With EVERY Singer AFTER Aaron Hall PROBABLY influenced by Mr. Wilson, and w/R-Uh Kelly behind Bars, Aaron Hall M.I.A. & almost every other R&B Singer on the verge of doin' somethin' STUPID (except Joe or Kem)...........Charlie Wilson has the Lane SEWN UP!!!!

Stevie Wonder vs. Errrbody STILL tho'!!!!

New work is always compared to old work. I think if he was retreading funk he had done before, it would get criticized too. Artists can't win, especially when real creativity and the tenets of funk are not rewarded (financially). I am admiring Prince more and more for doing the kind of music he wanted to do and we wanted to hear, in the face of pop culture whims.

Cinny said:

New work is always compared to old work. I think if he was retreading funk he had done before, it would get criticized too. Artists can't win, especially when real creativity and the tenets of funk are not rewarded (financially). I am admiring Prince more and more for doing the kind of music he wanted to do and we wanted to hear, in the face of pop culture whims.

Exactly. Very well put

Cinny said:

Artists can't win, especially when real creativity and the tenets of funk are not rewarded (financially).

It's doubtful those funk bands in the 1970s with 10 members in them made a lot of money. There was a reason many of them downsized in the 1980s or they just stopped getting signed. The major labels didn't put the same amount of money in promoting R&B as they did rock n roll. Rock was the big money maker, rock acts were more likely to have their concerts filmed too. Funk mainly got mainstream audience recognition when it was considered disco in the late 1970s. Or when acts like INXS or Red Hot Chili Peppers did it.

MickyDolenz said:

Cinny said:

Artists can't win, especially when real creativity and the tenets of funk are not rewarded (financially).

It's doubtful those funk bands in the 1970s with 10 members in them made a lot of money. There was a reason many of them downsized in the 1980s or they just stopped getting signed. The major labels didn't put the same amount of money in promoting R&B as they did rock n roll. Rock was the big money maker, rock acts were more likely to have their concerts filmed too. Funk mainly got mainstream audience recognition when it was considered disco in the late 1970s. Or when acts like INXS or Red Hot Chili Peppers did it.

That's probably true. I wasn't there!

Cinny said:

That's probably true. I wasn't there!

Charlie said The Gap Band made very little money. He said Lonnie Simmons took most of the record royalties and their tour money too. Their houses/cars at the time were under Lonnie's name. Yarbrough And Peoples said the same thing about Lonnie on Unsung. They were signed to Total Experience. Charlie also said that Lonnie sabotaged their RCA album (Round Trip) after they left Lonnie's label. I'm guessing that they get royalties today, especially since the Wilson brothers were added as songwriters on Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars. The money isn't going through Lonnie like in the 1980s. Lonnie passed 2 or 3 years ago. Technically, the Gap Band had more members than just the brothers, they were the face of the group. It's like people think Sade is a solo singer, but they're really a band named after the singer. The difference is that the 3 guys in Sade are considered official members, but the other Gap Band members aren't, although some of the other Gap members wrote/co-wrote some of the songs.

There were a few select R&B/Funk bands that did make money. It all depended on who they let put hands on their money.

The Commodores, EWF, P-Funk, Rick James and the Stone City Band, the Isleys, and the Ohio Players were all major players in the 70's.

These groups sold albums and toured extensively. P-Funk sometimes took drugs as payment in lieu

of money. Satch was trusted as the secretary of OP's financial matters and he blew it all on women and drugs which caused other members to have their cars and houses seized by the IRS.

Even some of them who didn't make as much from album sales like Maze, Cameo, Barkays, ConFunkshun, Zapp, etc toured yearly. Maze and the Barkays were usually part of the popular

Budweiser Superfest tours. A lot of the rock acts who made more money blew their money on drugs too mainly the hair bands.

phunkdaddy said:

There were a few select R&B/Funk bands that did make money. It all depended on who they let put hands on their money.

The Commodores, EWF, P-Funk, Rick James and the Stone City Band, the Isleys, and the Ohio Players were all major players in the 70's.

These groups sold albums and toured extensively. P-Funk sometimes took drugs as payment in lieu

of money. Satch was trusted as the secretary of OP's financial matters and he blew it all on women and drugs which caused other members to have their cars and houses seized by the IRS.

Even some of them who didn't make as much from album sales like Maze, Cameo, Barkays, ConFunkshun, Zapp, etc toured yearly. Maze and the Barkays were usually part of the popular

Budweiser Superfest tours. A lot of the rock acts who made more money blew their money on drugs too mainly the hair bands.

My point was the market has changed, and the money, whoever wants to steal it or earn it, isn't there like it was in the 1970's.

The odd Bruno Mars single isn't the same as a gang of bands at once.

Cinny said:

My point was the market has changed, and the money, whoever wants to steal it or earn it, isn't there like it was in the 1970's.

The odd Bruno Mars single isn't the same as a gang of bands at once.

Other than maybe Maroon 5 & Jonas Brothers, bands of any type aren't that popular on today's Top 40 radio, it's mostly rap. There's bands on country radio though. R&B bands on the radio mostly died out when New Jack Swing hit in the late 1980s. Even on Adult R&B, the new songs are primarily by solo singers like Kem, Jaheim, Bruno Mars, & H.E.R., not bands. But it was the rise of hip hop that really changed popular R&B. Hip hop got the mainstream acceptance that R&B never really got. The main R&B chart has been called R&B/Hip Hop for years now.

Cinny said:

phunkdaddy said:

Cinny said:

My point was the market has changed, and the money, whoever wants to steal it or earn it, isn't there like it was in the 1970's.

The odd Bruno Mars single isn't the same as a gang of bands at once.

I agree. It changed over 25 years ago. Occasionally a few of those bands may come out with something decent but funk the way the org knew it in the 70's and 80's is over. Hell these artists rarely even use live horns on their records anymore which was a huge part of funk in the 70's as well as the bass. All you have currently is a few acts like Bruno Mars recycling funk.

P-funk releases a new cd every 2 or 4 years.........and it's GREAT.

Graycap23 said:

phunkdaddy said:

Graycap23 said:

P-funk releases a new cd every 2 or 4 years.........and it's GREAT.

Meh. I wasn't too impressed with Medicaid Fraud Dogg. I liked the mid 90's T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M much better

U didnt dig the one before Fraud dogg? The 3 cd joint?

Graycap23 said:

phunkdaddy said:

Graycap23 said:

U didnt dig the one before Fraud dogg? The 3 cd joint?

Gotta check it out and give it a listen. Summer Swim is one of my favorites post glory days of PFunk

What about the Bootsy recent stuff?

Graycap23 said:

Graycap23 said:

phunkdaddy said:

Graycap23 said: Gotta check it out and give it a listen. Summer Swim is one of my favorites post glory days of PFunk

What about the Bootsy recent stuff?

A few tracks are good. I remember not caring for the rap collaborations.

SoulAlive said:

Where’s Vainandy at? we all know what he would be saying on a thread like this,lol

Charlie Wilson and Ronald Isley are the two biggest sellouts I can think of coming from making hard funk to making nothing but soft weak neo stool type music. Both of them need to take some of their sellout money and buy them some Viagra to see if they can get hard again.

vainandy said:

SoulAlive said:

Where’s Vainandy at? we all know what he would be saying on a thread like this,lol

Charlie Wilson and Ronald Isley are the two biggest sellouts I can think of coming from making hard funk to making nothing but soft weak neo stool type music. Both of them need to take some of their sellout money and buy them some Viagra to see if they can get hard again.

Ron Isley didn't start off doing funk though. The early Isley Brothers records were doo wop & early rock n roll. (Shout, Twist And Shout, Testify). Then there was the Motown period.

vainandy said:

SoulAlive said:

Where’s Vainandy at? we all know what he would be saying on a thread like this,lol

Charlie Wilson and Ronald Isley are the two biggest sellouts I can think of coming from making hard funk to making nothing but soft weak neo stool type music. Both of them need to take some of their sellout money and buy them some Viagra to see if they can get hard again.

MickyDolenz said:

phunkdaddy said:

The Isleys hit their funk stride with It's Your Thing.

That's when the younger Isley Jasper Isley showed up although they were not official memebers yet. As soon as the older & younger brothers split in the early 1980s, the first album the original 3 released was Masterpiece. Which is mostly quiet storm & adult contemporary songs. It could have been a Whitney Houston album. So it must have been Ernie, Chris, & Marvin that were funky.