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Where has the funk gone?

Are any of the people currently residing in the musical realm of househeads beginning to feel as disillusioned with the direction of house music these days as I am starting to? It�s not the fact I�m thinking the music itself has lost it�s value, but I�m beginning to see a troubling trend that has plagued any number of genres irrespective of whether it�s classified as �electronic� or not. What I�m referring to is that instead of exploring the most diverse of all forms of dance music, I�m finding that most DJs are jumping on the sound of �what�s hot� at any given time. Musically speaking, the current sound to the electro/minimal that every DJ under the sun is playing. I�d be a hypocrite if I�d said I don�t enjoy the sound, it�s just that going out and hearing the same style and sound from DJ to DJ seems less attractive than not. Gone are the days when a house DJ will walk into a club and cater the music to the crowd, or bring their own feel to their sets. More and more I�m finding the DJ will walk into the club, saying �well this worked in Montreal, and it�ll work here too�. But the problem isn�t just that the DJs are homogenizing, but the producers themselves seem to have lost the courage to break away from the norms and are only producing the one style of music. Whatever happened to funk and soul in house? What happened to instruments like strings and brass, or a bass guitar providing some old skool funk to the low-end? What happened to tracks that made you feel like you were at a party and not in a dark grimey room? I love the grime, but I appreciate the ability to mix it up more. One doesn�t have to look further than trance to find out what happens without ingenuity and experiment in a sub-genre of music. Everyone jumped on the uplifting sound, and although that gave mass-exposure to electronic music at the time, but because it was so identifiable as a sound in itself, producers and DJs were afraid to break away from the mould of what worked and the style stagnated. Is anyone else as afraid as I am that house is headed down a similar path?

Someone please dissuade me of my opinion.

Re: Where has the funk gone?

I'm asking myself the same thing

quote:

Originally posted by jennypie

that's some of the good stuff..right there.... nice find, Jenny!

where have the paragraphs gone ?

i dunno... i think there is a lot of variety out there... and DJs like manzone&strong and mark oliver always seem to have a completely different style at every venue. even in the darker techy stuff there's stuff like axwell - i found u (dubfire remix) that still fit in and keep things a little old school - hopefully more stuff like this comes out

House needs more funky, deep and jazzy house.

Oh and diva house. Can't forget diva house

quote:

Originally posted by DaRoZa i dunno... i think there is a lot of variety out there... and DJs like manzone&strong and mark oliver always seem to have a completely different style at every venue. even in the darker techy stuff there's stuff like axwell - i found u (dubfire remix) that still fit in and keep things a little old school - hopefully more stuff like this comes out

Well I'm comparing more toward the big international headliner house DJs out there. As the supposed 'leaders of the genre' they're starting to sound all too similar these days.

But really, I had turned on my iPod today, and I began realizing that most of the sets I've been playing with consistency have been older sets, ones which even pre-date my entry into the scene, and how different each one of the DJs sounded from each other from days past.

So don't listen to the "leaders of the genre"...dig out stuff YOU like and support those artists/DJs instead. There's plenty out there.

Funk is dead because James Brown is Dead.

i don't know if kerry chandler is considered funky jazzy house but he was killing it on sunday, i was there for like 45 min and it was awesome

its all about what sells now....I don't think you see it with local DJs as much as international DJs. Its simply commercialization....producers are now producing tracks faster and with the same sound.....everyone is looking for that next big hit.....If you already know what is popular then if you quickly produce a bunch of tracks that are similar to what's popular you increase your chances of having the next hit. If you spend a lot of time and produce less tracks that are more fitted to what you like the chances of one of them being a hit is less.

The Bennasi Bros. produced a ton of tracks that were similar to Satisifaction during its hayday

quote:

Originally posted by geroin i don't know if kerry chandler is considered funky jazzy house but he was killing it on sunday, i was there for like 45 min and it was awesome

He also does deep house and some acid too.

And he rocks.

Look up SoundDiggers, my brother in law!

He's all about the deep funk - it isn't dead! And it is living well in the UK so it won't be long before it is gracing us here again.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cf...endid=104332157

quote:

Originally posted by English Rachel Look up SoundDiggers, my brother in law! He's all about the deep funk - it isn't dead! And it is living well in the UK so it won't be long before it is gracing us here again. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cf...endid=104332157

Holy crap that's your brother-in-law?? I like very much. I have an old promo that gets quite a bit of rotation! Naiice!

quote:

Originally posted by jennypie So don't listen to the "leaders of the genre"...dig out stuff YOU like and support those artists/DJs instead. There's plenty out there.

I agree, but for most people, they do just listen to the 'big DJs' that are out there, and because of their stature in the scene to a large extent they have influence over which direction it's heading.

Personally, I'd been digging in my collection and found the H-Foundation essential mix and found it really agreed with me, but going out and finding a DJ playing that music at a club is hard to do. It's this type of thing that leaves me feeling short-changed with house. It's very hard to find good and live at the same time.

quote:

Originally posted by English Rachel Look up SoundDiggers, my brother in law! He's all about the deep funk - it isn't dead! And it is living well in the UK so it won't be long before it is gracing us here again. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cf...endid=104332157

OMG are you kidding me?? I posted one of his sets in the HA thread a while ago.

Goood stuff.

And Sly Guy I know what you mean. I gave up on the "trendy" house and what only the big names play. There's lots of amazing house out there that gets no attention.

We want the funk, gotta have that funk.

Love the funk.

oooo, I know what the name of my first mix will be.

Infinity Funk?

or... Infinifunk? (sounds like a european hockey player)

quote:

Originally posted by infinity HiGH OMG are you kidding me?? I posted one of his sets in the HA thread a while ago. Goood stuff.

Yeah that's the one! January 2007 promo right?...dunno why I thought it was older than that?

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Button Infinity Funk? or... Infinifunk? (sounds like a european hockey player)

haha nothing like that

quote:

Originally posted by jennypie Yeah that's the one! January 2007 promo right?...dunno why I thought it was older than that?

Yup yup. AWESOME mix.

quote:

Originally posted by infinity HiGH haha nothing like that

Funk in my Trunk?

Funky Penis?

LOL..wait..isn't there a producer named Funky Penis??

quote:

Originally posted by jennypie Funk in my Trunk? Funky Penis? LOL..wait..isn't there a producer named Funky Penis??

Crazy Penis.

The funk is out there, it's just that, as you said, the "trend" is getting progressively more minimal. Off the top of my head, there's Danny Howells, Axwell, DJ Spen, and as mentioned earlier, Kerri Chandler, all still putting out funky house.

I wish there was more of it too, but I'll take what I can get. After being forced to listen to nothing but crummy top 40 and alternative rock for a couple of weeks, I can safely say that even the minimal and/or techy stuff is at least a little bit funky by comparison.

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