Image: Wikimedia Commons

funk

Music genre that emerged in the 1960s, blending soul, jazz, and R&B, known for its syncopated basslines, groovy rhythms, and danceable energy

Entitymusic genreQ164444

Also known as funk music · funky · funky music

Instance of: music genre
1
Sources
1.Stated in Rate Your Musicrateyourmusic.com/genre/Funk/
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Subclass of: popular music
Founded: 1965

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the mid-20th century. It deemphasizes melody and chord progressions and focuses on a strong rhythmic groove of a bassline played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a percussionist, often at slower tempos than other popular music. Funk typically consists of a complex percussive groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves that create a "hypnotic" and "danceable" feel. Early funk, specifically James Brown, fused jazz and blues, and added a syncopated drum groove.

Overview

All data

72 statements · 24% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Country of origin: United States
Practiced by: funk musician
Different from: Funk
Funk criterion used: family name has to use a different item than disambiguation page
Based on: rhythm and blues
Native label: Funk

On other databases

58 identifiers linking funk across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

24%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 7, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). funk (Q164444). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/funk-Q164444