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Emily: Anybody who has ever gone on a car trip with my family (Zack included) knows how much my dad loves Earth, Wind, and Fire. When we got our first car with a CD player back in the day, one of the first CDs he bought was an Earth, Wind, and Fire best-of compilation and he immediately added it into the must-play rotation. I got my first iPod a couple years later, and he requested a personal playlist that contained 2 of his favorite CDs - Barry White and that same EWF compilation. To this day, a few cars, CD players, and iPods later, he still requests the playlist on every single car ride. The routine of my brother and me groaning from the backseat and then begrudgingly pressing play on "Daddy's playlist" has been repeated so many times that it's comical. When I was younger, I didn't really see the appeal of the band, but as I've expanded my musical taste and knowledge (through this blog and otherwise) I've grown to enjoy their unique brand of soulful funkiness. Upbeat classics like Shining Star can always get a party started, and to this day they manage to bring immense energy and excitement to their live shows (mostly because of this guy). Even if I roll my eyes when my dad requests to listen to the EWF Greatest Hits for the umpteenth time, I'll inevitably still be singing along and grooving in the backseat.
Favorite Tracks: Shining Star; Reasons; Yearnin' Learnin'
Zack: Funk is such an interesting genre. It is a
merger of so many other influences, yet is so distinctive. If we were to create
a funk spectrum for comparison purposes (certainly not because I’m taking a
break from working with spectrums of democratization), I think we would need to
establish Parliament/Funkadelic as the exact epitome of funkitude. If we
position the funk at the exact center of an x-axis, we would derive something
like this:
Jazz R&B Soul Funk Psychedelic Rock Blues
For context, Funk lies on space 0. Soul is on -2, R&B on
-3, and Jazz on -5. Psychedelic Rock is on 3 and Blues is on 5. For those who
are curious what a y-axis would compromise, it would be style of vocal
delivery. Tending towards the positive y would be silent funk. Tending towards
the negative y would be spoken word or rapping. A value of 0 on the y-axis
would be a combination of singing but mostly chanting But that’s not important.
What is important is that the coordinates for Earth, Wind and Fire – assuming
Parliament/Funkadelic exist on the coordinates (0,0) – would be approximately
(-1, 1). They have more of a soul influence, but still maintain a strong sense
of funk. Additionally, they also work in the occasional spoken word portion,
and kind of avoid the whole chanting thing. Does this make everything clearer?
If not, avoid political science.
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