UK funky

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UK funky (sometimes known as UKF or funky [1] ) is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England that is heavily influenced by soca, soulful house, tribal house, funky house, UK garage, broken beat and grime. [1] Typically, UK funky blends beats, bass loops and synths with African and Latin percussion in the dembow rhythm with contemporary R&B-style vocals.

Contents

Characteristics

UK funky uses tempos of around 130bpm. Drum patterns vary between tracks, using either "4 to the floor" or a syncopated style. The drum patterns commonly also include percussion playing African inspired rhythms. Instrumentation varies widely, but drum machines and synthesizers are common. There are similarities to garage in rhythmic, musical and vocal styles. UK funky is highly influenced by the tribal, soulful and bassline house subgenres. Similar genres include afro house, [2] broken beat, electro and garage.[ citation needed ]

History

US house producers such as Masters At Work, Karizma (with "Twyst This"), Quentin Harris and Dennis Ferrer (with a remix of Fish Go Deep's "The Cure and the Cause"; and with "Hey Hey") have had an influence on UK funky.

Hits from this genre include the Crazy Cousinz songs "Do You Mind?", "Bongo Jam" and "The Funky Anthem", and Fuzzy Logik featuring Egypt's "In The Morning". Popular songs have also produced dance crazes, such as "Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes", "The Tribal Man Skank" and "The Migraine Skank".[ citation needed ] Other notable artists include Apple, Marcus Nasty, Tribal Magz, Donae'o, KIG, Roska, Champion, iLL BLU, Lil' Silva and Funkystepz.[ citation needed ] DJs and MCs that have played a role in UK funky include DJ Pioneer, Supa D, MA1, Cameo, NG, MC Kaos Spidey G, Coldstepz, and Dogtaniaun & Versatile.[ citation needed ]

Funky Dee's "Are You Gonna Bang Doe?", recorded in 2009, achieved mainstream success and was signed to Universal Music Group. It was interpolated by Ed Sheeran in his viral 2010 freestyle alongside Example, the "Nando's Skank", [3] and was later interpolated by Sun Bingo for their 2018 "Are You Gonna Bingo?" advertising campaign. [4] The track was described by Tim Westwood as "the summer soundtrack" which "replaced [Boy Better Know's] "Too Many Man" in the clubs" [5] and by TRENCH Magazine as an "Ayia Napa anthem". [6] Critics included Vice's Sam Diss, who considered it to be one of several tracks "that practically confirmed [UK funky] would soon become the novelty soundtrack to every bad freshers week in the country, eventually leading to its demise", [7] and Marcus Nasty, who claimed it contributed to the genre becoming "kiddies' music". [8]

Related Research Articles

UK bass, also called bass music, is club music that emerged in the United Kingdom during the mid-2000s under the influence of diverse genres such as house, grime, dubstep, UK garage, R&B, and UK funky. The term "UK bass" came into use as artists began ambiguously blending the sounds of these defined genres while maintaining an emphasis on percussive, bass-led rhythm.

House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120-130 beats per minute as a re-emergence of 1970s disco. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground club culture and evolved slowly in the early/mid 1980s as DJs began altering disco songs to give them a more mechanical beat. By early 1988, House became mainstream and supplanted the typical 80s music beat.

Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK garage styles.

Benjamin Pettit, better known as DJ Zinc, is a British DJ and record producer. Zinc first became known for 1995's "Super Sharp Shooter", a hip hop/jungle fusion, notably one of the pioneering jump-up anthems of its time. He went on to produce drum and bass, breakbeat and more recently UK garage and house.

Grime is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) that emerged in London in the early 2000s. It developed out of the earlier UK dance style UK garage, and draws influences from jungle, dancehall, and hip hop. The style is typified by rapid, syncopated breakbeats, generally around 140 beats per minute, and often features an aggressive or jagged electronic sound. Emceeing is a significant element of the style, and lyrics often revolve around gritty depictions of urban life.

Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken beat, grime, and drum and bass. In the United Kingdom, the origins of the genre can be traced back to the growth of the Jamaican sound system party scene in the early 1980s.

Skank may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dance music</span> Music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing

Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance music. While there exist attestations of the combination of dance and music in ancient history, the earliest Western dance music that we can still reproduce with a degree of certainty are old-fashioned dances. In the Baroque period, the major dance styles were noble court dances. In the classical music era, the minuet was frequently used as a third movement, although in this context it would not accompany any dancing. The waltz also arose later in the classical era. Both remained part of the romantic music period, which also saw the rise of various other nationalistic dance forms like the barcarolle, mazurka, ecossaise, ballade and polonaise.

2-step garage, or simply 2-step, is a genre of electronic music and a subgenre of UK garage. One of the primary characteristics of the 2-step sound – the term being coined to describe "a general rubric for all kinds of jittery, irregular rhythms that don't conform to garage's traditional four-on-the-floor pulse" – is that the rhythm lacks the kick drum pattern found in many other styles of electronic music with a regular four-on-the-floor beat.

Horsepower Productions are an English electronic music duo, initially a larger musical collective who released experimental garage recordings, and helped pioneer the dubstep genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rinse FM</span> London-based radio station, critical in the emergence of dubstep and grime

Rinse FM is a London-based community radio station, licensed for "young people living and/or working within the central, east and south London areas". It plays garage, grime, dubstep, house, jungle, UK funky and other dance music genres popular in the United Kingdom.

Bassline is a music genre closely related to UK garage that originated in South Yorkshire and the West Midlands in the early 2000s. Stylistically it comprises a four-to-the-floor rhythm normally at around 135–142 beats per minute and a strong emphasis on bass, similar to that of its precursor speed garage, with chopped up vocal samples and a pop music aesthetic.

Dave Jones, better known as Zed Bias, is an English electronic musician based in Manchester, who operates within the UK garage/2-step, broken beat and UK funky genres, as a producer and as a DJ. He has also released material under various pseudonyms including Maddslinky and is one half of the duo Phuturistix.

Peter O'Grady, better known as Joy Orbison or Joy O, is an English electronic musician. His style is a coalescence of house, dubstep, UK funky, UK garage and oldschool jungle. O'Grady achieved underground success with his debut single "Hyph Mngo", released via Hotflush Recordings in September 2009. He is also known for his collaborations with Boddika.

Future garage is a genre of electronic music that incorporates a variety of influences from UK garage and softer elements from 2-step garage, leading to an off-kilter rhythmic style. Characteristic sounds are pitched vocal chops, warm filtered reese basses, dark atmospheres and vinyl crackle. The tempo usually ranges from 130 to 140 bpm, but can also be slower or faster.

Deekline is a British producer and DJ of breakbeat, breakstep, drum and bass and garage music. He is the innovator of breakstep music which is bass-heavy, breakbeat-infused 2-step, first characterised in his 1999 hit "I Don't Smoke", which reached No. 11 on the UK charts. He is the owner of Rat Records, which has released material of such artists as DJ Fresh, Jack Beats, Stanton Warriors, Wiley, Skinny Man, Rennie Pilgrem, House Breakers and Freq Nasty. Deekline has also had notable collaborations with British electronic music producers Ed Solo and Wizard. In 2011, he opened up his online clothing store, Bass Boutique.

UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by jungle, but also incorporates elements from dance-pop and R&B. It is defined by percussive, shuffled rhythms with syncopated hi-hats, cymbals, and snares, and may include either 4/4 house kick patterns or more irregular "2-step" rhythms. Garage tracks also commonly feature 'chopped up' and time-stretched or pitch-shifted vocal samples complementing the underlying rhythmic structure at a tempo usually around 130 BPM.

Shaun Lewis, better known by the stage names Stormin and Teddy Bruckshot, was a British grime and drum and bass MC and rapper from Plaistow, London.

References

Notes
  1. 1 2 McDonnell, John (2008-08-18), "Broken beat meets tribal house? Now that's what I call... funky?", The Guardian , guardian.co.uk, archived from the original on 2014-04-24, retrieved 2009-12-24
  2. Kidman, Jerome (28 February 2023). "Crossover and collectivity : Why London's house underground is evolving". Mixmag. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  3. "Example Tour Vid 8: "Example & Ed Sheeran perform the Nando's Skank"". YouTube . 2010-05-10. Archived from the original on 2017-12-22. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
  4. Deighton, Katie (2018-02-23). "Ad of the Day: Sun Bingo takes on 'Are You Gonna Bang Doe' in surreal musical skit". The Drum. Archived from the original on 2019-07-20. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
  5. "Funky Dee Are You Gonna Bang Doe - Westwood". YouTube . 2010-12-17. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15.
  6. "EXCLUSIVE: Funky Dee And Mischief Square Off For A Heated Round Of 'Lord Of The Mics 8'". TRENCH Magazine. 2019-06-09. Archived from the original on 2019-07-20. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
  7. Diss, Sam (2016-04-19). "Blackberry Messenger, Sticky Nightclubs, and Gucci Loafers: Remembering Funky House". Vice . Archived from the original on 2019-07-20. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
  8. "Marcus Nasty talks music beef, rumours and the original Chicken Connoisseur". YouTube . 2019-06-20. Archived from the original on 2019-06-26. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
Bibliography