ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Britfunk, an important expressive form within black British identity during 1960s. Britfunk was engaged in a complex form of cultural politics and its particular appropriation of African-American forms resulted in a particular version of diasporic cultural articulation. In short, these United States (US) forms were appropriated strategically for particularly British ends to reflect the specificities of black experience in the United Kingdom during the 1970s. The generation of young black people who were the first to be born in the United Kingdom found their expression through the adaptation of emergent African-American music to a particularly British context. The success of the small number of acts coming through these routes served to prove to the recording industry that black British acts could be commercially viable and were worthy of investment. Hence, these seasoned pros and session musician-based disco acts would open the door to a second wave of British soul and funk bands that followed.
