Funk-rock is a music genre that fuses funk and rock elements. It can incorporate a wide range of instruments, but tends to have a definite bass or drum beat and electric guitars. Rock style leadguitars, funky bass and complex drumrhythms and percussions of funk.
Genre history
Jimi Hendrix was the first well-known Recording Artist to combine the rhythms and riffs of early Funk to his psychadelic rock sound. Perhaps the earliest example is his song "Little Miss Lover" (1967). His live album Band of Gypsys features funky riffs and rhythms throughout (especially the song "Power of Soul") and his unfinished album also included a couple of funk-rock songs such as "Freedom", "Izabella", "Straight Ahead", and "Voodoo Child", which many consider to have the funkiest opening riff of its era. Other pioneers of funk-rock evolved in the 1970s in the music of the British rock-band Trapeze, The Rolling Stones ( Miss You & Hot Stuff ), & singer David Bowie with his hit song "Fame". American artists Frank Zappa and Gary Wright (My Love is Alive, good example of early Synth-funk as well), along with bands like Graham Central Station, Rufus, Mother's Finest, Funkadelic & the Isley Brothers ( The Heat Is On & 3 + 3 albums ) all experimented with the blending of Funk & Rock rhythms. The Big Boys, Xavion( An Afro-American group whose Asylum/Mirage LP in '84 pre-dated Living Colour) & Rick James along with New Wave mainstays Blondie & the Talking Heads created their own sound mix of Punk Funk in the early 1980s. One famous funk rock song of the period was Another One Bites the Dust by British Rock icons Queen.
The genre's representatives from the late 1980s to present day include the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, Fishbone, Primus, Living Colour, Spin Doctors & Maroon 5, as well as Prince & spinoffs The Time & one hit wonders Mazarati, who all have created, expanded and defined the Funk Rock style.
In the early 1990s, several bands combined funky rhythms with Heavy Metal guitar sounds, resulting in "Funk metal", where the emphasis is in using much Heavier distorted guitar sounds in the mix. Funk Rock employs more of a lighter (crunch) distorted Guitar sound, and the musical emphasis tends to be more Beat driven with prominent Bass lines, more rhythmic in the R&B sense.
See also
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