Was funk mainly a US thing? Meaning did most of the funk bands come from the USA? Maybe these were the only ones we heard here. Can some of our friends from around the world name funk bands that originated outside the US?

Well DJ,
My 2 cents on this one is that Funk is a purely American Phenomenon that originated around 1968 - 71. It was a backlash from the Clean Cut sound that Tamla Motown was producing (and indeed that was starting to emanate from Philly with Gamble and Huff). I think at this stage Soul Music was losing its roots and Funk became the voice of the "Street".

Dont forget that Funk was also a very political musical Genre at the time and a lot of the music reflected the Afro-American community's disenchantement with the American Political System. This was the time of Martin Luther King, The struggle for equality, Vietnam, The Black Panthers etc.

I must confess that I dont know of any Funk Bands from other Countries. Britain (with its huge number of Carribean ex-pats) tended to lean towards Reggae and Soul rather than Funk due to its more accepting Multi-Racial Culture.

Well there were certainly no funk bands that I know of in New Zealand and I can't think of any Australian ones, but I'll leave that to our Aussie members to comment on.

Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly is funk?

Funk would be a style that was done by the likes of (in the early days) James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, O'Jays, and the Spinners. The people that really made it popular in the late 70's would be Parliement, Parlet, Funkadelic, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Brick, Sun and Zapp. In the 80's it was popular by the likes of The Gap Band, Dazz Band, Rick James, Kleeer, and Kool and the Gang. I hope that helps a little.

DJ,

Thanks for the group lists, K&TG are great. I'm still not totally clear what the difference between funk and soul are.

Well, from what I hear in funk music, they are always done by live bands as opposed to drum machines. They are real heavy on the bass, some of the finest bass players are from funk bands. and they make you shake your boogie body :lol: like the song by the Bar-Kays.

Funk started with James, Sly expanded on it, George Clinton

had some great ideas. He essentially took James's musicians

(Bootsy, Maceo, ect..) and took them to the mothership.

What resulted was some of the most surreal and exciting

music ever made. Double down on that bass line man......

Heatwave was formed in West Germany. Does that count? :) Probably not since they were Americans.