985) is part of a new wave of female funk artists.

It came to prominence in the late 1960s and continued into the 1970s, playing a major role in the development of funk and disco.

- Psychedelic soul

The Temptations, who had previously helped to define the "Motown Sound" – a distinct blend of pop-soul – adopted this new psychedelic sound towards the end of the 1960s as well.

- Funk
James Brown, a pioneer of funk, in 1973

8 related topics with Alpha

Overall

Sly and the Family Stone in 1968. Left to right: Freddie Stone, Sly Stone, Rose Stone, Larry Graham, Cynthia Robinson, Jerry Martini, and Greg Errico.

Sly and the Family Stone

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American band from San Francisco.

American band from San Francisco.

Sly and the Family Stone in 1968. Left to right: Freddie Stone, Sly Stone, Rose Stone, Larry Graham, Cynthia Robinson, Jerry Martini, and Greg Errico.
The Woodstock Music and Art Festival, at which Sly and the Family Stone performed on August 17, 1969.
The band's 1975 performance at Radio City Music Hall (shown 2003) was only one-eighth filled
Sly Stone performing with the Family Stone in 2007.

Active from 1966 to 1983, it was pivotal in the development of funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic music.

Formed in 1966, the group's music synthesized a variety of disparate musical genres to help pioneer the emerging "psychedelic soul" sound.

The "Classic 5" lineup of the Temptations in 1967. Clockwise from top: David Ruffin, Melvin Franklin, Otis Williams, Eddie Kendricks, and Paul Williams.

The Temptations

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American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s.

American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s.

The "Classic 5" lineup of the Temptations in 1967. Clockwise from top: David Ruffin, Melvin Franklin, Otis Williams, Eddie Kendricks, and Paul Williams.
A promotional image of the original early 1960s Temptations lineup. Clockwise from top right: Otis Williams, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks, and Elbridge "Al" Bryant.
The Temptations perform on The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1969. Left to right: Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, and Dennis Edwards.
The Temptations on stage at London's Royal Albert Hall, November 2005. Pictured L-R: Joe Herndon, Otis Williams, G.C. Cameron, Terry Weeks, and Ron Tyson.

The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top 10 hit single "Cloud Nine" in October 1968, pioneered psychedelic soul, and was significant in the evolution of R&B and soul music.

The addition of Dennis Edwards to the Temptations coincided with the adoption of a new sound for the group by producer Norman Whitfield, and in the fall of 1968, Whitfield began producing psychedelic-based material for the Temptations, derived primarily from the sound of funk bands Sly & the Family Stone and Funkadelic.

Al Green (1973), one of the genre's major pioneering artists

Soul music

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Popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Al Green (1973), one of the genre's major pioneering artists
Ray Charles pioneered the soul music genre during the 1950s by combining blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel styles
James Brown was known as the "Godfather of Soul"
Sam Cooke is acknowledged as one of soul music's "forefathers".
Solomon Burke recorded for Atlantic in the 1960s
Aretha Franklin is widely known as the "Queen of Soul"
Marvin Gaye shifted to a soul sound with his 1971 hit "What's Going On"
Levi Stubbs singing lead with the Four Tops in 1966
Soul singer Otis Redding was an electrifying stage presence
Isaac Hayes performing in 1973
Adele performing in 2016

According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying".

By the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic and progressive rock, among other genres, leading to psychedelic and progressive soul.

The ceiling of an Arlington, Texas, discothèque

Disco

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Genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene.

Genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene.

The ceiling of an Arlington, Texas, discothèque
The ceiling of an Arlington, Texas, discothèque
Disco bass pattern.
Rock & disco drum patterns: disco features greater subdivision of the beat, which is four-to-the-floor
Blue disco quad roller skates.
Major disco clubs had lighted dance floors, with the lights flashing to complement the beat.
The reflective light disco ball was a fixture on the ceilings of many discothèques.
Disco dancers typically wore loose slacks for men and flowing dresses for women, which enabled ease of movement on the dance floor.
Dancers at an East German discothèque in 1977
Gloria Gaynor in 1976
Diana Ross in 1976
ABBA in 1974.
Italian composer Giorgio Moroder is known as the "Father of Disco".
Donna Summer in 1977
Dalida in 1967.
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The a cappella jazz group the Manhattan Transfer had a disco hit with the 1979 "Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone" theme.
A man wearing a "disco sucks" T-shirt.
Classic DJ Station. A DJ mixer is placed between two Technics SL-1200 MK 2 turntables.
Disco dance performance at the 30th anniversary of Kontula in Helsinki, Finland, in 1994
Like disco, house music was based around DJs creating mixes for dancers in clubs. Pictured is DJ Miguel Migs, mixing using CDJ players.
Strobing lights flash at a rave dance event in Vienna, 2005
Students from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Mexico City dancing to disco during a cultural event on campus
British singer Dua Lipa has been credited by music critics with leading the revival of disco following the widespread international success of her single "Don't Start Now" and her album Future Nostalgia.

Unlike the simpler, four-piece-band sound of funk, soul music of the late 1960s, or the small jazz organ trios, disco music often included a large band, with several chordal instruments (guitar, keyboards, synthesizer), several drum or percussion instruments (drumkit, Latin percussion, electronic drums), a horn section, a string orchestra, and a variety of "classical" solo instruments (for example, flute, piccolo, and so on).

Partly through the success of Jimi Hendrix, psychedelic elements that were popular in rock music of the late 1960s found their way into soul and early funk music and formed the subgenre psychedelic soul.

Norman Whitfield's The Temptations

Norman Whitfield

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American songwriter and producer, who worked with Berry Gordy's Motown labels during the 1960s.

American songwriter and producer, who worked with Berry Gordy's Motown labels during the 1960s.

Norman Whitfield's The Temptations

He has been credited as one of the creators of the Motown Sound and of the late-1960s subgenre of psychedelic soul.

After Temptations lead singer David Ruffin was replaced by Dennis Edwards in 1968, Whitfield moved the group into a harder, darker sound that featured a blend of psychedelic rock and funk heavily inspired by the work of Sly & the Family Stone and Funkadelic.

"Swinging London", Carnaby Street, circa 1966

Psychedelic rock

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Rock music genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs.

Rock music genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs.

"Swinging London", Carnaby Street, circa 1966
Producer Terry Melcher in the studio with the Byrds' Gene Clark and David Crosby, 1965
The Beatles on tour, July 1965
The Fillmore, San Francisco (pictured in 2010)
Poster for the Mantra-Rock Dance event held at San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom in January 1967. The headline acts included the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company and Moby Grape.
Poster for Jefferson Airplane's song "White Rabbit", which describes the surreal world of Alice in Wonderland
The stage at the Woodstock Festival in 1969
Primal Scream performing live with the cover of their album Screamadelica in the back

This psychedelic soul was influenced by the civil rights movement, giving it a darker and more political edge than much psychedelic rock.

Building on the funk sound of James Brown, it was pioneered from about 1968 by Sly and the Family Stone and The Temptations.

Parliament (band)

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Parliament was an American funk band formed in the late 1960s by George Clinton as part of his Parliament-Funkadelic collective.

Osmium featured a mostly psychedelic soul sound that was more similar to the Funkadelic albums of the period, than to the later Parliament albums.

Robinson during Paris Fashion Week in 2019

Janelle Monáe

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American singer, songwriter, rapper, science-fiction author and actress.

American singer, songwriter, rapper, science-fiction author and actress.

Robinson during Paris Fashion Week in 2019
Monáe performing at the Austin Music Hall in 2009
Monáe performing at Way Out West in Gothenburg, Sweden, on August8, 2014
Monáe at the premiere of Moonlight in 2016
Monáe at the Kennedy Space Center in 2016

Thematically, The Electric Lady continues the utopian cyborg concepts of its predecessors, while presenting itself in more plainspoken, introspective territory in addition to experimenting with genres beyond conventional funk and soul such as jazz ("Dorothy Dandridge Eyes"), pop-punk ("Dance Apocalyptic"), gospel ("Victory") and woozy, sensual vocal ballads ("PrimeTime", featuring Miguel).

Chris Champion of The Observer described Metropolis and The ArchAndroid as "psychedelic soul with a sci-fi twist".