Brit funk (or Britfunk) is a musical style that has its origins in the British music scene of the late 1970s and which remained popular into the 1980s. It mixes elements from jazz, funk, soul, urban dance rhythms and pop hooks. The scene originated in southern England and spread with support from DJs including DJ Froggy, Greg Edwards, Robbie Vincent, Chris Hill and Colin Curtis. Major funk acts included Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, Average White Band, Ian Dury & the Blockheads, Carl Douglas, Hot Chocolate, the Delegation, Hi-Tension, Light of the World, Level 42, Central Line, the Pasadenas, Beggar and Co and Soul II Soul. The genre also influenced 1980s new wave/pop groups such as Culture Club, Bow Wow Wow, Pigbag, Dexys Midnight Runners, Haircut 100 and Tears for Fears.

Name and characteristics

The term Brit funk evolved from the club DJs and James Hamilton of Record Mirror whose column had a major influence in launching new records. Brit funk was a fusion of R&B, funk, soul music rhythms. Pioneers of this sound, groups Hi-Tension and Light of the World, had a British twist to their instrumentation and vocals, along with clubs such as Crackers and the 100 Club on London's Oxford Street, Royalty in the London suburb of Southgate and Frenchies in Camberley, Surrey. According to 'Bluey' Maunick, the club scene attracted "a real mix of Black kids and white kids getting on in a surrounding that they all enjoyed, where they could be themselves", helping to break down the racial barriers which he had grown up with. Although the scene enjoyed significant underground popularity – a 1980 all-day event at Knebworth featuring Light of the World attracted 12,000 people – it attracted little mainstream media attention outside of Robbie Vincent's show on BBC Radio London: the BBC did produce Black Current, a TV pilot featuring Hi-Tension which was intended to launch a show conceived as a British equivalent of Soul Train, but this was not picked up for a full series. Princess gained UK hit "Say I'm Your No.1". With support from the club disc jockeys and labels such as Ensign Records and Elite Records, 80s artists including Light of the World, Level 42 enjoyed chart success and made regular appearances on BBC's flagship pop programme Top of the Pops. Light of the World split and members formed Beggar and Co and Incognito. With DJs gaining cult status, the scene also created many 'club hits' which never achieved commercial success.

Britfunk was an instrumental form of expression in developing Black British identity, particularly among young people. Author Robert Strachan explains the demographic as "the generation of young black people who were the first to be born in the United Kingdom found their expression through the adaptation of emergent African-American music to a particularly British context" (Strachan 69). Brit funk helped this generation of young people find their own unique sound and in doing so explore their own unique identities. While Brit funk drew heavy influence from American music, the young and diverse demographic spearheading the genre created a much more inclusive and fluid space. As a result, the music itself was much less worked than American funk and as Strachan describes found its "stylistic variation through naivety" (Strachan 68).

Influence

1980s pop groups such as Haircut 100 and Wham! tapped into the style and sound to help launch their careers. However, what separated these British artists from Americans is widely debated. Some theories include a unique British wit/humor, inspiration from Euro fashion, stripped down aesthetics, and accents. However, a popular theory is that Brit funk's success in the British mainstream is due to its classification as pop music with lighter themes that are less concerned with the politics and identity found in reggae. Songs like Linx's "You're Lying" (1980), Beggar and Co's "Somebody Help Me Out" (1981) and Central Line's "Walking into Sunshine" (1981) appealed to those who wanted either relationship or sociopolitical commentary. Major labels' choices to market mostly love songs marked a larger gender divide. It was incredibly rare to find female musicians; however, female vocalists were often essential to the integration of "soul" vibes into the funky melody. Beyond this vocally feminine sound, the way consumers heard Brit funk shifted as the role of live performance joined the popularity of the 1970s DJ in clubs. By the 1980s, it was common for clubs to bring in Brit funk performers alongside DJs incorporating both an open and intimate space on the dancefloor. Brit funk was marked by these dualities: feminine and masculine, pleasure and politics, exclusionary and accessible. In 2017, former members of Hi-Tension, Light of the World and Beggar & Co formed a new band, The Brit Funk Association and began reviving the genre performing a repertoire from their respective catalogues.

Robert Strachan's "Britfunk: Black British Popular Music, Identity and the Recording Industry in the Early 1980s" highlights Britfunk's history as well as how Black music in the UK intersects with race, class, politics, nationality, culture, and gender. To start, Britfunk was significant for expressing Black British identity and drew from a range of African American music genres such as soul, jazz, electro, and hip-hop. the musical genres embodied by Britfunk are not bound by the borders and cultures of the Caribbean, which is where Black Britishness is most strongly linked. As a result of Britfunk's unboundedness, it was able to spark "fluidity of identity and space where strict cultural boundaries in terms of identity, gender and ethnicity could be negotiated, blurred and articulated" (Strachan 69). Moreover, in the construction of Black British identity, Britfunk was less like reggae in the sense that it had less "conscious engagement with politics and identity" and more elements of mainstream pop.

More recently, Tyler, the Creator acknowledged the influence of Brit funk on his work when he gave his acceptance speech for the Brit Award for International Male Solo Artist at the 2020 Brit Awards. The disco genre fostered a culture that highlighted and celebrated a sense of fluidity and "multipleness" Such politics were highly entangled with pleasure on the dance floor which was the essence of U.S. disco as well. Such pleasure in both Brit funk (and disco) was ambiguous, "in terms of gender and sexuality ..."

References

See also

  • Ska
  • Bob Marley
  • Motown