Funk metal (also known as thrash-funk) is a subgenre of funk rock and alternative metal that infuses heavy metal music (often thrash metal) with elements of funk and punk rock. Funk metal was part of the alternative metal movement, and has been described as a "brief but extremely media-hyped stylistic fad".
The funk metal scene formed in California during the mid-1980s with a group of bands who were initially playing a mix of funk, hard rock, hip-hop and punk; the genre quickly evolved to include elements of thrash metal.
Characteristics Funk metal has also been called thrash-funk or punk-funk. It was most prevalent in the American state of California, particularly in Los Angeles and San Francisco. According to AllMusic, funk metal "takes the loud guitars and riffs of heavy metal and melds them to the popping bass lines and syncopated rhythms of funk". They go on to state "funk metal evolved in the mid-'80s when alternative bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone began playing the hybrid with a stronger funk underpinning than metal. The bands that followed relied more on metal than funk, though they retained the wild bass lines."Funk Metal. AllMusic, Retrieved February 1, 2012. Faith No More, another Californian alternative group who emerged in the mid-1980s, have been described as a funk metal band that also dabbled in rap metal.[ Rap-Metal ]. Retrieved February 1, 2012. Rage Against the Machine's mix of funk and metal not only included rap, but also elements of hardcore.The Battle of Los Angeles : Rolling Stone. November 1, 2003. Archived from the original on April 14, 2010. Retrieved February 1, 2012. AllMusic formerly categorized funk metal as a style of alternative rock, in spite of the genre's name. The website currently categorizes it as a style of heavy metal.
Certain bands not from a punk/alternative background, such as glam metal groups Bang Tango and Extreme, have also frequently incorporated funk into their musical style.Prato, Greg. Bango Tango > Overview . Retrieved February 3, 2012.Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Extreme > Biography . Retrieved February 3, 2012. Bands such as Primus and Mordred emerged from the thrash metal underground.
In his book Know Your Enemy: The Story of Rage Against the Machine, Joel McIver wrote that funk metal is "a slightly clumsy term applied in the late eighties to any rock band whose bass player used a slapping style." He goes on to write "The best known funk-metallers were the Red Hot Chili Peppers (who later achieved global success with a more pop-oriented approach) and Living Colour. Other funk-metallers ranged from the credible, such as Infectious Grooves (a side-project of crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies), to the relatively obscure, such as the Dan Reed Network."
Roy Shuker described the genre in his 1994 book Understanding Popular Music, writing: "the 'classic' distinction between rock and pop [runs] into some difficulties when we consider various forms of 'alternative' music, illustrating the difficulties of forcing genres into too rigid a typology. For example, where would we place the wild musical genre called 'thrash funk', a fusion of 1970s funk, punk rock, rap, California surf, skateboard and hippy cultures, which, according to press reports, swept San Francisco clubs in 1990." Shuker wrote about the genre again in the 2005 edition of his book Popular Music: The Key Concepts, calling it "less structured than earlier forms of metal, with the bass guitar relied on more than the lead."
The genre managed to gain some international popularity through foreign acts such as British groups Atom Seed and Scat Opera, as well as Super Junky Monkey, an all-female funk metal/avant-garde band from Japan. Although never breaking through in the United States, Swedish band Electric Boys attracted recognition throughout Europe, with AllMusic calling them one of the "most celebrated purveyors of the short-lived funk-metal phenomenon."
Funk metal's prevalence in the late 1980s and 1990–91 predated the rise of grunge music in late 1991, which hurt the popularity of more traditional forms of hard rock/metal. In a January 1991 Spin article, Electric Boys singer Conny Bloom claimed funk metal had become a trend since people thought other hard rock of that era was "boring".
History Origins (early–mid 1980s)
The roots of funk metal can be traced back to the Atlanta band Mother's Finest. In the late 1970s, the band already trying to make the leap from the classic funk rock of their Epic Records label to a more powerful sound. This can be heard in the song "Hard Rock Lover", which features a heavier rhythm section made up of bassist Jerry "Wizzard" Seay and drummer "B.B. Queen" Borden. It would be in 1981 when they could finally make the complete transition in their album Iron Age, an authentic mixture of heavy rock and funk that establishes the elements of origin for funk metal. The decision to take that direction towards heavy metal had some consequences, such as the departure of keyboardist Michael Keck, who could not find a place in that new sound. The album was produced by Jeff Glixman, who also worked with bands like Black Sabbath (for whom Mother's Finest opened for on their Technical Ecstasy Tour), Saxon, Magnum or Kansas. According to Alex Henderson of AllMusic, "with the right promotion, Iron Age could have made MF a big hit with the Quiet Riot/Judas Priest/Scorpions crowd, but the album was a commercial flop instead of the big commercial breakthrough that it should have been".
The self-titled 1984 debut album from Los Angeles band Red Hot Chili Peppers has been cited by some as the first truly funk metal or punk-funk release. Unlike with earlier funk rock albums from the 1970s and the early 1980s, it included elements of both punk and hip-hop. At that point, the band were already signed to the major label Capitol Records. Faith No More released their independent debut We Care a Lot the following year. Like with the Red Hot Chili Peppers' debut, it also mixed funk, hip-hop and punk music. While Faith No More originated from San Francisco's punk scene of the early 1980s, their guitarist Jim Martin was connected to the city's thrash metal scene, adding heavier influences to the band's sound. According to Louder Sound, Faith No More, Fishbone and Red Hot Chili Peppers "pre-dated the funk metal gold rush" of the very late 1980s and early 1990s, when major labels began signing bands associated with the sound. In 1988, Neil Perry of Sounds Magazine referred to Faith No More's 1987 major label debut Introduce Yourself as "a breathtaking harmonisation of molten metal guitar, deadly dance rhythms and poignant, pointed lyrics". On the Red Hot Chili Peppers' album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, released the same year, guitarist Hillel Slovak started to experiment with sounds other than punk rock/hard rock, including thrash metal.Kiedis, Sloman, 2004. p. 204 During late 1987, Faith No More and the Red Hot Chili Peppers toured together in support of these two albums. Martin recalled: "We were travelling in a box van with no windows. We drove all the way to the east coast for the first show. Flea asked me if we liked to smoke weed. I said: ‘Yes’ and he said: ‘We're going to get along just fine’. We did something like 52 dates in 56 days." Faith No More subsequently went on a solo tour of the United Kingdom in 1988. Following this tour, their singer Chuck Mosley was fired due to his increasingly erratic behavior.
New York band Living Colour, who entered the mainstream during the late 1980s, were named by Rolling Stone as "black funk metal pioneers."Fricke, David (November 13, 2003). Living Colour: Collideoscope : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 12, 2009. Retrieved February 1, 2012. Ska-influenced Los Angeles band Fishbone are also noted for being an all-black group. They had ties with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and have been labelled as early leaders of the funk metal/punk-funk movement. The band got signed to the major label Columbia Records in 1983, releasing several albums through them, but never had a significant hit song. Entertainment Weekly noted in a May 1991 article that "despite the rise of black rockers like Living Colour, the American funk-metal scene is predominantly white." Many reviewers often cited Living Colour as having been a band that were directly inspired by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The vocalist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Anthony Kiedis, played down similarities between the two bands. He stated at the time, "Living Colour to me sounds nothing like Red Hot Chili Peppers. But I have to deal with [this] on a daily basis: 'Wow, Living Colour's really biting your style. Y'ever see the guy on stage? He moves just like you.'" The A.V. Club later wrote in 2013 that, "Living Colour was boundary-breaking—and yet the group was given more boundaries right out of the gate. As funk-metal like that of Faith No More solidified into a subgenre with set rules and sounds, the last thing Living Colour wanted was to be called funk-metal."
Primus, a band with thrash metal origins formed in the mid-1980s, has been widely described as funk metal, though they have also crossed many other genres and bandleader/bassist Les Claypool dislikes the categorization.Gore, Joe (August 1991). New Rage: The Funky from Guitar Player. Retrieved February 1, 2012. After getting signed to Interscope Records, Claypool remarked in 1991, "We've been lumped in with the funk metal thing just about everywhere. I guess people just have to categorise you". Claypool has mentioned being inspired by The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, comparing it to Led Zeppelin.
Popularity (late 1980s–early 1990s)
The success of Faith No More's 1989 song "Epic" helped heighten interest in the genre. Funk metal band Living Colour also achieved mainstream success with their song "Cult of Personality", which was a very popular hit and frequently played on MTV, helping the band's album Vivid go double-platinum. In the wake of Living Colour's success, another all-black funk metal band from New York called 24-7 Spyz gained popularity. Anthony Kiedis later claimed Faith No More's new singer, Mike Patton, had stolen his style, specifically in "Epic" and its popular music video. He said "I watched [their] 'Epic' video, and I see him jumping up and down, rapping, and it looked like I was looking in a mirror." Since the Red Hot Chili Peppers had not yet broken outside of America, he believed European audiences would view him as being an imitator of Patton. The LA Weekly state: "Faith No More, then led by vocalist Chuck Mosley, before Patton joined the band, used to open for the similarly progressive Peppers just as the funk-metal scene was gaining momentum. By 1989, as both bands were getting exceedingly popular, they both landed European tours, with Faith No More’s scheduled to begin a few months before RHCP's. This wasn’t an issue, until Kiedis saw the video for FNM’s 'Epic'". In an interview with Kerrang! Kiedis further said, "what a drag if people get the idea that I’m actually ripping him off. Especially in the UK where FNM is much better known than us. In America, it’s a different story, people are aware of the profound influence we had on them." He also threatened to "kidnap [Patton], shave his hair off and cut off one of his feet just so he'll be forced to find a style of his own."