Royalty Free Funk Music
Want to enhance your project with the best royalty-free music? Here you will find a collection of our best funk tracks. Not sure if this is the right genre for your content? Read the article below and find out the best uses for this genre and what vibe it will bring to it.
What is Funk Music?
This genre originated in African American communities in the middle of the 60s and got popular by the end of the 70s. It started when musicians created an upbeat, rhythmic, danceable new style of music by mixing jazz, soul and blues. Funk focuses on an intense rhythmic groove of a bassline done by an electric bassist and a percussionist playing the drum part, rather than emphasizing on melodies and chord progressions. It is usually played on slower tempos compared to other popular music genres. As most African American inspired styles, it is all about creating a danceable, hypnotic feel, working towards a “groove”.
Some of its technical explanations include rhythmic instruments playing interlocking music, using richly colored extended chords (usually found in bebop jazz). The word funky as a slang term refers to a person's odour, attitude or unpredictable style, and musically it speaks about this aggressive urban dance music. These terms developed with time since they used to be associated with harsh reality, tragedy, violence, racial discrtimination, etc, but funk or funky evolved and now is a reference to a style that is a passione reflection of the black experience.
Like soul music, funk is all about the groove and has a strong rhythmic role. It can also be seen as similar to Disco music, but it is slower, sexier and more syncopated, since its musicians add more textures, personality and complexity to the main beat. The sound of Funk emphasizes a lot in the spaces between the notes, so the rests between them are very important.
It uses extended chords that are richly colored, often found in bebop jazz such as minor chords with elevenths and sevenths, or mainly seventh chords with altered ninths. Funk creates static single chord vamp, rather than chord changes.
When Funk music is played, it allows improvising by grooving or jamming when the artist feels so. This is also a big part of the African American culture.
Bass, drums, electric guitar, keyboard, and sometimes other instruments like horns ( trumpets, tenor sax, trombone or two saxes).
It is undeniable that funk has a great personality and can bring any project an upbeat energetic feel to it. It is ideal for those who need to bring a video to life, generating a funky vibe and a groove that will make the audience instantly get hooked and enjoy the music. Since it's such a powerful rhythm it is important to be careful when using it in the background since it can take all the attention and leave other parts of the project in a second place. But if it is well used it can be a wonderful tool for social media, commercials, vlogs, films and any other type of content.