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Biography
For|the song|P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)Refimprove|date=July 2009Cleanup|date=August 2007 P-Funk (also spelled P Funk or P. Funk ) is a shorthand term for the repertoire and performers associated with George Clinton (funk musician)|George Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic collective and the distinctive style of funk music they performed. The P-Funk groups had their heyday in the 1970s and continue to attract new fans thanks both to the legacy of Sampling (music)|samples they bequeathed to hip hop music|hip hop and the live shows that the bands continue to perform.
Etymology
The etymology of the term P-Funk is subject to multiple interpretations. It has been identified alternately as an abbreviation of "Parliament-Funkadelic", "pure funk" or "Plainfield Funk", referring to Plainfield, New Jersey , the hometown of the band's original line-up. The liner notes of CD versions of the Motor Booty Affair album suggest that the "'P' stands for 'Pure.'" The breakout popularity of Parliament-Funkadelic elevated the status of P-Funk to describe what is now considered to be a genre of music in its own right.Citation needed|date=June 2009
Musical characteristics
Expand section|date=September 2007Musical elements that characterize the P-Funk style include:
spacey synthesizer melodies and washes provided by keyboardist Bernie Worrell and others
classically-trained and blues/jazz piano style of Bernie Worrell
prominent, squelching bass guitar|electric bass lines provided by Bootsy Collins or performed in his style
jazzy, insouciant horn section arrangement s performed by The Horny Horns
raucous glee club-type group vocals on songs' choruses alternating with sung or spoken vocals on the verses
a mixture of funk and rock music|rock Electric guitar|guitar styles, the latter being more prominent on Funkadelic's recordings
steady, relatively unobtrusive drumming with few or no drum solo s
lyrics devoted to exposition of the P-Funk mythology , sex and drug-related humor, and sociopolitical satire , often in the context of a concept album
sophisticated use of multitrack recording technology and studio effects by Record producer|producer George Clinton
a more "live band" sound, with little of the mechanistic precision of disco and post-disco dance music|dance forms.Borthwick, Stuart & Moy, Ron (2004). Popular Music Genres: an Introduction : "P-Funk made far more use of the metronomic four-to-the-floor drum styles, thus linking their funk to disco and jazz funk. However, unlike disco, P-Funk always sounded 'played', with little of the production-line precision of disco and post-disco dance forms." Edinburgh University Press (2004), p. 34, ISBN 0748617450
