Funk metal

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Funk metal
Stylistic origins: Alternative rock
Funk
Heavy metal
Hip hop
Punk
Cultural origins: Mid-to-late 1980s, United States
Typical instruments: Bass guitar - Electric guitar - Drums - Keyboard - Rapping - Vocals
Mainstream popularity: Some in USA in late '80s thanks to success for Faith No More and Red Hot Chili Peppers, greater in the '90s by Primus and Rage Against the Machine, now underground.
Derivative forms: Nu metal
Regional scenes
California
Other topics
Timeline of hip hop - Timeline of heavy metal

Funk metal (sometimes typeset differently such as funk-metal) is a fusion genre of music which emerged in the 1980s. It typically incorporates hard-driving heavy metal guitar riffs, the pounding bass rhythms characteristic of funk, and sometimes hip hop-style rhymes into an alternative rock approach to songwriting.

Contents

[edit] Genre history

Funk metal grew from the 1980s alternative rock scene, especially the Los Angeles scene, but important groups also emerged from other Californian cities such as San Francisco and El Sobrante. The style emerged in the mid-to-late 80s, pioneered (and exemplified) by Faith No More and Red Hot Chili Peppers.[1]

These bands usually came from an alternative rock background, but were characterised by adoption of various other genres. The definitive influences were strong elements of funk and heavy metal, normally evident in the bass and guitar respectively, but bands were more than often also informed by punk rock and hip hop. Some groups came from a funkcore background, and rapping is a prominent vocal style, even in groups with experienced singers as vocalists.

In the late 1980s, the funk metal band Extreme, who were influenced by the era's focus on glam metal, had brief success, but lost popularity when public focus changed to grittier music and appearance. The genre had greater mainstream success in the early 90s alongside other forms of alternative metal and grunge, when Red Hot Chili Peppers, Faith No More, Jane's Addiction, Primus, Rage Against the Machine and others gathered large dedicated followings and commercial success. By the end of the 90s, however, only a few bands retained their popularity, and the genre went underground again.

[edit] Notable funk metal artists

# - G
G - M
M - Z

[edit] See also

Heavy metal
Black metal - Classic metal - Death metal - Doom metal - Folk metal - Glam metal - Gothic metal - Grindcore - Industrial metal - Neo-classical metal - Nu metal - Post-metal - Power metal - Progressive metal - Speed metal - Symphonic metal - Thrash metal
Regional scenes
Scandinavian death metal - New Wave of British Heavy Metal - Bay Area thrash metal
Other topics
Fashion - Bands - Umlaut - Slang

[edit] Footnotes and citations

  1. ^ a b Red Hot Chili Peppers are described as "funk-metal kingpins." August 2006 edition of Q, pg. 51

[edit] Sources