James Brown

Funk music comes out of Soul music and Psychedelic Soul with elements of R&B, Jazz, Bebop, and gospel. It started in the mid-1960s with James Brown (The Godfather of Funk) who was also responsible for the rise of Soul music in the early 1960s. James Brown is truly one of the most remarkable artists of the late 20th century coming out of the Gospel, R&B and Doo Wop genres in the mid to late 1950s with his first #5 R&B hit “Please, Please, Please” and then his R&B #1 hit (#48 mainstream hit) “Try Me” on November 10, 1958.

The Future of the Funk

He went on to have many classic soul hits in the early 1960s (please see Soul Music) and then went on to almost single-handedly invent Funk Music. Up until the R&B #1 song “Cold Sweat” (#7 on the US mainstream charts) the emphasis of the beat had been on the upbeats of the “two” and the “four” count of a measure or bar. “Cold Sweat” emphasized the “one” of each measure or bar, thereby changing the pulse of the rhythm. The tempos could be fast but were generally slower than Soul.

There were many influential songs by James Brown before “Cold Sweat” that had elements and hints of Funk music like the #24 hit “Out Of Sight“, the R&B #1 (US #8) “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” and the mega-hit R&B #1, mainstream #3 hit “I Got You (I Feel Good)“. However, these were more uptempo songs and didn’t convey the emphasis of the One as true Funk, quite like “Cold Sweat” did. From that song on Brown would churn out Funk classic songs with occasional Soul songs up through the late 60’s into the early and mid-1970s until Disco took over the mainstream.