Funk Gospel
Located in 3 routes
Gospel driven by funk and disco grooves: syncopated slap bass, wah-wah and rhythm guitar, punchy horns, clavinet and hard backbeats under choir or lead vocals turned up to celebratory intensity. Tempos are danceable and the arrangements borrow directly from 1970s funk and dance music, redirecting the party energy to praise. Vocals are shouted, ecstatic and soulful, often in choir call-and-response over the groove. The mood is joyous, kinetic and body-moving.
History
Funk gospel arose in the 1970s as the funk and disco revolution swept Black popular music and gospel artists adopted its grooves, with the Rance Allen Group cutting sanctified funk-soul for Stax and Andraé Crouch fusing funk with the choir. The Clark Sisters scored a genuine dance-chart crossover with the funk-disco 'You Brought the Sunshine' (1981), the Mighty Clouds of Joy went disco-soul on 'Mighty High,' and Commissioned brought funk-inflected urban gospel into the 1980s. In the 1990s Sounds of Blackness updated the tradition with 'Optimistic,' and funk gospel's grooves live on in praise breaks, gospel-funk revivals and the rhythmic vocabulary of contemporary gospel.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- You Brought the Sunshine(1981) — The Clark SistersSpotifyYouTube
- Ain't No Need of Crying(1979) — Rance Allen GroupSpotifyYouTube
- Take Me Back(1975) — Andraé CrouchSpotifyYouTube
- Mighty High(1975) — The Mighty Clouds of JoySpotifyYouTube
- Optimistic(1991) — Sounds of BlacknessSpotifyYouTube
- Ordinary Just Won't Do — CommissionedSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Robert Darden, People Get Ready! (2004)
- Rob Bowman, Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records (1997)
- Bil Carpenter, Uncloudy Days (2005)