{ "schemaVersion": "v1", "slug": "a-brief-history-of-funk", "title": "A Brief History of FUNK", "kind": "solo", "listenUrl": "https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lovemusicmore/episodes/A-Brief-History-of-FUNK-e3k5jin", "contentStartSec": 53.26, "publishedAt": "2026-10-14", "source": { "provider": "whisper", "model": "faster-whisper:base", "normalizedSchema": "v1", "transcribedAt": "2026-06-09T08:05:52.190Z" }, "paragraphs": [ { "startSec": 53.26, "endSec": 78.26, "text": "What's good, everybody?Welcome back to love music more.Today I want to talk about funk music.So I've already done a whole history of rock.I figured funk should get at least one post in podcasts because I love it so much.And what is rock, modern rock without funk nowadays?What is my music without funk?What is the Red Hot Chili Peppers?One of the greatest rock bands of all time without funk music." }, { "startSec": 78.26, "endSec": 104.72, "text": "So what the hell is funk music?So funk's what happens when rhythm and groove take the stage, take the spotlight.There's an important fork, gospel jazz, R&B, soul, the same things, though a slightlydifferent mixture that became rock, the call and response.And also became funk, became a whole bunch of other things." }, { "startSec": 104.72, "endSec": 128.19, "text": "Incredible mixture of culture, of instrumentation, of regions, and fundamentally black Americanmusic.Funk becomes dance itself, becomes disco, becomes EDM, becomes hip hop, when it gets sampled.So how do we get there?" }, { "startSec": 128.19, "endSec": 153.83, "text": "We get to the point where thousands of records are using Clyde Stubblefield, funky drummer,drum break.We got to start with the guy that Clyde was employed by James Brown.I wish I could have just like, boom, went right into some James Brown, boom, boom, boom,boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom right there.So what is James Brown?It starts with the one." }, { "startSec": 153.83, "endSec": 176.39, "text": "So this is one of the things that I love, love, love about this music.And anytime you're teaching this music to a student is you, they hear all of these rhythmsand they're instantly intimidated.They're like, whoa, okay, that's a lot of stuff to learn.It's like, yeah, yeah, fair.There's complicated fun stuff going on in there.But fundamentally, all comes back to one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four." }, { "startSec": 176.39, "endSec": 200.07, "text": "You can do all sorts of funky stuff in between, but don't forget about the place that thegroove repeats, the way to anchor in for the grooving audience.My sub-stack will drop tomorrow, and there's a great video of Bootsy Collins explainingthe concept of the one, and about how he taught the one to George Clinton and how he wastaught the one by James Brown himself." }, { "startSec": 200.07, "endSec": 226.67, "text": "So funk goes back to 1965 or 1967 depending on if you count Papa's Got a Brand New Bag.I think I do.But a lot of musicologists call cold sweat the first true funk song.Why it's because it doesn't have as much of a 12 bar blues kind of sensibility, it hasmore of an anchoring on the one and the one chord, and there's a drum break.Give the drummer some and then Clyde Stubblefield does his drum break." }, { "startSec": 226.67, "endSec": 248.27, "text": "It's one of those things that, what is a musical genre?All of these things are gradients, but certain components make it undeniable where cold sweatis like, that's a funk song.And those drum breaks are really easy to sample because there's not a ton of messy instrumentsin the way, and there's super funky and Clyde's an incredible drummer." }, { "startSec": 248.27, "endSec": 268.87, "text": "I've used him on some of my stuff because he released before he passed, he releaseda sample pack intentionally where he gets some of the royalties I used it on my song,get the funk out of my head.One of my favorite things about funk is the word play, it's everywhere.But one of the things I think is really cool is this is also where a lot of like loop-based" }, { "startSec": 268.87, "endSec": 295.83, "text": "music comes from and like think about modern music so much of its loop-based.But a lot of that comes from James Brown and that feeling of it gets the people going,it gets them dancing, where you kind of feel like you're on a very satisfying machine.And you're able to ground yourself while at the same time being able to shake your limbsin different ways because there's a syncopation, meaning up beats, off beats." }, { "startSec": 295.83, "endSec": 317.75, "text": "And there's also something for James Brown who is one of the greatest performers of alltime to play with, where it's like in dance music and EDM there's the moment of the buildand then the drop or in disco, a dance break or pop, dance break." }, { "startSec": 317.75, "endSec": 344.47, "text": "Same kind of idea with funk where there's a moment that the groove fully drops in andthe performer is able to guide the groove from place to place.That is quintessential James Brown.Also think about the time that this is coming out of, I mean one of the greatest funksongs of all time say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud, 1968." }, { "startSec": 344.47, "endSec": 377.1, "text": "That's an anthem, that's something that's taking the movement and saying it out loud andmaking it an absolute hit, undeniable.In 1964, so this is before, Papa's Got a Brand New Bag even, he was opening up for theRolling Stones at the T.A. M.I. show.And he upstaged the Rolling Stones so much that Keith Richards called it the greatest mistakein the history of the Rolling Stones career." }, { "startSec": 377.1, "endSec": 408.42, "text": "Also at the same time, so James Brown's getting big, right?People are hearing this music at the same time.We have the meters in New Orleans.So all that stuff I was talking about in the very beginning, a lot of that came out of NewOrleans because it is, it really is still, but it was the kind of melting pot of America.It had every different culture, including French, including Latin rhythms." }, { "startSec": 408.42, "endSec": 435.7, "text": "And of course, it had second line and the drumming, the swing on the drums.So Zigaboo from the meters, one of the greatest drummers of all time, had the pleasure ofseeing him at the guitar center's drum off.Super weird event.It was fun though, where he took that second line parade kind of beat and combined ita little bit with that James Brown, but then slowed it way down." }, { "startSec": 435.7, "endSec": 460.14, "text": "And that's where I think the funk starts to get funkier, it gets stankier because itgets swampier.And so there's a difference between James Brown, who had this Georgia thing, it's like reallytight.And then the slow behind the beat swampy thing of the meters that just kind of makes yousit in it and makes you make that face, that face face." }, { "startSec": 460.14, "endSec": 483.1, "text": "And naturally from there, psychedelic music, which we talked about in the rock pod cameperfectly.You're in this place where it is up tempo and you're grooving, and now all of a suddenit got slowed down and stankier, but you're still grooving, you're still dancing.Now the psychedelics get involved.And also you get a little bit more pop, and that's where Sly and the Family Stone come" }, { "startSec": 483.1, "endSec": 508.78, "text": "in, because they're taking this mixture, the melting pot, this is a different raceis different gender, family stone.This is saying, hey, like we are integrating before the rest of America, or doing a funkyjob of it, Cynthia Robinson, co-founder, trumpeter, vocalist, that's her voice on dance to" }, { "startSec": 508.78, "endSec": 536.58, "text": "the music, Larry Graham, inventing slap bass, I know there's a little bit of a controversythere, but I'll get into that more in another episode.And then also that's when you have the real psychedelic stuff of George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, and one of my favorites, maggot brain from Funkadelic, one of the coolest recordsof all time, absolutely transformative in terms of my understanding of what music can" }, { "startSec": 536.58, "endSec": 557.25, "text": "even be, what it can even do to you, and Clinton's mother ship, it's the same kind of energyas David Bowie's Ziggy, but on an alternate universe.And Funk took over the world, Earth Wind and Fire, Rick James, Prince, we talked about" }, { "startSec": 557.25, "endSec": 584.73, "text": "Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stevie Wonder, and it was something that like, I think was simultaneouslyvery approachable, it also challenging, because it was something that became a culturalmovement, and then also some of the became a counter-cultural movement, where we talkedabout this in the rock of like anti-disco, Funk became disco, but then disco kind of" }, { "startSec": 584.73, "endSec": 611.97, "text": "became so pop that it lost some of its funk, and then there became the punk backlashto disco, but a lot of that was racial, because Funk into disco was fundamentally blackmusic, which is so weird, because rock is black music too, but it was the time, that'snot to hand wave it away, that is to note it, and never do it again, because that is," }, { "startSec": 611.97, "endSec": 633.26, "text": "to everyone's detriment, and it was also something that I think, like the Twisted Sisterpodcast, I think that was a really interesting look at it, because very different from,I think the podcast that I did, talking about Cro-Mags, because Cro-Mags got associated" }, { "startSec": 633.26, "endSec": 660.98, "text": "with a neo-Nazi skinhead scene, but talking about Harley Flanagan, it sure seemed likehe was further from that, than you could have possibly imagined.So some of these things, like the Twisted Sister thing is interesting, because I thinkthey were just playing out the crowd, they were trying to get a rise out of people, theywere trying to make money, but this is an interesting, I think, thing for artists to" }, { "startSec": 660.98, "endSec": 686.34, "text": "feel is, what's the cost?If you go full-on arms race, and you're just trying to maximize whatever the crowd tellsyou, I think that's kind of how you get some of these podcasts and manosphere stuff, alot of it I think does come from, people are trying to make money, they see the numbersand whatever go up by doing a certain thing, and they end up extremists, and with the internet," }, { "startSec": 686.34, "endSec": 719.9, "text": "this stuff happens even faster, and at a much bigger scale.So going back to funk music, funk music is inherently political, it is inherently cultural,and it is a big part of that disco conversation.And to go even deeper, let's talk about remixing, and let's talk about sampling.So Clyde Stubblefield was paid allegedly $50 for the funky drummer session." }, { "startSec": 719.9, "endSec": 746.29, "text": "Those samples have been used on thousands of records, big records, but it also helpedbirth the genre of hip hop.So it's such an interesting thing to kind of grapple with too, this moral dilemma of spliceis a good example, I've had some folks on the podcast that do sample library stuff, intentionallymaking little bits that people can sample and turn into other stuff, I even had somebody" }, { "startSec": 746.29, "endSec": 772.53, "text": "on the pod that used the funk guitar sample that espresso by Sabrina Carpenter used.So people accused her of ripping off Sabrina Carpenter when in reality they just both usedthe sample in the same way that million people have used funky drummer.So why drum breaks?" }, { "startSec": 772.53, "endSec": 797.61, "text": "So drum breaks, like we were talking about, are found in a lot of different genres, foundin jazz music, but funk music, the drum break is a dance break.It's similar to how Michael Jackson dance breaks kind of work, but in the funk world,it was straight up just sick drum beats, and Clyde Stubblefield, like, come on, one ofthe sickest of all time." }, { "startSec": 797.61, "endSec": 825.01, "text": "So DJ Kool Herc in New York City was noticing the dancers were going off when he was justplaying the drum breaks from funk music.So he looped two turntables and got it so that people could just loop those beats andplay with those beats and you could start to move the rhythm of the beats.And then people started break dancing to those beats, because where music goes, dancefollows." }, { "startSec": 825.01, "endSec": 857.4, "text": "And this is also inherently dance music, this is funk music.And then the MCs started to rap over these break beats.And then you started to chop up the break beats.And now you've got boom-bap producers, like DJ Premier, Pete Rock, J Dilla, my favorite.And they start to manipulate them.But then the question is, at what point do people need to get paid, at what percentage,do you need to get their permission?" }, { "startSec": 857.4, "endSec": 887.08, "text": "And there was a ruling that was that thou shalt not steal against Biz Markie, just a friend.I don't think it was that record, but you got brought to court.That's like his biggest song.But that ruling changed hip-hop because now G funk, like, think Dr. Dre, Battlecat.They hired live players to replay the P funk stuff so that they could sample cleared samplesbecause they hired the players to play it." }, { "startSec": 887.08, "endSec": 911.56, "text": "And then do you see how that loops back around, and now we start to get live music into hip-hopand then that gets sampled.And then we get things like Neo Soul, so Questlove, I think, is a great example of an incredibledrummer who came up listening to hip-hop and funk and soul and R&B.And he synthesized it all into his own playing, and he also listened to drum machines and turned" }, { "startSec": 911.56, "endSec": 938.76, "text": "the drum machine world into his own playing.So he's a live drummer emulating somebody sampling drums.And then you go to somebody like D'Angelo, who hires Questlove, and then they invent a wholenew kind of groove on Ruru that's like taking the drum machine thing and messing it up andmaking it more human.So it's like, almost you close the loop, it's a full revolution.And how cool is that?" }, { "startSec": 938.76, "endSec": 962.16, "text": "The conversation of Clyde to the producers that are chopping him up back to Questlove tocomplete the loop.So cool.And I think that's one of the coolest things about drums today is the conversation betweenthe analog and the digital and the physicalization of things that used to be impossible untilcomputers taught us that it was possible." }, { "startSec": 962.16, "endSec": 988.24, "text": "It's very similar to like go players or chess players because there are machines thatare better than humans at chess or go.Humans are now better than they ever have been at either of them.I think something very similar has happened to drums.But all that said, there's the moral quandary.Who gets paid?Stubblefield should have gotten paid.But the hard thing is is figuring out how to do this within the system." }, { "startSec": 988.24, "endSec": 1014.64, "text": "And musical genre creation is inherently outside of a system.Subgenre that can be inside of a system.Subgenre into pop, like funk into disco, into pop disco.That can happen inside of a system.But something completely new like hip hop that comes out of the underground, always.And funk lives on it.If you've never gone to a funk show, you've got to go to a funk show." }, { "startSec": 1014.64, "endSec": 1038.08, "text": "One of my friends, bands, Thumpasaurus, been watching them since college.And they go on tour, go party with them.It's so much fun.But that's one of the things I think about with funk music that I love so much, is itit's goofy.And it's, but it's serious at the same time, you know, it's both.Like, there's a message, but it's also there to make you party.And what a beautiful thing." }, { "startSec": 1038.08, "endSec": 1066.16, "text": "I feel like such a celebration of what it's like to be human.And silly and goofy and also sexy and passionate and opinionated.You can be all of those things within funk music.And you can also be an astronaut.Like George Clinton, like, there's no boundaries in this kind of music.And it's because the groove is first and foremost.You can kind of say whatever you want.You've got to do whatever you want." }, { "startSec": 1066.16, "endSec": 1088.04, "text": "That's not to minimize the lyrics, but like, you can kind of say whatever over a fatgroup.And funk help teaches that.And that's a beautiful lesson.If you enjoyed this podcast, I'd like to invite you to share it with your friends andrated five stars.And also check out my music at scoobertdoobert.pizza.Some more great guest episodes coming up next week.And I hope you'll tune in for that too.Thanks for listening." } ], "correctionsApplied": [ { "id": "scubertdubert-url", "count": 1, "note": "Outro URL ASR typo" } ] }