ABSTRACT
For an element in the “post-punk vanguard”—overtly political groups like Gang of Four, Au Pairs, Pop Group-the clenched feel of funk, its tightness, was the appropriate rhythmic base for militancy and commitment and rigour of thought. The idea of funk as menace, probably stemmed from the idea of “bad-ass” as personified by James Brown, Sly Stone, George Clinton et al. Brown’s music, in particular, has functioned as a crucial bridge between trad white rock culture and 80s disco-he weaned white ears onto other, softer, blacker music. Brown’s peculiar appeal and influence lie in his exaggeration of r’n’b into a pure, precise pulse of male assertion/sexuality, a surface music of arid, cold textures, fleshless and soulless. (Which was why JB’s collaboration with Afrika Bambaata and electro was so appropriate and so dreary.) Really, the funk of the agit-prop groups was no more than an acceptable form of masculine hardness and aggression (where rock as such was now embarrassing). Generally, they reduced funk to riffing, to guitars, bass and drums, unaware of the role of voices and production in black music.
