Which decade produced the best Funk music?

70's. No contest.

sly and the family stone , parliament i vote for the 70s
i just love slys early 70s albums

krayzie said:

Basically, it's like asking me which I like the most between horn-driven funk or synth-driven funk!

Is this a joke?!?

70's, hands down.

BlaqueKnight said:

70's Funk= Purity

80's= Technology & More Intenisty in sound
[b][Edited 4/2/08 14:11pm]

Stymie said:

Co-sign!

80's funk was and is the shit

I love em both, as they're my favorite music genres...

1970's.....by a mile.

For me, it's not even a matter of preferring 1970s or 1980s funk over the other because there are years in each decade that I prefer over other years. My favorite funk would be from 1974 to 1984 which is a complete decade itself.

The reason is prefer 1974 to 1984 is because each decade takes a few years to bleed off the previous decade before completely changing. I just picked a beginning year to even out a complete decade because I know the last great year before things started getting dull.

It took a few years in the early 1970s for funk to start progressing, get a more speeded up tempo, and start losing some of the jazz influence in the earlier years. I love the funk from the 1970s such as Parliament and The Ohio Players but I also love the changes it made as disco entered and folks like The Barkays, Brick, The Isley Brothers, The Brothers Johnson, etc. had a much faster tempoed and less jazzy sound than the previous groups.

My favorite is the funk in the early 1980s after disco's so-called death such as Cameo, Zapp, Lakeside, Con Funk Shun, Prince, Rick James, Midnight Star, etc. that had a more modern sound but still mixed their modern instruments with real drums and bass which gave it thump and power. 1985 was when funk started getting scarce and ending. A certain little miss goodie two shoes had to become a huge smash making dull slow adult contemporary conservative R&B and started influencing other dull solo artists. Also, her huge crossover success, helped kill funk also. Well, wait a minute, Michael Jackson's ass is to blame for everyone like The Barkays, Midnight Star, Cameo, etc. weakening their jams in the late 1980s hoping to get a crossover audience but at least they were going after a crossover audience that thought they could jam. The little miss goodie two shoes however, is the reason for all the dull ass adult contemporary shit taking over, which far outweighed the weakened attempts at crossover funk in the late 1980s.

That's why I don't just say 1980s immediately over the 1970s because the late 1980s were absolutely horrible and paved the way for the dullness of the 1990s and today.

The 70's.....no comparison.

I'll go with the 80s.

blackguitaristz said:

Pure Funk Purity. I feel you from that standpoint.

I like both but the 70's funk obviously lasted longer.
The 80's funk died around between 1985 and 1986 as
r&b artists started to quit their gigs as lead singer
of their bands for solo careers and the birth of new
jack swing and it's artificial technology dependent sound.

Your joking right..?

April Fools came a day late, huh?

SIXties Funk > 70s and 80s.

70's. Although, as with any genre, it kind of runs its course. The great, really good stuff is created, and then it gets aped by everybody and their brother and becomes bastardized and watered down and you end up with KC and the Sunshine Band.

Then awhile later (usually the beginning of a new decade, for some reason), people take it to a completely different place with new sounds, ideas, instruments, and technology.

But it's hard to beat that original, early wave of any genre.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Funk was just getting started in the sixties. In the seventies, it really started blooming

The first couple of years of the 80s.

But not beyond that!

70's by miles!
I don't like the way the sound and tones started getting cleaned up in the late 70's to 80's.

I like my funk dirty and grimy.
Sly Stone, "Fresh" kinda deal!

Otherwise it's just hard disco really

_

70s funk....it was the REAL DEAL....gritty and hard! P-Funk,Sly,James,Ohio Players,Kool and The Gang,EW&F...come on now!!!

The 60s!!!

The deepest Funk period was between 1968 and 1970. Thousands of amazing Funk 45s were recorded during that time. The main core of the Deep Funk movement is based on records of that period. James Brown created his best work - best proof are the albums "Popcorn", "Ain't it funky now", "Mother Popcorn", "It's a new day", "I can't stand myself (when you touch me)", "Say it loud (I'm black and I"m proud)", "Cold Sweat", "Live at the Apollo Vol. II" and many more ... Dyke and the Blazers and Sly & Family Stone were on their peak as well.
[Edited 4/3/08 4:56am]

Stop trying to get all DEEP FUNK on this thread...
You know that the average music people can only understand bell bottoms + Afros = 70s Funk..Not everybody drinks from the SEXY COFFEE POT like u do !

MrSoulpower said:

prettymansson said:

Fact is, by the time the Funk hit the 70s, it was already watered down. Of course the 70s produced some amazing Funk acts and records, but the real heavy stuff came out between '68 and '70. And you know that's right!

Sexy coffee pot - now that's tasty!