This groovy take on funk which has gained Internet popularity over the past few years might be the next thing you want to put on when partying. But how did it come to be?
When most people think of funk, the likes of James Brown, Parliament, Funkadelic, Sly and the Family Stone or Betty Davis spring to mind, but in the digital age where house exerts a significant influence over mainstream music, there's no harm in admitting that the sounds of the old league can feel dated, not taking away from their genius, of course. A recent breakthrough in the genre however, has updated the old funk sound to a modern audience, giving the production a long overdue spring clean, and fusing that with booty-shaking dance beats.
Interestingly, future funk didn't actually break away from American funk music, but from vaporwave, a plunderphonics-based form of music which is now mostly enjoyed ironically in a large amount of circles of people online. The 1980s revivalism this decade has seen was a major factor in vaporwave's development. The cult 2011 neo-noir film Drive, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, helped plant these seeds. Not only was it visually stunning with its soft strokes of neon light that dash across the screen, the poignant synthpop soundtrack - featuring artists such as Chromatics, Kavinsky, Desire, College, and Electric Youth - was just as much a cult hit as the movie, being widely critically acclaimed.
The prototype of vaporwave music came in the form of the Eccojams Vol. 1 mixtape by Chuck Berry. No, not the rock'n'roll pioneer, but an alias of experimental electronic musician Daniel Lopatin, also known as Oneohtrix Point Never. This tape, funnily enough, was intended as a joke, but its influence caught on. Vaporwave was to be launched to Internet meme status by MACINTOSH PLUS' Floral Shoppe just a couple of years later. Musically speaking, vaporwave samples 80s elevator muzak, soft jazz and old pop hits of that era, and distorting them by slowing them down, skipping, and looping parts of song, creating the equivalent of a sonic gif, and tapping into a distant form of nostalgia of a bygone era. In terms of visual "A E S T H E T I C S", it revives once-dead remnants of culture (mostly from the 1980s to 2000s), and mashing them together into one big eye-sore: VHS tapes, early Internet glitch art, tropical landscapes, Roman busts, and a lot of Japanese cultural references. This nostalgic throwback to the years of globalisation, reflects upon just how rapidly our world is changing, and the haunting distance and isolation that our generation can often feel when so much of our days are witnessed through an LED screen.
To gain a more in depth history about vaporwave, there's an interesting documentary I would recommend, made by a YouTuber and musician for the Dream Catalogue label which specialises in vaporwave, wos X. He offers thoughtful observations on "the first globalised subculture" and outlines its influence in Internet culture (link below).
Interestingly, future funk didn't actually break away from American funk music, but from vaporwave, a plunderphonics-based form of music which is now mostly enjoyed ironically in a large amount of circles of people online. The 1980s revivalism this decade has seen was a major factor in vaporwave's development. The cult 2011 neo-noir film Drive, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, helped plant these seeds. Not only was it visually stunning with its soft strokes of neon light that dash across the screen, the poignant synthpop soundtrack - featuring artists such as Chromatics, Kavinsky, Desire, College, and Electric Youth - was just as much a cult hit as the movie, being widely critically acclaimed.
The prototype of vaporwave music came in the form of the Eccojams Vol. 1 mixtape by Chuck Berry. No, not the rock'n'roll pioneer, but an alias of experimental electronic musician Daniel Lopatin, also known as Oneohtrix Point Never. This tape, funnily enough, was intended as a joke, but its influence caught on. Vaporwave was to be launched to Internet meme status by MACINTOSH PLUS' Floral Shoppe just a couple of years later. Musically speaking, vaporwave samples 80s elevator muzak, soft jazz and old pop hits of that era, and distorting them by slowing them down, skipping, and looping parts of song, creating the equivalent of a sonic gif, and tapping into a distant form of nostalgia of a bygone era. In terms of visual "A E S T H E T I C S", it revives once-dead remnants of culture (mostly from the 1980s to 2000s), and mashing them together into one big eye-sore: VHS tapes, early Internet glitch art, tropical landscapes, Roman busts, and a lot of Japanese cultural references. This nostalgic throwback to the years of globalisation, reflects upon just how rapidly our world is changing, and the haunting distance and isolation that our generation can often feel when so much of our days are witnessed through an LED screen.
To gain a more in depth history about vaporwave, there's an interesting documentary I would recommend, made by a YouTuber and musician for the Dream Catalogue label which specialises in vaporwave, wos X. He offers thoughtful observations on "the first globalised subculture" and outlines its influence in Internet culture (link below).
Future funk broke off from vaporwave in 2012, with an album called Hit Vibes by a producer under the pseudonym, Saint Pepsi. Its hammed-up bass, groovy beats, and stellar choice of sampling old funk songs from Japan and the US, made it the architect of the model for future funk releases to come, which inspired other pioneering artists such as Macross 82-99 and Yung Bae, and labels like Businesscasual. Unlike the bleak, unsettling vaporwave that preceded it, it is a more carefree take on nostalgia, with its feelgood bangers made for the club. It was so attractive, that this euphoric take on nostalgia of the 1980s has seeped into the mainstream with albums such as VEGA Intl. Night School by Neon Indian, 24K Magic by Bruno Mars, and Random Access Memories by Daft Punk.
I've compiled a YouTube playlist (seeing as Spotify is limited in what you can find on there) that compiles a taster of the genre's best tunes future funk has to offer. The first song called Fun Tonight is my personal favourite. It really sums up everything that's so euphorically mood-lifting about future funk. Enjoy!
I've compiled a YouTube playlist (seeing as Spotify is limited in what you can find on there) that compiles a taster of the genre's best tunes future funk has to offer. The first song called Fun Tonight is my personal favourite. It really sums up everything that's so euphorically mood-lifting about future funk. Enjoy!