During the late eighties and the beginning of the nineties there were quite some bands mixing funk with rock-elements. It was often called "crossover" back then.

I really loved that period with bands like: Living Colour, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, 24-7-spyx and Fishbone mixing pulsating, funky beats with the power of energetic rockguitars. Colourblind musicians creating eclectic, energetic and forcefull music.

Unfortunately, shallow metal-hop bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin park, operating under the name "Nu Metal" killed the genre.

I am curious what youre favourite bands from that original period are? Here are mine.

1. Living Colour
So much talent, but unfortunately seperated to early. The brilliant guitarplaying of Vernon Road, the powerfull throat of Corey Glover, the delightfull mixture of funk, rock, metal, calypso and blues. Their peak: their second album Times Up.

2. Urban Dance Squad
Their first, catchy and concive album almost was a blueprint for Rage against the Machine, but its on their second album "Life and perspectives of a genuine crossover" that they really lift off: jumping from metal to folk, and from dirty funk to ska. Eclectic, rich, colourblind...They never bettered it.

3. King's X
This band is not automatically labelled as "crossover" but their mixture of heavy rock (very low sounding guitars), a superfat basssound, soulfull vocals, beatlesque harmonies and funky breaks makes me put them into the category. Alltough their second album: Gretchen goes to Nebraska is still their masterpiece, since then they have tried out everything: raw, grungy rock on "Dogman", colourfull pop on "Ear Candy" and Prog-rock on "Please come mr. bolbous"

What do you think about the "crossover" genre? and which bands or artists you should like to name?

Riverpoet31 said:

How come Rick James--the king of Funk and Roll ain't on there? He might not be the obvious choice but I would say he falls into this category. He was doing it this before it became "popular" (i.e. crossed over).
[Edited 11/29/07 15:52pm]

Living Colour.....

To put it simple. Rick James doesnt sound timeless, he was to much a pimp and opportunistic person to really impress.

At least, bands like Living Colour and Urban Dance Squad had the guts to write down thoughtprovoking lyrics, to express themselves in their music, sorry but Rick James was just to dumb and drugaddicted to ever make a difference...

Jane's Addiction, probably

Love Rears it's ULGY head.....

Really thinks "Rick James" is overrated.

Of course, he did incorporated some rock-elements into his r&B/funk music.

But it was surely not on a level of understanding and quality Sly Stone did before.

Rick James 2 or 3 years of so called "punk-funk" are definitely overrated in here. Get a grip.

Graycap, Living Colour were way more important when it comes to crossover-music then Rick James has ever been.

Next to that, european bands like Urban dance squad and Deus were testing new grounds way before, respectively, american artists like Rage against the machine and Beck were.

Rick James maybe gets a small side-note in the history of popular music, thats were he simply belongs.

There was a tour package that had Livivng Colour, Fishbone, Public Enemy and Primus. I'm not sure of the exact order of performers, but I know LC headlined.
LC also toured out with KX. Always heard about UDS, but never really checked 'em out.


Lots of LC coming in 20008

PFunkjazz said:

I love Primus, though I'm not sure they ever wrote an actual melody

i'm even tempted to say they even did it better than Fishbone!

magnificentsynthesizer said:

I always thought they were more FUNK than anything.....

Red Hot Chilli Peppers

So many funk acts were either crossing over or trying to cross over in the late 80s. Cameo, The Barkays, Midnight Star, Ready For The World, Kool and the Gang, etc. The late 80s were some horrible times with much weaker funk than the earlier 80s because of all the trying to cross over.

As for Living Colour, I don't have any of their albums, but from what I've heard on the radio, they were a straight out rock group, not a funk group. They were never even played on R&B radio....at least not in my area.

Fishbone?
Lenny Kravitz?
Jamiraque (or however you spell it)?

It sounds like you are confusing straight up black rock acts with funk or R&B acts that make R&B but have the capability of crossing over and pleasing both the R&B/funk and pop/rock crowd. I see acts like Living Colour or even The Bus Boys before them, as being a black rock band rather than a crossover funk/rock band. I don't have any of their albums so I don't know if they have any funk on them. But from what I've heard on the radio, their main target was a rock audience. Crossover acts are trying to please both audiences.

It wasn't hard for a black artist making rock music to get R&B airplay if they were also making funk. Just look at Prince, for example. He was getting massive R&B airplay with rock tracks like "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad" and "Uptown" before the pop world even discovered him. However, he was also getting major R&B radio airplay with funky tracks like "Sexy Dancer", "Partyup", "Head", "Let's Work", "Controversy", "Lady Cab Driver", etc. Prince was more a mixture of both funk and rock. Like I said earlier, I don't have any of Living Colour's albums so I don't know if there is any funk on there. However, I never heard anything coming from them on R&B radio and it wasn't hard for black artists making rock music to get R&B radio airplay as long as they were making R&B or funk also. As I said earlier, I think Living Color is more a straight up rock band than a funk band trying to cross over with rock.



Rick James was a straight up funk act that had the capability of crossing over if he chose to. "Super Freak" is proof that he had the capability of crossing over. However, he chose to continue making straight up funk even after he had a crossover smash hit. That's to be admired because not many funk artists would keep their funk true once they've had that taste of pop success.

Saying that Rick James only deserves a small side note in the history of popular music is like saying he deserves it because he wasn't trying to please white people. That kind of thinking is exactly what killed funk in the first place. Black artists feeling like they were a nobody unless huge crowds of white people knew who they were.

Riverpoet31 said:

You, sir, are a dumbass

Riverpoet31 said:

OH YEAH?????PRINCE DIDN'T THINK SO!!!!!

PRINCE LEARNED/STOLE EVERYTHING HE LEARNED ABOUT THE STAGE FROM RICK JAMES BACK WHEN HE USED TO OPEN FOR RICK!!!!! GET IT RIGHT!!!!! TELL THE TRUTH!!!!! PRINCE DOES NOW!!!!! RICK DID THEN!!!!!

vainandy said:

I'VE HAD THE PLEASURE OF SEEING LIVING COLOUR LIVE....THEY ONLY GOT "PLAYED" ON ROCK RADIO!!!!! DRUMMER WILL CALHOUN STRAIGHT OUTTA THE SCHOOL OF JAZZ. BASSISTS MUZZ SKILLINGS AND THE LEGENDARY DOUG WIMBISH (WHO PLAYED ON ALL THOSE CLASSIC SUGARHILL RECORDS) STRAIGHT FON-KAY!!!!! GUITARIST VERNON REID WHO IS JUST AS IMPORTANT TO THE AXE AS HENDRIX & VAN HALEN. THEN U THROW IN COREY GLOVER, WHO TOOK ALL THAT IN AND WAILED LIKE HE WAS IN SUNDAY MORNIN' SERVICE. GOOD LAWD!!!! WHATTA SHOW!!!!!
SAME WITH FISHBONE.....FUNK/ROCK/SKA AT ITS FINEST WITH A BURST OF SLY & THE FAMILY STONE'S HIGH ENERGY. CAME OUT OF THE SAME SCHOOL AS JANE'S ADDICTION & THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS. WANNA KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM??? JANES ADDICTION & THE PEPPERS GOT ALL THE GLORY. THEN TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY, FOLKS SWEAR NO DOUBT IS THE BEST SKA BAND IN THE WORLD. THEY OWE THEIR WHOLE F-IN CAREERS TO FISHBONE!!!!!
KING'S X IS A POWER ROCK TRIO FRONTED BY BLACK BASSIST/VOCALIST DOUG PINNICK. SEEING THEM LIVE WILL RE-ARRANGE YOUR INNARDS!!!! THE BOTTOM END IS SO HEAVY!!!!!

[Edited 11/30/07 3:37am]

Living Colour had fuck nothing to do with funk.

There were a few funk guitar dinks on the later output, and some bouncy basslines but simply four black men with dreads do not a funk band make.
[Edited 11/30/07 9:23am]

novabrkr said:

IT'S ALL THERE....TRUST ME!!!!! NOT JUST LISTENING TO "CULT OF PERSONALITY"!!!!
"LOVE REARS ITS UGLY HEAD".....BLUES/ROCK
"WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE COLOR"...FUNK/ROCK W/A JAMES BROWN TEMPO

I COULD GO ON & ON....THEY WERE SO MUCH MORE THAN A BLACK ROCK BAND!!!!! IF YOU TAKE THE TIME TO LISTEN,,,,,

SAME WITH FISHBONE, 24/7 SPYZ, AND KING'S X. IN ALL THAT "ROCK" YOU hear
THERE'S A WHOLE LOTTA SOUL & BLUES & FUNK YOU'RE not hearing!!!!!

the best to ever do it though?????

1)SLY & THE FAMILY STONE

2)JIMI HENDRIX- WITH BAND OF GYPSYS ALONE!!!!!

3)FUNKADELIC- THE WESTBOUND YEARS, NOT WARNER BROS.

4)ISLEY BROTHERS

5)OHIO PLAYERS

6)RICK JAMES

7)PRINCE

8)JESSE JOHNSON


now please.....SHUT DOWN THIS THREAD!!!!!

[Edited 11/30/07 5:26am]

woogiebear said:

I agree with the list but not necessarily the order, and also let's not forget Mother's Finest.

Acts like Living Colour were not funk acts and they certainly were not crossover acts (namely, acts whose primary market was the black contemporary popular music market and tried to appeal to a majority white audience). This may be a first on the Org -- a person who gets his own thread idea wrong.

Najee said:

thanx najee!!!! how could i forget joyce kennedy & mother's finest!!!!! and just for the heck of it, i'm gonna take y'all waaaaay back!!!!!
ready?????
MINNIE RIPERTON & ROTARY CONNECTION!!!!!
not as popular, but doin'dadamnthang nonetheless!!!!!

Living Colour was a rock band, IIRC. Riverpoet31, you can't possibly tell me that, in terms of "crossover" music, Living Colour was more "important" than Rick James.

http://www.billboard.com/...mId=654441

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...mes#Albums
[Edited 11/30/07 11:06am]

woogiebear said:

Exactly. 'Nuff said. I think some people don't know what the hell true 'Funk' is. Just 'cause ur a black Rock group doesn't give u a Funk pass.

novabrkr said:

That is TRUE.

Graycap23 said:

i think they qualify as a Funk-Rock crossover act. I can name tunes that showcase this if you'd like.

i will say the album after was, yes, more Funk though there were still a couple of tracks that rocked out.

magnificentsynthesizer said:

I dig it.

Riverpoet31 said:

This is just wrong. Some of the greatest rock legends were strung out on drugs and Mr. James was certainly not dumb. Even the smartest people make bad life choices, famous or not.