The Melody Web what each genre heard, and what it passed on

heard passed on Click or tap a node to recenter. Use a connecting line, or Influence, for the story.

Heard

Jazz genre · 1910–

A wing of 1970s funk uses jazz-trained players and extended or modal color on top of the One.

Influence
New Orleans second line practice · 1890–

New Orleans funk keeps the second line’s rolling snare-and-bass street beat as band interlocking.

Influence
Psychedelic rock style · 1966–1969

The Funkadelic wing of funk keeps psychedelic rock’s wah guitar, sustain, and long-form jam on a One-based groove.

Influence
Soul genre · 1958–

Funk is soul with the song’s harmonic journey stripped down and the band recast as a single percussion instrument.

Influence

Funk

genre · 1965–

Includes Go-go

Groove-centered African American popular music, from James Brown’s mid-1960s rhythmic turn through Parliament-Funkadelic, Sly and the Family Stone, and 1970s band funk. Harmony and song form recede; interlocking riffs and the One become the composition. It hears Soul for the song-to-groove turn, Jazz for horn-and-harmony literacy, New Orleans New Orleans second line for the Meters street beat, and Psychedelic rock for the Funkadelic guitar wing. Go-go is the named D.C. live-pocket child. Jazz-funk and P-Funk stay on this node. Boogie and new jack swing remain leftover bins. G-funk stays a reception on Hip-hop. Gospel-into-funk waits on Soul.

Listen

  1. Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine James Brown (1970) YouTube · Spotify · Amazon
  2. Papa's Got a Brand New Bag James Brown (1965) YouTube · Spotify
  3. Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) Sly and the Family Stone (1969) YouTube · Spotify · Amazon
  4. Superstition Stevie Wonder (1972) YouTube · Spotify · Amazon
  5. Flash Light Parliament (1977) YouTube · Spotify · Amazon
  6. Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker) Parliament (1975) YouTube · Spotify · Amazon
  7. Cissy Strut The Meters (1969) YouTube · Spotify · Amazon
  8. Brick House Commodores (1977) YouTube · Spotify · Amazon
  9. Le Freak Chic (1978) YouTube · Spotify · Amazon
  10. Atomic Dog George Clinton (1982) YouTube · Spotify · Amazon

Passed on

Acid jazz genre · 1987–

Acid jazz takes funk’s even-eight dance chassis — tight drums, electric bass, riffed horns — under Hammond and jazz-funk heads.

Influence
Afrobeat genre · 1968–

Afrobeat takes funk’s interlocking riffs and accent on the One into a large Lagos band.

Influence
City pop style · 1977–1989

City pop takes funk’s interlocking studio groove — sixteenth-note guitar, electric bass, extended chords — as Tokyo adult-pop rhythm.

Influence
Dance-pop style · 1983–

The Jackson wing of dance-pop keeps funk’s syncopated bass and tight rhythm guitar under a verse–chorus video single.

Influence
Disco genre · 1973–

Disco keeps funk’s bass-as-lead, guitar chuck, and horn punctuation and evens the kick for the club.

Influence
Electro genre · 1982–

Electro is funk with the band replaced by machines and the dance kept.

Influence
Go-go style · 1976–

Go-go keeps funk’s One and interlocking band riffs and stretches them into a continuous live pocket with extra percussion and crowd call.

Influence
Hip-hop genre · 1973–

Hip-hop’s first compositional act is to isolate and extend the funk break: the bars where drums, bass, and maybe a guitar lick carry the dance.

Influence
Jazz fusion style · 1968–

A second fusion chassis: funk ostinato rather than rock even-eights.

Influence
Songo genre · 1969–

Songo takes funk’s electric kit-and-bass job under still-son clave: linear drums, slap-adjacent bass, and a pop-band density Formell heard on records.

Influence
Techno genre · 1985–

Detroit techno takes funk’s futurist riff program and dance job and replaces the band with machines.

Influence

Jazz → Funk

harmonyinstrumentationperformance practicestrength: lowwell documented1970–1975oralrecordingpedagogy

Mechanism

A wing of 1970s funk uses jazz-trained players and extended or modal color on top of the One. Strength low on funk as a whole — soul is the definitional parent — and medium on the jazz-funk wing. funk jazz fusion is the reverse hop.

Evidence

Headhunters and related dates; Nicholson on jazz-rock/funk personnel.

Debate

Whether this is already fusion. Fusion is the jazz-side name; this hop is jazz literacy entering named funk records.

Mediators

artist: Herbie Hancock; artist: Miles Davis

New Orleans second line → Funk

meter and grooveperformance practiceinstrumentationstrength: highwell documented1968–1974oralrecordingdance

Mechanism

New Orleans funk keeps the second line’s rolling snare-and-bass street beat as band interlocking. Strength high. James Brown’s One remains the national parent; this hop is the local parade grammar (Meters). Jazz-funk stays on the funk node.

Evidence

Meters instrumentals against parade drumming (Brothers, Burnim/Maultsby).

Debate

Whether this is still R&B. 1950s New Orleans R&B is a neighbor; the street-beat lattice is second line’s.

Mediators

artist: The Meters

Psychedelic rock → Funk

timbre and productioninstrumentationform and structurestrength: mediumscholarly consensus1968–1972recordingoral

Mechanism

The Funkadelic wing of funk keeps psychedelic rock’s wah guitar, sustain, and long-form jam on a One-based groove. Strength medium. Brown’s riff funk is the other parent; this hop is the Detroit/Westbound acid-band kit. P-Funk stays on the funk node.

Evidence

Early Funkadelic albums against late-1960s psych guitar practice (Burnim/Maultsby, Starr).

Debate

Whether this is rock, not funk. The guitar noise can be shared; the One and the dance band are funk’s.

Mediators

artist: Funkadelic

Soul → Funk

meter and grooveinstrumentationperformance practicetimbre and productionstrength: highwell documented1965–1970recordingoral

Mechanism

Funk is soul with the song’s harmonic journey stripped down and the band recast as a single percussion instrument. Brown’s mid-1960s records keep soul’s horns, shout, and dance function but freeze harmony and move the accent to beat one. Sly and later P-Funk add psychedelic and bass-lead colors without abandoning that riff logic. Personnel is continuous: the same kinds of players, a new compositional priority.

Evidence

Dated Brown singles and session testimony from the JB’s; comparison of earlier soul sides (Please, Please, Please) with Cold Sweat. Stax and Motown house bands also record funk-leaning vamps by the late 1960s.

Debate

Whether New Orleans (“the funk” as local feel) or jazz should share parent credit. Both can be additional edges; Brown’s recorded turn is the documented main hinge.

Mediators

artist: James Brown; artist: Sly Stone

Funk → Acid jazz

meter and groovetimbre and productioninstrumentationstrength: mediumscholarly consensus1987–1994recordingdanceradio

Mechanism

Acid jazz takes funk’s even-eight dance chassis — tight drums, electric bass, riffed horns — under Hammond and jazz-funk heads. Strength medium. soul jazz acid jazz is the organ-combo catalog; this hop is the club-funk body. Rare groove leftover as a DJ bin, not a node.

Evidence

Peterson rooms and Acid Jazz/Talkin’ Loud 12-inches; Brand New Heavies as a live funk band in the named style; Grove on the jazz-funk revival.

Debate

Whether this is already soul-jazz. Soul-jazz is the 1960s organ school; funk supplies the later dance-floor density those DJs also spun.

Mediators

artist: Gilles Peterson; artist: The Brand New Heavies

Funk → Afrobeat

meter and grooveinstrumentationperformance practicestrength: highwell documented1969–1975oralrecordingmigration

Mechanism

Afrobeat takes funk’s interlocking riffs and accent on the One into a large Lagos band. Strength high. Fela’s late-1960s hearing of Brown is the hinge. Highlife and jazz hops wait on the afrobeat node.

Evidence

Africa 70 vamps against Brown’s late-1960s records; Grove and Taylor on that hearing.

Debate

Whether highlife is the real parent. It is a necessary sibling hop, not a reason to drop funk.

Mediators

artist: Fela Kuti

Funk → City pop

meter and grooveharmonytimbre and productionstrength: mediumscholarly consensus1977–1984recordingradio

Mechanism

City pop takes funk’s interlocking studio groove — sixteenth-note guitar, electric bass, extended chords — as Tokyo adult-pop rhythm. Strength medium. kayokyoku city pop is the song-factory parent; this hop is the groove kit. Disco leftover as a color on the node, not a second parent.

Evidence

Yamashita and Matsubara rhythm sections against U.S. AOR/funk records; Grove on 1970s Japanese studio pop’s American groove literacy.

Debate

Whether the donor is funk or a looser AOR bin. The named, documentable groove language is funk; AOR leftover as a marketing umbrella.

Mediators

artist: Tatsuro Yamashita

Funk → Dance-pop

meter and groovetimbre and productioninstrumentationstrength: mediumscholarly consensus1982–1987recordingradio

Mechanism

The Jackson wing of dance-pop keeps funk’s syncopated bass and tight rhythm guitar under a verse–chorus video single. Strength medium. Disco remains the floor parent; this hop is the funk kit.

Evidence

Billie Jean / Thriller rhythm-section writing (Starr, Burnim/Maultsby).

Debate

Whether this is already funk. The public and the chorus job are dance-pop’s; the groove cell is funk’s.

Mediators

artist: Michael Jackson

Funk → Disco

meter and grooveinstrumentationtimbre and productionstrength: highscholarly consensus1974–1979recordingoral

Mechanism

Disco keeps funk’s bass-as-lead, guitar chuck, and horn punctuation and evens the kick for the club. Strength high. Chic is the usual hinge. Soul’s sung-lead hop is a sibling edge, not a substitute.

Evidence

Chic, EW&F, and related 12-inches; comparison of P-Funk vamps with disco bass lines that keep the One.

Debate

Whether Chic is disco or funk. The records sit on both; this hop is the groove transfer.

Mediators

artist: Chic; artist: Earth, Wind & Fire

Funk → Electro

meter and grooveperformance practicetimbre and productionstrength: highwell documented1982–1986recordingoral

Mechanism

Electro is funk with the band replaced by machines and the dance kept. Strength high. Bambaataa and the 808 take Brown/Clinton riff logic; Kraftwerk and hip-hop hops wait on the electro node.

Evidence

Planet Rock and the early-1980s 12-inch wave; Chang on Bambaataa’s funk-plus-machine program.

Debate

Whether electro is a hip-hop child rather than a funk child. Both parents are real; this hop is the groove parent.

Mediators

artist: Afrika Bambaataa; artist: George Clinton

Funk → Go-go

meter and grooveperformance practiceinstrumentationstrength: highscholarly consensus1976–1985oralrecordingdance

Mechanism

Go-go keeps funk’s One and interlocking band riffs and stretches them into a continuous live pocket with extra percussion and crowd call. Strength high. It is a style of funk, not a leftover “D.C. music” bin.

Evidence

Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers; Trouble Funk (Burnim/Maultsby, Grove).

Debate

Whether go-go is already hip-hop. Hip-hop is the recorded break-and-rap job; the live pocket is go-go’s.

Mediators

artist: Chuck Brown

Funk → Hip-hop

meter and groovetimbre and productionphrase and lickfunction and contextstrength: highwell documented1973–1988recordingoraldance

Mechanism

Hip-hop’s first compositional act is to isolate and extend the funk break: the bars where drums, bass, and maybe a guitar lick carry the dance. Herc’s two-copy technique, then Flash’s cutting, make that fragment the piece. Later samplers freeze the same aesthetic. Funk’s “every instrument is a drum” ideal becomes the loop. Party function is inherited: the DJ serves dancers first.

Shared material

Apache breakrhythm celltwo-bar drum loop

Donor Apache (Incredible Bongo Band, 1973) · drum break YouTube · Spotify

Receiver Apache (Sugarhill Gang, 1981) · the loop as the piece YouTube · Spotify

Same break; hip-hop isolates and extends what the party already looped. Funk is the central break diet; this disc is the checkable named cell

Evidence

Named break records in DJ lore; Chang’s oral histories; early recorded hip-hop that still uses live or interpolated funk riffs (Rapper’s Delight on Chic — disco-adjacent but the same loop logic; later boom-bap’s James Brown catalog).

Debate

Disco, Latin, and rock breaks also matter. Funk is the central, not the only, break source. Strength remains high.

Mediators

artist: DJ Kool Herc; artist: Grandmaster Flash

Funk → Jazz fusion

meter and groovetimbre and productionphrase and lickstrength: highwell documented1970–1976recordingoral

Mechanism

A second fusion chassis: funk ostinato rather than rock even-eights. Sixteenth-note bass, one- or two-chord vamps, clavinet and wah, and a dance-floor kit under jazz soloists. Strength high for the Headhunters / On the Corner wing. rock jazz fusion is the parallel volume hop.

Evidence

Hancock’s Head Hunters; Miles’s On the Corner; later groove-fusion bands that keep the vamp and drop the Mahavishnu odd-meter school.

Debate

Where funk ends and fusion begins on the same records. The edge applies when jazz improvisation sits on a funk grid, not when a funk band adds a sax solo.

Mediators

artist: Herbie Hancock; artist: Miles Davis

Funk → Songo

meter and grooveinstrumentationtimbre and productionstrength: mediumscholarly consensus1969–1980recordingoralradio

Mechanism

Songo takes funk’s electric kit-and-bass job under still-son clave: linear drums, slap-adjacent bass, and a pop-band density Formell heard on records. Strength medium. cuban son songo remains the grammar parent; this hop is the 1970s chassis.

Evidence

Changuito’s kit cascara; Van Van electric bass; Grove on songo as an electric Cuban dance recode.

Debate

Whether this is already jazz-fusion. Fusion is the Miles/Mahavishnu volume school; songo stays a Havana dance band with a funk kit.

Mediators

artist: Juan Formell; artist: José Luis Quintana "Changuito"

Funk → Techno

function and contexttimbre and productionperformance practicestrength: mediumscholarly consensus1985–1988recordingoral

Mechanism

Detroit techno takes funk’s futurist riff program and dance job and replaces the band with machines. Strength medium. funk electro is the earlier 808 hop; this file is Atkins’s named techno program. Disco waits one step back through house.

Evidence

Model 500 beside P-Funk mothership rhetoric (Grove, Starr).

Debate

Whether electro already covers it. Electro is the breaking 12-inch parent; this hop is the club-machine hearing of Clinton.

Mediators

artist: Juan Atkins