I was having a conversation with my housemate last night who said she hates the use of the word funky, especially by people who are over 30 and are trying to seem cool (!). As in “I really think we could do with some more funky office furniture” or “I went to a restaurant last night” “oh,yes?” “yeah it was really funky”. I also had a friend who was in a band who hates any other band which described themselves as funky or retro-funk or funk-reggae-groove- with Swedish beats. or the like. I just nodded but embarrassingly remembered my overuse of the word and then felt really old (even though I’m not) and a bit of a country bumpkin = she is 22 and from London. Why the distaste - or is it a polluting of the word funk?:
Origins of funk The word “funk”, once defined in dictionaries as body odour or the smell of the naughties c-hem. Oh
In general: Funk music is slow, sexy, loose, riff-oriented and danceable = all good?
Technical definition: funk music has a complex rhythm structure with just one or two riffs, the change of the riffs becoming the highlight of the song, also syncopated rhythms; thick bass line (often based on an “on the one” beat); razor-sharp rhythm guitars; chanted or hollered vocals, strong, rhythm-oriented horn sections; prominent percussion; an upbeat attitude or static single chord vamps with little harmonic movement, but with a complex and driving rhythmic feel
Or more simply the basic idea of funk was to create as intense a groove as possible, groooooooooooooooovy (ah is that a no no too?)
Funk-rock a subgenre was created by Parliament and later funkadelic, influence by…. psychedelic music. They are referred to together as Parliament-Funkadelic or
P-funk,
P-funk” also came to mean something in its quintessence, of superior quality, or sui generis, as in the lyrics from “P-Funk,”
“I want the bomb. I want the P-Funk. I want my funk uncut.”
Ha that’s it that’s the answer. When my housemate asks me my opinion of something I think is rather good = I’ll say, yes it was P-funky. (can I get away with that, no?)
Oh no - I just looked up funky.co.uk and it’s a really dreadful student site -
Funkydragon.co.uk is a website for welsh young people
totally-funky.co.uk full of kitsch junk - or funk junk
funky-lab.co.uk is mad science experiments that you can do at home sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline
it says it all, Housemate was right, it’s gone to the dark side
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